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<\/p>\nRabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za<\/p>\n
21 October 2025<\/p>\n
1-minute read<\/p>\n
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Each week on average, one member of the South African Police Services dies by suicide, highlighting the mental health toll on these first responders. 2024 showed 54 members of SAPS taking their own lives, a rising trend among the country\u2019s overworked and underpaid police officers.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Melane van Zyl, a member of the South African Society of Psychiatrists, it is difficult to find data or do research on the causes of suicide \u201cespecially in retrospect\u201d from the data on hand and the doctors\u2019 own experience. However, she states that it is evident that the police officer\u2019s distress comes from their work situation, \u201cthe trauma that they\u2019re exposed to,\u201d alongside fatigue that is a result of having to serve people with inadequate resources and support for themselves, and the inability to detect when they themselves are experiencing mental health issues.<\/p>\n
While SAPS is \u201creally trying hard to support their members\u201d through in-house structures and government policy involvement, these services are under-resourced, insufficient and inadequate, with a mere 621 health and wellness workers having to provide care for 187 000 SAPS personnel members. \u201cIt\u2019s really quite a big dilemma,\u201d says Dr. van Zyl, making it \u201cjust impossible to get to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
She suggests putting very clear and standardised procedures into place to deal with the problem. All those in a first-responder capacity need to be educated on how to recognise problematic issues within themselves like burnout and post-traumatic stress, as well as how to protect themselves from possible mental health issues that could lead to suicide, so as to \u201cinstigate their own wellness.\u201d<\/p>\n