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News24 reports that despite budgeting R5.7 billion annually to recruit an additional 30,000 officers by 2026, the SA Police Service (SAPS) has cut 90% of its police reservists in the past decade.
In a recent parliamentary reply to the DA’s Andrew Whitfield, Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed that the number of reservists declined from a high of 52,054 in the 2011/12 financial year to just 3,502 as at 31 October. Gauteng has the highest number of reservists with 974 officers, while the Northern Cape recorded the fewest at 210. The police ministry, however, said the drop should not be negatively perceived because former reservists who became SAPS officers could now focus on community work full-time, instead of the monthly 16 hours they were required to fulfil while they were reservists. Spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said on Tuesday that the SAPS had embarked on numerous targeted recruitment drives “whereby 16,122 serving reservists who are eligible for employment were recruited to be permanently employed as SAPS or civilian employees." But Whitfield said on Tuesday that the decline in numbers was a "devastating blow to the fight against crime as reservists have played a critical force multiplier role in supporting the SAPS as it has faced declining numbers of personnel". Whitfield criticised the depletion of reservists, blaming Cele for the fall in numbers.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khaya Koko at News24
- Lees ook, Kommerwekkend min polisiereserviste oor, by Maroela Media
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