The number of people soliciting the services of private investigators (PIs) are on the increase, and poor police work is being cited as the deciding factor.
With one East London private investigations company signing up an average of 50 new clients every month, it is self-evident citizens are opting for this route, with many saying their faith in the South African Police Services has diminished.
In addition, some government departments and municipalities are turning to PIs to help tackle crippling fraud and corruption and to investigate major criminal activities.
“It appears as if government itself is acknowledging that they need PIs to help solve certain things,” said Leon Nel of CyberX Consulting in Vincent, East London. Nel is receiving at least two new mandates per day, saying the demand for PIs was “booming” and that there were just not enough people specialising in complex investigations.
He said several highly qualified former police detectives had joined his ranks and were making astounding breakthroughs in major cases.
Some of Nel’s successes include solving a violent armed robbery case in Alice last year after being mandated by the municipality to do so, cracking a million rand case of computer hacking with the provincial Health Department and rooting out several corrupt high-profile government officials.
Nel said “unfortunately law enforcement was stretched to the limit” with the ever-increasing crime rate. “We first liaise with police … we are here to help police. From the word go we interact with police … it is important that we work hand-in- glove with police ,” he said. With regards corporate crimes, Nel said businesses were “getting more clever” and were increasingly enlisting PI services to stay afloat.
“If they (businesses) don’t deal with their problems themselves and wait for police, they would be bankrupt,” said Nel.
Tyron Power of Corporate Protection Services said there was a definitive increase in individuals needing assistance to solve violent crimes like murder, robbery, rape, car theft and house burglaries.
“People are very dissatisfied with the police and we try and help. They feel they are not getting service from police,” said Power.
His services are in high demand – he signs up about 50 new private clients a month. Another highly sought-after PI, Christian Botha, who has cracked sensational cases throughout the country and beyond, said he mostly picked up on cases when they were “cold” and after family members became frustrated with developments in criminal cases. One such case is the famous Alec Steenkamp murder in Brixton. It took Botha just two weeks to solve the crime which had baffled Gauteng police for eight years.
One of Botha’s clients, Llewellyn Henman, said he approached Botha five months after his father’s gruesome murder in 2006.
“After five months I got no response from the police. They were evasive and non-committed,” said Henman, adding that he had spent more than R500000 to protect him and his family as they were not sure if his father’s killers would return.
Botha managed to trace his father’s killers and handed over the information to the police.
Other high-profile murders which are either being investigated or have been solved by PIs include the murder of former Border Rugby administrator Pierre Blom and farmer Ashley Collins. Provincial police spokesperson Director Marinda Mills dispelled the assumption there was a marked increase in people using PIs as “untrue and reckless”. She did, however, admit PIs have in the past supplied police with information which led to arrest and breakthroughs in cases.
