SA has 'deficit' of 62 000 police officers – Sitole
11 September 2018
The police service has a deficit of 62 000 officers, National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Khehla Sitole said on Tuesday as he and Police Minister Bheki Cele presented the crime statistics for 2017/18.
Cele, addressing the media after a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Police, described the statistics as "scary figures" and with candour unusual for a politician admitted: "We've dropped the ball."
Cele said he was not going to bother with the question of who dropped the ball, the important thing now was to pick the ball up and come up with a new game plan.
After the statistics were presented to the Portfolio Committee on Police, several MPs raised the matter of understaffing in the service.