Budget cuts trim police capabilities

THE police’s top brass have laid bare the risks that pose threats to the department’s leadership and organisational challenges.

The SAPS leadership briefed Parliament this week amid the perceived instability within its ranks.

Briefing the police portfolio committee, head of strategic management Major-General Leon Rabie said the action implemented by commissioner Khehla Sitole to address corruption and misconduct could be perceived as an indication of instability in the department.

Sitole had looked at restructuring the top-heavy, inflated SAPS organogram in consultation with organised labour.

Rabie said the budget cuts in the medium-term expenditure framework had necessitated the police to prioritise specific functional areas to ensure sustainable policing and service delivery.

The budget reduction led to police member numbers dropping from 194 605 in the 2016/17 financial year to 182 126 in March 2021.

“We are expecting the establishment to drop to 162 944 in 2022/23. Over the next two and three years on average our establishment will reduce by 6 200 members per annum,” Rabie said.

This did not bode well for the police-to-population ratio which stood at 1:327, down from 1:254 nine years ago.

The early retirement initiative introduced by the National Treasury to curb the public salary bill saw 2 825 members take up the offer last year.

Sitole said while the number of police stations grew, it was not the case with the number of officers.

“We can’t argue against the budget cuts any further. There is fiscal constraint experienced by the country. We need to look at what we can do.”

Sitole said scaling down the numbers of officers despite the growing population handicapped the fulfilment of their constitutional mandate.

Committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson said the general instability within the SAPS, as a result of various causal factors, was a cause for concern.

DA MP Okkie Terblanche said the police had for long been unable to fulfil its mandate of combating crime in South Africa.

“While the police commissioner would like to blame public scrutiny and unclear mandates, it is clear, however, that it is poor leadership that has caused SAPS to fail in its mandate to protect and serve the public,” he said.