The Hawks, the police’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), is increasing its workforce by more than 200 employees to increase its capacity.

“We have already advertised the posts,” DPCI national head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya said at a briefing on Tuesday.

The briefing, held at the Government Communication and Information Systems building in Hatfield, was aimed at outlining the DPCI’s milestones since Lebeya’s appointment in 2018.

Lebeya said the headcount at the directorate was 2 663 at its inception in 2009; but in 2018, the number had shrunk to 2 535.

Since taking the helm, the number of employees was increased to 2 672 and the directorate has plans to further increase it.

“We shall continually advertise vacant and funded posts to address identified gaps.”

The DPCI revealed that it was currently handling 22 477 cases with more than 500 000 charges, involving more than R1,5-trillion.

“These cases involve approximately 23 590 suspects,” he said.

“Among the cases under investigation, 1 998 have reached the decision stage where the National Prosecuting Authority is applying its mind.”

He said, from 2018/2019 to 2021/2022 financial years, the DPCI arrested and brought before the court 12 157 suspects and secured 4 447 convictions.”

He said the cases they deal with included cash-in-transit robberies, theft of fuel from Transnet pipelines, drug trafficking, human trafficking, corruption, organised crime, cybercrime and money laundering, as well as offences such as conspiracy to commit crimes and incitement to commit crimes.

According to the DPCI, it achieved its milestone after Lebeya identified some of the directorate’s setbacks in his first 100 days in office.

Lebeya said he had embarked on a process of assessment, implementation and monitoring that entailed, engaging the management and personnel in the directorate to re-direct the Hawks.

To re-engineer the directorate, several issues were identified.

These included incoherent organisational structures, stagnation in some investigations, transfer of personnel from the DPCI to other divisions within the SAPS, nepotistic practices in appointments, poor and unfair allocation of human and physical resources, and inadequate implementation of the police act.

A work-study had been commissioned that resulted in redesigning the directorate’s structure, which had been approved in 2019.

This was currently being implemented to enhance skills levels and retain personnel to build capacity.