Alexandra police force is far too small, inquiry hears
There is about one police officer per every 730 residents in Alexandra, according to Gauteng South African Police Service (SAPS) Commissioner Elias Mawela.
This is well below the national standard for police-to-community ratio, and the ratio recommended by the United Nations (UN), GroundUp reports.
Mawela was speaking at the inquiry into Alexandra by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Public Protector’s office on Tuesday. This was the third sitting of the inquiry.
The inquiry follows a spate of protests in April. Its purpose is to consider some of the issues raised during protests, such as the lack of housing, water, sanitation, and overcrowding in the township. The inquiry will also look into allegations of corruption in the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP) — a project initially worth R1.3bn, launched in 2001 to develop Alexandra.
The UN’s recommended policing ratio is one police officer to 288 residents, but South Africa was currently averaging one officer to 348 residents, Mawela told the panel. Based on a census in 2014, he said there were about 177 000 residents in Alexandra and 243 police officers operating in the area. (The 2011 census gives the population of Alexandra as nearly 180 000. Unless there has been an exodus from the township, by GroundUp’s estimate the population would have grown to roughly 205 000 or 215 000 in 2019.)