Police minister says 7 000 new officers needed

Lack of personnel, infrastructure, and technology are the key stumbling blocks in crime fighting, and thousands of positions have to be filled, parliament heard yesterday.

Police Minister Bheki Cele, who led a delegation presenting several reports in parliament yesterday, was grilled by members on the deteriorating state of police resources, including police stations and other infrastructure.

Cele said that South Africa’s police force had depleted in numbers since 2010 and called on National Treasury to step in and assist in the hiring and training of new officers, as well as the upgrading of infrastructure and technology at police stations.

“In 2010 there were 200 000 police offers and 54 million South Africans.

“We are now sitting at 191 000 officers and 57.3 million people, with an additional number of foreign nationals.

“Some put it at 11 million documented and undocumented foreign nationals, so you can put the South African population beyond 60 million.

“At one time, we had about one officer to 329 people and now we are almost at one to 700, hence we are saying Treasury needs to be

brought in on this.”

Cele said the force needed at least 7 000 new members to be trained but in the interim, other

measures, such as re-enlisting former officers, would have to be employed in order to close the expanding experience gap.”