Major boost for the South African Police Service

South Africa’s top 35 contact crime hotspot police stations, where only seven of which are at or above capacity, each received an additional 50 officers, and will receive further capacity in early 2026.

This is according to Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia, who was responding to a written question from Inkatha Freedom Party Member of Parliament Inkosi Cebekhulu.

The MP was inquiring about how the minister intended to rebuild police capacity across South Africa, given that the population-to-police ratio is 422:1, while the United Nations recommends a ratio of 220:1.

“During 2024/2025, from the total of 10,000 entry-level Police Act members enlisted, 1,500 members were ring-fenced for the capacitation of the High Contact Crime Stations (an allocation of 50 members per station),” Cachalia said.

“During 2025/2026, another 5,500 entry-level recruits will be enlisted in February 2026. A ring-fenced allocation will again be made to ensure the capacitation of the Top 35 High Contact Crime Stations.”

Cachalia added that those stations in the top 35 had also been capacitated with:

• The filling of 3 Senior Management positions
• The filling of 208 posts through post promotions
• Lateral transfers of 97 members on various levels

In a recent reply to another MP, Cachalia revealed that the capacity of the police stations in the country’s contact crime hotspots had fallen significantly over the past five years, ending in 2024/25.

The Western Cape, which has experienced rampant violence in 2025, has eight of the top 35 stations.

Of these, only one has seen an increase in staff capacity over the past five years – Harare. This increased from 104% in 2020/21 to 123% in 2024/25.

On the other hand, Nyanga, which is the police precinct with one of the highest murder rates in the country, saw its capacity drop from 105% to 83%.

According to the Institute for Security Studies, the area had a murder rate of 157 per 100,000 people for the 2023/24 year.

However, Nyanga is not the only police department to drop below its granted capacity. Only the Mitchells Plain and Cape Town Central departments were not at capacity in 2020/21, at 91% and 88% respectively.

The rest – Delft, Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, and Mfuleni – have all seen a 10 percentage point drop in capacity over the five years.

The most significant exodus of officers occurred at the Delft Police Station, where the capacity dropped from 118% to 84% over the five years.

Same struggle across South Africa

A similar trend has been observed in KwaZulu-Natal, where only one of the seven police stations in areas considered high-risk for contact crimes has seen an increase in capacity.

This was the Empangeni Police Station, which saw an increase in capacity from 97% in 2020/21 to 103% in 2024/25.

The rest, apart from Durban Central, have all plummeted to below 80% of the approved capacity, which includes Inanda, Kwadukuza, Phoenix, Plessislaer, and Umlazi.

Half of the police departments in the top 35 are in Gauteng. Only three of these have had police officers join to bring staffing numbers closer to the desired amount.

These are the Akasia, Moroka, and Randfontein police departments, with the latest rates sitting at 100%, 86%, and 87% respectively.

This makes Akasia only one of two on the Gauteng list to be at or above capacity, with the Temba Police Station being the other.

In the 2020/21 period, seven stations were at or above capacity. All, apart from Temba Police Station, have dropped to below capacity.

Police stations in the North West and Limpopo, which are among the top 35, have all experienced increases in staffing capacity.