DA uncovers SAPS Commissioners unlawfully blocking oversight

Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by George Michalakis, MP.

An instruction issued by Free State provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Thabang Lesia, is actively hampering members of Parliament and the Legislature from doing their job to oversee individual police stations and to assess the situation on the ground.

Colleagues inform me that the situation is the same in KwaZulu-Natal.

In the Free State, a station commissioner acting on instruction, told their staff via WhatsApp to actively prevent "DA members" of the legislature to do oversight.

Further, in a letter to my colleague, the Leader of the Opposition in the Free State Legislature, dated 26 May 2026, the provincial commissioner effectively states that oversight may only happen through the Portfolio Committee in the legislature. Thereby marking an end to unannounced visits.

The Generals seem to want to choose how they are held accountable for failing to run an effective and resourced SAPS that can keep South Africa safe.

On-the-ground oversight is a vital component of parliamentary oversight work, where public representatives can see first-hand the experiences of the public, government's primary client. Information on spread sheets mean nothing if the lived experiences of South Africans tell a different story. And that lived experience at the moment is that 58 individuals are murdered every day, raped women cannot see justice be done due to a shortage of rape kits, and the police in many instances cannot be reached or respond to call-outs.

The DA will continue to expose this.

We will also continue to do our oversight in a way in which we see fit, and as the law permits us to do, as members of Parliament.

It is worrying that whilst the DA fights for justice for victims, the provincial commissioners actively prevent such oversight.