Cape Town – Western Cape Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen has once again called on the devolution of the SAPS in the province as statistics show police resource allocation is behind by 20 years.
According to Allen, the SAPS is also short almost 90 000 officers.
“I am at pains to point out that there is no appetite from the National Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, to address crime in the Western Cape, let alone our country.
“Every day, men and women in the SAPS put their lives at risk to protect the citizens of our province and our country, yet they are not afforded the required support to effectively do so,” Allen said.
From April 2022 to December 31, 2022, six police officers died in the line of duty.
According to Allen, in the 2011/2012 financial year, the ideal SAPS staffing requirement at station level across South Africa was 157 836 but the actual total number of officers was only 122 617.
He said in the 2021/2022 financial year, the ideal staffing requirement was 193 476 but the actual number of officers was only 105 935.
“Effectively, this means that recruitment in the SAPS is lagging behind by approximately 20 years and just less than 90 000 officers that should be on the ground.
“Not only has the requirement never been met but staffing at station level has declined to such an extent that it has become clear that the national government will and cannot address police resourcing anywhere in South Africa. The national police-to-population ratio is one officer for every 413 residents.
“The granted establishment for the Western Cape is 21 367, but as at the 2020/21 financial year, this stood at 19 505. The province’s police-to-population ratio currently sits at one officer for every 378 residents.
“This ratio, which excludes specialised units, has steadily increased since 2018, when it was 1:345. Worse still, is that the 13 priority stations have a higher ratio than that of the province,” Allen said.
He said the ratios at these stations in 2021 were: Harare 1:879, Khayelitsha 1:628, Samora Machel 1:778, Gugulethu 1:773, Kraaifontein 1:721, Delft 1:711, Philippi 1:594, Mfuleni 1:583, Nyanga 1:559, Mitchells Plain 1:535, Bishop Lavis 1:535, Atlantis 1:515 and Philippi East 1:398.
In the second quarter (July – September 2022), nine of the stations were listed as part of the top 30 murder stations in South Africa.
The police-to-population ratio at the Cloetesville rural police station in Stellenbosch is 1:1 118.
“This is a clear indictment on the national government and SAPS’s senior management who all sit in Pretoria far from the daily realities of too many South Africans.
“For officers to be more effective in their crime-fighting efforts, they need to be afforded the required resources, which includes the human resource, so that there are sufficient officers to combat crime.
“The continued use of the Theoretical Human Resource Requirement (THRR), a formula used to determine the strength of components at a national and provincial level, to allocate officers is confirmation that nothing will change in how SAPS deploys their officers. This all, despite the Equality Court ruling in 2018 that human resource allocation in the Western Cape discriminated on the basis of race and poverty.
“The national government does not care about our people’s safety,” Allen said.
He said the 1 118 newly trained officers which were to be deployed to the Western Cape by December 2022 were yet to be seen.
“Once again, this is a clear demonstration of why devolution is immediately required. SAPS will not be managed in this lacklustre and quite frankly inept manner under a competent provincial government such as ours.
“As we’re utilising data and evidence to deploy our Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) officers, which is being run in partnership with the City of Cape Town, so too will we ensure that the required SAPS officers are firstly, recruited, and secondly, deployed in a deliberate manner and where the need is greatest.
“The second quarter (July – September 2022) crime statistics show that where Leap is deployed, murder is decreasing,” Allen said.
Areas where murder has decreased compared to statistics from the same period of the previous year, are:
• Mfuleni (-32.3%)
• Kraaifontein (-15.6%)
• Gugulethu (-16.2%)
• Khayelitsha (-9.4%)
• Harare (-3.6%)
• Delft (0%)
“As the Western Cape Government, we will continue to lobby for the devolution of SAPS. We will not shy away from considering various other and alternative options that are available to us, as the status quo cannot continue,” Allen said.
“The national minister, Bheki Cele’s continued mismanagement of SAPS will lead us further away from fighting crime.
“The most basic rule of crime fighting is visibility. The consistent feedback we’re receiving from various stakeholders, which includes politicians, the SAPS and other law enforcement agencies and the public at large, is that where Leap is deployed, it is making a difference and they are visible. We can be more effective once we have the necessary resources on the ground,” he said.