The understaffed police station serving 27 suburbs

The Katlehong Police Station serves 27 suburbs in the Katlehong area, a township south of Johannesburg, while facing significant staff shortfalls.

This is according to Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia, who responded to a Parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament (MP) Haseena Ismail.

There are three South African Police Service (SAPS) stations that serve the Katlehong community, which, according to 2011 national census data, is the country’s third-biggest township with just over 407,000 people.

These include the Katlehong Police Station, Katlehong North Police Station, and the Zonkezizwe Police Station.

In April this year, the DA conducted an oversight visit to the Katlehong and Zonkizizwe police stations, where the team, including Ismail, made several shocking findings.

“At Zonkizizwe Police Station, the team discovered that the station has no access to water during the day,” the DA wrote following the visit.

“This makes it nearly impossible for officers to function effectively or to provide basic support to victims, detainees, and staff. A police station without water cannot be expected to serve the community.”

The party said that, in addition to several other challenges relating to infrastructure faced by the police officers in the area, the police force is also severely understaffed relative to the number of residents it serves.

“Most shocking is the fact that Katlehong Police Station faces an 82% staff shortfall, when compared with the recommended police officer to resident ratio of 1 police officer for every 220 residents,” it said.

The DA pointed out that Zonkizizwe’s murder rate currently sits at 62 per 100,000 people and that both police stations have haighlightedGender-based Violence as one of the most frequent and devastating crimes.

According to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the crime rate has fallen in the Katlehong area over the past two decades. However, it has picked up since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The most prevalent crimes in the area are those that are drug related, with assault and assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm have seen a significant increase over the past few years.

There were over 440 of each of these incidents reported to the police station in 2024.

Given the extensive area it serves, Ismail also asked the Minister about the Zonkizizwe facility’s current staff capacity.

While SAPS does not disclose the number of members deployed as it may reveal vulnerabilities, the Minister said that the Zonkizizwe facility currently has 79.5% of the ideal personnel allocation.

On the other hand, both police stations have above the optimal allocation of police vehicles.

Zonkizizwe has 114% of its ideal allocation, with 50% of these vehicles used for visible policing, 37.5% for the detective service and 12.5% for support services.

The Katlehong Police Station is resourced with 121% of its granted resource allocation, with 41.5% used for visible policing, 43.9% for the detective service, and 14.6% for support services.

South Africa facing a severe shortage of detectives

SAPS currently has over 2,300 detective vacancies at police stations around the country, according to former Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu.

Mchunu said this in response to a Parliamentary question from Build One South Africa MP and leader Mmusi Maimane.

The most significant portion of these is in the Western Cape, with the province currently having 902 unfilled detective positions.

This is significantly more than the other provinces, with KwaZulu-Natal having the second highest number of vacancies at 639, followed by the Northern Cape at 231, the Free State with 180, and Gauteng with 179.

Overall, the country’s total number of detective vacancies is 2,344.

As for the country’s visible policing force, Mchunu said that South Africa had 9,363 officers above its granted allocation and a surplus of  4,923 officers in the Public Order Policing Force.

In his response to Maimane, Mchunu also revealed that 11 police members were suspended with full pay as of 16 May 2025, amounting to R5.02 million.

Most of this, R3.44 million, was paid to a Lieutenant General suspended with full pay since 8 July 2022, nearly three years by that point.

Another Lieutenant General had cost the South African taxpayer R1.14 million since they were suspended on 14 June 2024.

The remaining nine SAPS members, comprising Colonels and Sergeants, had all been suspended in 2025 and had earned no more than R57,000.

Curiously, when Mchunu reported the figures, several had been suspended for just over a month and had already earned over R45,000 in pay.