A whopping 4,174 members of the police have criminal records, for a variety of crimes such as assault, theft, kidnapping and fraud.

This was revealed in a parliamentary reply by police minister Bheki Cele, who also told parliament that among them were 32 senior managers who had convictions for crimes such as fraud, public violence and assault.

Among the rank and file of the SAPS were officers convicted for assault, theft, kidnapping and murder. In his written response, Cele did not comment specifically on murders but their existence emerged in the statistical tables attached to his response.

He was responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard who asked about the number of employees at senior management level who had criminal records. In another question she asked for numbers and a breakdown of all the types of crimes that SAPS members were convicted of.