Zuma’s promise to bolster SAPS ‘not achieved’: Africa Check

05 February 2016 - 14:02 By TMG Digital

Three years after making the promise‚ the target he predicted was missed by 7.1%. Five years after declaring that his administration was “implementing plans to increase the number of policemen and women by 10% over the next three years”‚ the figure is even worse.Africa Check – in the first of a six-part series reviewing pledges made by President Jacob Zuma in State of the Nation Addresses (Sona) – declared of his claim on bolstering South African Police Service (SAPS): “Verdict: Not achieved”.The accountability website said the SAPS reported employing “190199 people at the end of 2009/10”‚ the year in which Zuma made his promise.“A 10% increase would have see the number of police officials increase to 166280‚ the Africa Check’s Kate Wilkinson wrote.“But by 2012/13 their numbers only stood at 155531 – an increase of just 2.9%. The latest data from 2014/15 showed that the number of police officials has decreased by 0.1% since Zuma made the commitment.”Concern over the staff numbers in the service is not new‚ and the Democratic Alliance last year demanded explanations from now-suspended national commissioner General Riah Phiyega for the “7000 terminations within the service in 2014/15 nationally”.Phiyega said at the time that recruitment drive would help “address the outflow”The current acting national commissioner‚ Johannes Khomotso Phahlane‚ late last year embarked on a “Back-to-Basics” restructuring programme which proposed a new management structure “to streamline the work of the national commissioner’s office”‚ but made little mention of staff shortages.This restructuring is to be challenged in court by the Police of Prisons Civil Rights Union.Africa Check‚ meanwhile‚ quoted University of Cape Town academic Dr Andrew Faull as saying the numbers of police officers wasn’t as important as the “need to be deployed and managed properly along with targeted interventions and programmes”.Faull also told Africa Check that: “Illegitimate police practices can promote crime and disorder. In this case the fewer police there are‚ the better.”Zuma will deliver his next Sona on February 11...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.