The use of deadly force by South African Police Service (Saps) officers has prompted fresh calls to revisit the trial of body cameras for law enforcement. Saps was due to begin trialling body cameras in April 2025, but that deadline has been missed, with no revised date provided. Early cost estimates for such a programme were around R15 million and came with several other data and security concerns.
Member of the Select Committee on Security and Justice and member of the National Council of Provinces, the DA’s Mzamo Billy, called for the police ministry to urgently update parliament on the body camera trial. Nine months after the deadline for the trial had passed, parliament was still unaware of the cost and logistics associated. Billy stated that body cameras would restore public trust by providing objective video documentation of police encounters.
“The continued absence of body-worn cameras places everyone at risk. Police officers are left exposed to contested versions of events, while communities are left without independent proof when lives are lost during Saps operations,” stated Billy yesterday. “Policing in South Africa must be grounded in accountability, transparency and the protection of life,” he added.
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Billy said that while each death at the hands of police was assessed by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), retaliation was too common an occurrence. “While such claims are serious and must be properly tested, the repeated reliance on this explanation—without independently verifiable, objective evidence—undermines public confidence and highlights a critical gap in oversight,” stated Billy. His comments after a bloody week when five suspects wanted on murder and attempted murder charges were killed by police in Inanda in the early hours of Thursday morning. Also in Inanda, police killed two more murder suspects who Saps claim had been terrorising community members.
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