Community Safety
(1) Whether the system of human resources allocation used by the SAPS has resulted in police stations in crime hotspot areas in the province being significantly understaffed; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) what steps has his Department taken to remedy the situation;
(2) whether he and his Department support the calls for more police resources to be moved away from the areas with low crime rates to the crime hotspot with high numbers of reported murders; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) what steps has his Department taken to ensure the SAPS address the situation?
(1) (a) In December 2018, the Equality Court, in the matter of Social Justice Coalition and others vs Minister of Police and others (EC03/2016) found that the allocation of police human resources in the Western Cape unfairly discriminates against black and poor people on the basis of race and poverty, and that the system employed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) to determine the allocation of human resources, as is demonstrated in the Western Cape unfairly discriminates against black and poor people on the basis of race and poverty. The court in that matter noted that poorer areas with higher crime rates tended to have a lower allocation of human resources.
The system referred to in the judgment above is the Theoretical Human Resource Requirement (THRR) which is still the method used to allocate human resources in the SAPS.
(b) The Department has entered into a partnership with the City of Cape Town to fund the deployment of 500 law enforcement officials in six high crime areas (Bishop Lavis, Delft, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Nyanga and Philippi), with a further 500 officials due to be deployed in Atlantis, Harare, Gugulethu, Mfuleni and Kraaifontein in the next six months. In this way, it aims to increase law enforcement capacity in the areas with the highest crime rates.
(2) (a) The Department supports the finding of the Equality Court that the current system of allocation is unfair and discriminatory and that a new system to ensure the equitable distribution of human resources needs to be developed.
(b) The Department has called on the SAPS to review the THRR and its system of human resource allocation in various reports and in its Policing Needs and Priorities reports.
