As crime stats increase, the budget for – and the staff complement of – the South African Police Service (Saps) drops.
Western Cape Minister of Community Safety and Police Oversight Reagen Allen highlighted this worrying fact while commemorating National Police Day on Friday 27 January.
In a media statement released shortly after, his ministry shared some alarming statistics.
According to the statement, during the 2011-2012 financial year, the ideal staffing requirement at police station level across South Africa, was 157 836, but the actual total of officers was only 122 617.
Fast forward to the 2021-2022 financial year, the ideal was 193 476, with an actual of only 105 935 officers.
“Effectively, this means that recruitment in the police is lagging behind by approximately 20 years and just less than 90 000 officers that should be on the ground,” it read.
Boots on the ground
Breaking down these numbers to provincial level, Allen’s office said the province’s police-to-population ratio currently stood at one police officer for every 378 residents. This picture gets more bleak when it is considered that 13 priority stations in the province have a higher ratio than that.
“These stations as at 2021 are Harare with a ratio of 1:879; Khayelitsha, 1:628; Samora Machel 1:778; Gugulethu, 1:770; Kraaifontein 1:721; Delft, 1:711; Philippi, 1:594; Mfuleni 1:583; Nyanga 1:559; Mitchell’s Plain, 1:535; Bishop Lavis, 1:535; Atlantis, 1:515; and Philippi East, 1:398.”
Information shared in the police’s 2022 annual report doesn’t portend any better. In the report, it was indicated that the police’s budget allocations would be reduced by R15,8 billion last year and by a further R11,5 billion this year as part of the government’s cost-cutting measures.
Jonathan Hobday, chair of the Mowbray Community Policing Forum (CPF), brought the reality of these statistics home in his report delivered at the CPF’s Annual General Meeting held at Rhodes High School on Tuesday 13 December last year.
Hobday said it was a matter of deepest concern to the CPF that the officers at Mowbray Police Station were required to deliver and maintain efficient policing services while the staff complement at the station had dwindled to unsustainably-low levels.
“They do the best they can and we thank you, Lt Col David Malong (station commander, Mowbray Police Station), and your team, for doing your best to keep us safe.”
However, he said that the citizenry could not be satisfied with the police service being provided.
“It is simply not good enough. From the public perspective and experience, it is clear that policing has deteriorated to levels of unacceptable dysfunctionality in many instances. This is not a concern that we can blame on the Mowbray police – this is a national crisis.”
During a Rondebosch CPF AGM held in October last year, Capt John Tayler, the acting station commander at Rondebosch Police Station, said that their staff contingency had dropped from 70% the previous year to 48%.
When People’s Post contacted Mowbray Police Station to determine what their staff contingency looked like at present, station commander Malong said that sensitised information of this kind could not be shared on an open platform such as People’s Post, “only with the recognised CPF who works closely with the mentioned police office”.
Vacancies
Malong did explain that the staff complement at police offices was determined by the crime pattern analyses of the policing precinct. The area served by Mowbray police covers about three square kilometres.
“And continuous dialogue takes place to rectify shortfall when it occurs at identified offices,” said Malong.
He said the positions left vacant at Mowbray Police Station were as a result of retirement, resignation, promotion, transfers and death.
“As a result of the continuous dialogue, the Provincial Human Resources advertise and, ultimately, ensure that shortfalls are addressed in a bid to respond to the need of the entire community served in the policing precinct,” said Malong.
WO Lyndon Sisam, spokesperson for Rondebosch police, told People’s Post that although they had vacancies, the station had enough police officers, detectives, and support staff to serve the community.
According to the South African National Census of 2011, the community, which includes parts of Rosebank and Newlands, equates to about 19 554 people.
“Not forgetting the daily influx of University of Cape Town (UCT) students of about 35 000,” Sisam said.
He listed the same reasons as Malong for the vacancies at Rondebosch police, adding that the Provincial Human Resources had been notified of them.
What the crime stats say
The Second Quarter Crime Statistics 2022-2023 (July to September 2022) for Rondebosch show a 93,5% increase (from 31 to 60) in total contact crimes for this period with robbery with aggravating circumstances showing the highest number of incidents (32) in this category.
Property-related crimes increased by 23,2% (from 125 to 154) with theft out of or from a motor vehicle being the highest (87) in this category.
The statistics for Mowbray for total contact crimes in this same period show a 17,1% increase (from 41 to 47).
Property-related crimes increased by 44,3% (from 97 to 140). What is worrying in this category is the high increase in incidents of burglary at residential premises from 24 to 47 – a 95,8% increase.
However concerning these increases may be, these stats are still well below the average of many other police areas in the Western Cape for this same period. For example, in Bellville total contact crimes stand at 284 and total property-related crimes at 418. In Delft, the total contact crimes are 796.
Policing partnerships
Sisam ascribed the comparatively lower incidents of crime in their neighbourhoods to the station’s management style, the support of the community and other safety and security stakeholders and role players.
“Optimally utilising all the station’s resources available to address crime in the area, the involvement and help from the CPF, Metro police, law enforcement, CIDs (Community Improvement Districts) in the area, and the excellent security partnerships we built over the years. The active involvement of the community and the security on the security WhatsApp groups across the precinct.”
Malong too said partnership policing played a pivotal role in the combatting of crime in Mowbray.
“We depend on integrated operations where we depend on information and assistance of security companies. The community is encouraged to join the sub-forums in the area where they have an opportunity to share their concerns but also become actively involved in combatting crime,” he said.
But is this sustainable?
Hobday thinks not. At the AGM, Hobday said changes for the better could only be achieved by devolution of policing competencies from national to provincial level – something that Premier Alan Winde and his provincial administration have been calling for, for the past few years.
“In the meantime, thankfully, our constrained South African Police Service does not walk alone in the never-ending struggle against criminals: in this community, there is a significant support system,” Hobday said.
People’s Post also contacted police stations in Claremont, Wynberg, Kirstenhof and Hout Bay for feedback on their respective staff complement and vacancies.
Hout Bay Police responded, saying they could not answer. The other police stations had not responded by the time of going to print.
