Police work in KwaZulu-Natal over the past year is mostly “encouraging” but provincial commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is worried about the long-term affect on public safety of a declining police force in light of a growing population.
Speaking on the state of policing in the province in Durban on Tuesday, Mkhwanazi pointed out that the police service had lost 893 members, 805 of whom were functional police officers and 88 support staff, in the past financial year for different reasons.
“Two hundred and twenty police officers left the service through retirement with pension, 240 resigned, 140 took early retirement, 116 passed on, with six meeting their untimely death in the line of duty,” he said.
“Out of the six, four were shot dead by criminals and two died in road accidents. One hundred and six police officers were dismissed for various acts of misconduct ranging from corruption to violation of the disciplinary code and bringing the organisation into disrepute.”
The staff losses had resulted in the worrying number of functional police personnel in the province declining from a high of 25,000 in the previous years to the current total of 19,600.
“They are responsible for policing 12.4-million residents in KwaZulu-Natal, plus whatever number of immigrants (documented/undocumented) who live in this province.”
The police service has, for years, has complained it was losing staff to the private sector, particularly security companies, but Mkhwanazi noted that a new threat was emerging of late.
“Perhaps what we might be seeing of late is these emerging lifestyle of protection services that are provided to certain individuals who perceive themselves as VIPs. Once a person has a certain amount of wealth they feel that they need to get protection around them.
“They start recruiting from the police because there’s no time to train guards to look after them.”
He said there was little police could do to combat this because the government was regulated in terms of compensation and could not compete with the deep pockets of the private sector.
Losing members, especially from tactical units, was a challenge facing the whole country but the province was especially suffering from the recruitment of their detectives by the private sector, he added.
The positive effect of that, however, was that they gained more allies when those who left the service remained in the country and use their acquired skills for crime fighting.
“It gives us comfort, even if they are out there, that when we need support somewhere, in one way or another they do provide such support. So if there are more people who are trained fighting crime, whether inside or outside the police, it is a benefit.
“So we want to encourage more of those who are leaving to still contribute in crime fighting initiatives.”
Despite these challenges, Mkhwanazi said, the overall police work, with co-operation from community members, showed encouraging signs.
One of those is that they managed to reduce the number of civil claims against the police for unlawful arrest and detention, as well as reckless and negligent driving, by 697 from 3,754 to 3,057.
He said R3.3bn worth of claims were made against them but police were only found to be in the wrong for R154m worth of claims against them.
“This is still a huge amount of money and proper command, and control will help us to further reduce unwarranted civil claims against the police.
“Commanders have been instructed to further reduce these claims by applying basic principles of policing. There are people who see the police as a cash cow and register baseless civil claims against the police.”
The official crime statistics for 2024/25 are yet to be released but Mkhwanazi pointed out that cases of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, car and truck hijacking, robbery at business and residential premises and common robbery had decreased.
However, he also pointed out that cases of sexual assault, including rape, remained a serious cause for concern.
“The slight percentage increases which we have noted demands amplified strategies from the collective of police and community members.”
Another concern was the increase in common assault cases and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), which generally occurred when one or all parties were under the influence of alcohol.
A provincial analysis, however, found that GBH in KwaZulu-Natal was mostly caused by intolerance and impatience, especially in the Chatsworth policing precinct.
He added that they were further encouraged by the positive sentiments that the provincial police were receiving from the public.
“Client satisfaction is one of the reliable tools to gauge one’s performance and when residents feel safe, they will increase their trust of the police. We have been receiving letters of appreciation and telephone calls talking to the great work that our men and women in blue are doing.
“It is a great feeling to receive complimentary messages from a satisfied client. We are used to backlash and being blamed all round and receiving positive feedback is motivating. With all the public praise we get, we are mindful of the huge improvement that we need to achieve.”
Mkhwanazi has instructed all police commanders to have monthly engagements with communities, not just community policing forums, to build greater co-operation with their communities.
“We plan to achieve great things with the limited resources that we have.”
TimesLIVE
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