ATC211208: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Police on the National Investigative Hearing into the Status of Mental Health Care in South Africa, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) dated 8 December 2021

Police

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Police on the National Investigative Hearing into the Status of Mental Health Care in South Africa, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) dated 8 December 2021.

 

1.         Introduction

 

The report of the South African Human Rights Commission on the National Investigative Hearing into the Status of Mental Health Care in South Africa, was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Police on

The SAHRC held a National Investigative Hearing into the Status of Mental Health Care in South Africa between 14 and 15 November 2017. The subsequent report was tabled in Parliament in October 2019 and referred to the Portfolio Committee on Police for consideration.

The report stated that, despite various efforts from the SAHRC to have the then Minister of Police, Mr F Mbalula, or a representative from the SAPS to attend the hearings, they did not receive any response and neither party attended the hearings.

 

2.         Deliberations

 

The Report requested the SAPS to address written correspondence to the Commission answering the following questions and providing the following information. The SAPS reported to the Portfolio Committee on 1 December 2021 and the Committee had the following deliberations:

The Committee has questioned the SAPS on the need for the police and other relevant departments to have a workshop on how the findings of Human Rights Commission must be taken forward. The SAPS has the responsibility to protect the people and deal with the threat.

Members were concerned about the SAPS members detaining people without having proper facilities in which to detain them, until they are able to be referred to proper mental institutions.

The Committee questioned the levels of training of SAPS members (as there are huge training backlogs) and suggested that more members ought to be trained to deal with people facing challenges with mental health.

 

3.        Recommendations                                  

1. The Committee recommends that the SAPS provide more members training on dealing with persons with mental health challenges.

2. The Committee recommends that the SAPS collaborates with Mental Health professional health care workers specialising in patients with mental health challenges.

3. The Committee recommends that the SAPS reviews its standing orders and align it with the Mental Health Care Act and provide a copy of its report to the Committee.

4. The Committee recommends that the SAPS generate statistics from reports in its occurrence books on mental health cases throughout the country.

5. The Committee recommends that SAPS takes measures to protect police officers when dealing with people with mental health challenges in the event a shooting occurs. 

6. The Committee recommends that Parliament adopts the Human Rights Commission Report.

 

Report to be considered.