Johannesburg - South Africans’ hope for help from the South African Police Service (SAPS) for emergencies continues to be dashed. Minister of Police Bheki Cele painted a grim picture when he responded to parliamentary questions by Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Andrew Whitfield.
The performance of the SAPS call centre has come into question after it was found that more than seven million emergency calls to the 10111 hotline have been dropped from the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years and from April 2022 until this year.
Cele said that the call centres had 41.5% of staff employed, which was lower than the median required at 10111 call centres. But he said that this was one of the tasks that the SAPS would be addressing in the coming months with the promotion and deployment of police officers and employment of service workers for the call centres.
In explaining the high rates of dropped calls across the country, Cele said that dropped calls’ statistics were arranged as calls that weren’t answered, calls abandoned within 10 seconds by the caller before being transferred; and calls being terminated by the caller after being transferred to the relevant department or station.
He further explained that three provinces (Free State, Northern Cape and Limpopo) were unable to provide accurate responses due to poor call manager functionality.
“The call manager functionality to retrieve the statistics is outdated. The SAPS is in the process of upgrading the software,” Cele said.
Whitfield said that the call centre is in the midst of a crisis as South Africans find themselves without phone access to the police for assistance. 10111 is the emergency line required for citizens who require an urgent police response.
Whitfield said that the dropped calls highlighted that understaffed call centres were not even able to answer calls from South Africans under the threat of violence.
“The 10111 number is the only line of defence some of our people have as they struggle against the unrelenting tide of crime sweeping across South Africa. We cannot allow South Africans to be abandoned and become even more defenceless due to the inability of the police to respond to emergencies,” Whitfield said.
Reports from the three financial years showed that Gauteng had the highest amount of dropped calls at 3.83 million, with Mpumalanga trailing at 1.44 million and the Western Cape at 895 280.
A male South African (who wished to remain anonymous) said that he had once tried to report an incident of gender-based violence (GBV) occurring not far from where he stood in the area of Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg.
The man explained that he saw what looked to be a woman being beaten up by two men in a sedan. He immediately called the 10111 call centre which only transferred him to the Kempton Park police station after being on hold for two minutes. He said that though he was connected, the phones at the police station went unanswered.
After struggling to decide his next course of action, the car with all three passengers left but the man said he intended to report the matter to the station in hopes of the police finding the car and the woman to avoid the worst possible outcome.
“GBV is a serious problem with men as the main perpetrators. But how do we assist when the police don’t answer their phones? I didn’t know what to do at that moment, but hope that I can help by reporting the matter at the station,” he said.
SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe explained that National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola had prioritised the matter of the 10111 call centres as one of his biggest concerns. Mathe said that the call centres are part of Masemola’s task in the capacitation and resourcing of police stations and units.
“The 10111 call centre is among the priority areas as the first line of entry for emergency purposes. A number of the 10 000 deployed constables will also be deployed to render services at the call centres,” she explained.
The brigadier said that due to the 10111 call centres being technology-driven environments, various stakeholders would be engaged to enhance the reach and assist with services. Mathe added that the National Commissioner would receive assistance from the recently appointed Divisional Commissioner for Technology Management Services (TMS), Major General Edith Mavundla.
“The filling of critical vacancies aims to enhance accountability and bring about stability within the organisation,” the National Commissioner General said at the time of Mavundla’s appointment on December 1, 2022. With more police officers being recruited over the next three years, the SAPS is confident it will be able to bring staffing levels to required standards,” Mathe said.