South Africa has only 20,051 police station detectives who must investigate 1.691 million criminal cases
Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, revealed that South Africa has 20,051 members in the detective environment at the police station level.
Of the 20,051 Police Act station detectives, 15,962 are docket carriers. He added that there are 1,691,312 cases under investigation at the station level.
Cachalia shared this information in response to a Parliamentary question by National Assembly member George Michalakis.
Michalakis asked Cachalia for details on the number of detectives assigned to each police station and how many dockets each detective is currently working on.
The Police Minister responded, stating that the total number of Police Act members within the detective environment at the station level, as of 31 July 2026, is 20,051.
Gauteng has the most detectives with 5,247, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 3,364, and the Western Cape with 3,095.
Cachalia said that the South African Police Service could not disclose the number of operational members allocated to each individual police station.
“Such disclosure may expose operational vulnerabilities that could affect the safety of members and the security of the police station concerned,” he said.
He added that, of the 20,051 Police Act station detectives mentioned above, 15,962 are docket carriers.
“It is not possible to provide the number of dockets allocated to each individual Investigating Officer,” he said.
“This would require a manual, station-by-station compilation across the country, which would divert resources away from operational responsibilities.”
He did, however, provide the number of cases currently under investigation at the station level and per province.
Number of detectives in each province in South Africa
| Province | Number of detectives |
| Western Cape | 3,095 |
| Eastern Cape | 2,375 |
| Northern Cape | 892 |
| Free State | 1,203 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 3,364 |
| North West | 1,158 |
| Mpumalanga | 1,404 |
| Limpopo | 1,313 |
| Gauteng | 5,247 |
| Total | 20,051 |
The number of cases under investigation at the station level per province
| Province | Total cases |
| Eastern Cape | 170,935 |
| Free State | 176,499 |
| Gauteng | 355,824 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 223,272 |
| Limpopo | 155,532 |
| Mpumalanga | 118,638 |
| North West | 126,931 |
| Northern Cape | 63,231 |
| Western Cape | 300,450 |
| Total | 1,691,312 |
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and they spend time investigating SAPs.