56% of police stations in South Africa do not answer their phones
A nationwide audit of 1,025 police stations found that more than half could not be reached by telephone.
This was revealed by Ian Cameron, National Assembly Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police.
Calling a police station’s telephone line is the main way for people to reach the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The South African government promotes the fact that each police station has its own direct landline numbers.
However, the Democratic Alliance’s audit of police stations across all nine provinces, using officially listed contact numbers, found that this method is unreliable.
A total of 571 stations did not answer, while 454 answered one or both listed numbers. This means that 56% of police stations could not be reached.
Limpopo recorded the lowest reachability rate, with 78 out of 87 police stations failing to answer their phones. Free State recorded the second-lowest rate.
The audit also found that several high-crime priority stations across the country could not be reached.
The findings are consistent with issues identified during the DA’s oversight visit to the 10111 Emergency Communication Centre.
During this oversight visit, officials reported staff shortages, communication challenges, outdated technology and difficulties contacting police stations.
“A police service that cannot consistently be reached by the public cannot effectively fulfil its mandate,” Cameron said.
“The DA will submit the findings of this audit to the Minister of Police and the National Commissioner and call for corrective action to improve public access to police stations.”
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Too true… I called after getting phone calls with a male person on the line informing me that he was calling from the harbour police office in DUrban because there was a”parcel” addressed to me…. I was told that I need to go through to the police extension because it could be something illegal… Needless to say, I told them where to get off and mentioned that I was going to report this matter to the real police, in the meantime jotting down all three cell numbers. The phone call was terminated, after which I tried calling three police stations as well as the hotline numbers to report this matter… To this day, not one person from any of the offices have returned my calls and the fraud line and emergency number lines were not answered, even after numerous attempts and messages even on a cell number provided by someone in one of the only police stations that I actuallly managed to get through too… I had three numbers which could possibly have been traced to these unscrupulous scammers but it appears that no office was interested…. Till today, not one person has returned any of my calls….. When I actually did get through to the only police station, i explained the situation and was referred to a central police station… The person on the phone listened to my story but declined to take the numbers and details for investigation.. So there you are… Assistance from their side could have possibly led to the fraudsters and maybe saved some other person from possibly falling for these scanners tactics…. Welcome to South Africa…