Limpopo police need more police reservists to help fight crime

POLOKWANE – There are currently no police reservists performing the duty of urban and rural safety in Limpopo, and the number available has dwindled in recent years.

In Limpopo, only 395 reservists are responsible for assisting the police in various portfolios. Their absorption into formal employment in the service and attainment of other opportunities have contributed to a major downsize.

This is based on a written response dated October 23 to the National Assembly by Police Minister Bheki Cele after being requested for the latest data relating to the number of available reservists. In category D, which refers to urban and rural safety reservists, there are no reservists available.

Reservists are volunteers and work part-time, but their availability over periods such as the festive season is crucial.

Last Tuesday, provincial police commissioner Lt Gen Thembi Hadebe released the July to September provincial crime statistics. Limpopo contributed a total of 6.6% to the country’s overall success in the detection of crime as a result of police action. Provincially in the same period, crimes detected as a result of police action increased by 30.2%.

The DA expressed concern over the non-availability of reservists, party community safety spokesperson Katlego Phala said in reference to the 25 305 reported cases of what is termed ’17 crimes’ – a list of crimes that add up to 17 and have been termed as such by the police in all statistics. These community-reported serious crimes dockets were opened in Limpopo during this period, with Mankweng Police Station leading in the north with 1 486 such cases recorded. Countrywide, fewer than 10 000 of these were detected by the police.

Hadebe launched the police’s festive season operations across Limpopo recently and said they hoped to pull through even with a reduced budget from the National Treasury, by targeting hotspots.

In terms of road safety, the province is one of six that contribute a combined 80% of road crashes and fatalities countrywide, Transport Minister Sindiswe Chikunga announced during the festive season road safety campaign over the weekend in Gauteng.

To counter this, night deployment and road activations have been put in place.

The number of police volunteers has been reducing since the 2011/12 fiscal year, and from 2014, many were found to be inactive while their details still reflected on the national police database system as volunteers. Provinces have since been removing such people from the database.