SAPS emergency line leaves Bay residents hanging
Nearly 60,000 phone calls made to the emergency line 10111 were dropped during the 2023/2024 financial year.
This was revealed in parliamentary responses to the DA in the Bhisho legislature by community safety MEC Xolile Nqatha, who said that between June 2023 and February 2024 a total of 57,455 calls made in Nelson Mandela Bay were abandoned.
This is from a total of 359,132 calls made during this period.
Alarmingly, during the 2021/2022 financial year a total of 110,493 calls were dropped and in 2022/2023, distress calls not processed were 99,610.
DA MPL Bobby Stevenson said that despite the problem being brought to the attention of the MEC two years ago, there had been little improvement.
“[Since 2021/2022], Nelson Mandela Bay’s call centre dropped 267,558 of the 1,337,686 calls received, just over 20% of all calls received,” Stevenson said.
“Vulnerable citizens have been abandoned in their time of need, forced to face fear, violence or crisis alone and fend for themselves because their calls for help are simply being left unanswered.
“When someone is beating down the door to break in, the SAPS needs to respond.
“The SAPS must urgently revamp its current systems dedicated to 10111, especially since it claims to have a surplus of personnel.”
Stevenson said the safety and security of communities should be a priority for any government, especially in a province like the Eastern Cape, where the latest crime statistics indicated the risk of being murdered in the province was the highest in the country.
In March, the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (CPSC) released a report ranking the Bay as the murder capital in the country and ninth globally for its murder rate.
In East London, things were similarly bleak, with 22,505 calls made to the SAPS 10111 line not being answered or assisted over the same period.
In Mthatha and Komani, the MEC revealed that there were currently no active telephone monitoring systems in place, so he could not provide data on the number of dropped or unanswered calls.
“Since the 2021/2022 financial year until February 2024, a staggering 362,375 calls were dropped,” he said.
Nqatha also revealed that the Buffalo City municipality was able to keep a record of vehicles being unable to find the scene of a crime, or the complainant, with 309 incidents reported over the threeyear period.
In the Bay, no such system existed.
The volume of calls at the centre has been on the decline, with 527,312 recorded in 2021/2022, declining to 451,242 in 2022/2023.
Eight months into the current financial year, a total of 359,132 calls were logged.
According to the MEC’s reply, no complaints could not be attended to due to police vehicles not being available, while four cases were logged at BCM.
“This is in stark contrast to the lived experience of individuals who have called for assistance only to be told they cannot be assisted as no vehicles are available,” Stevenson said.
Nqatha referred all questions to the SAPS.
At the time of publication, police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu could not provide details on the reason for the abandoned calls.
“I would have to go and find out because a number of reasons can contribute, including people dropping the line because they feel they were waiting a long time on the line,” she said.
Naidu said she would provide a reply today.
‘Vulnerable citizens have been abandoned in their time of need, forced to face fear, violence or crisis alone and fend for themselves because their calls for help are being left unanswered’