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The City’s policing vehicle fleet has a 90,6% operational rate, with around 2 179 vehicles actively policing the streets based on the current 2025 City fleet data. This is 560 more than SAPS’s 1 619 vehicles operational at the time of a recent parliamentary reply

At station level, SAPS vacancy rates across most Cape Town precincts range from 20 – 40% according to the same reply, which states that SAPS have 7 355 active duty officers in Cape Town in 2025. This is a 15% decline (1 313 officers) compared to the estimated 8 665 active officers in 2021 based on the police-to-population ratio at the time. There were also 200 vacant SAPS detective posts in Cape Town as of August 2025.

In contrast, the City has added 1 263 more officers over the same period, growing its policing personnel by 48% to 3 883 officers, having just completed its largest investment in over a decade to add over 700new officers this year alone. 

‘Cape Town’s population has expanded rapidly, yet our metro has lost more than 1 300 SAPS officers in just this term of office. This is unthinkable given the violent crime facing our communities, where not a week goes by without a terrible new example of innocent people, and often young children, killed by warring gang members. 

‘It is increasingly clear that SAPS has no workable plan to deal with the gangs on the Cape Flats, as admitted by suspended Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu in his testimony before the Madlanga Commission. SAPS is the new Eskom, the new PRASA, and the new Transnet, all rolled into one. But allowing the collapse of SAPS will have far more devastating consequences than load-shedding or broken trains. It simply must be fixed and we repeat our calls today for the proper resourcing of SAPS in Cape Town, because this is people’s lives at stake, and the rule of law itself,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis in his address to Council.

In response to a declining SAPS, the Mayor said the City has ‘directed billions of precious ratepayers’ Rands towards safety and security interventions and more boots on the ground out of duty to Capetonian families and communities’. 

‘We were elected on a specific pledge to “add hundreds more boots on the ground in Cape Town”, and we have delivered that pledge emphatically, with 1 263 new officers so far. But for every officer we have added, SAPS has taken one away. We are edging nearer and nearer to the unacceptable scenario in which South Africa’s lead crime fighting agency, the SAPS, actually has fewer resources in Cape Town than a support agency like the Metro Police,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

The Mayor said the time had come for more policing powers to be urgently granted to City officers – particularly the power to investigate crime.

‘City officers are increasingly taking more guns and drugs off the streets, but the problem remains the conviction rate, which sits at just 5% for the 400 illegal firearms City officers confiscate annually, due to our broken criminal justice system and under-resourced SAPS and NPA.  

‘The Acting Police Minister has the power to change this in various ways: most immediately by expanding the draft municipal policing power regulations issued by his department for public comment earlier this year. The draft regulations don’t go far enough, because despite being on the streets daily fighting crime, our officers can still only arrest, search, and take action to prevent crime, without being able to investigate it and build a prosecution-ready case docket.

‘That is why I have again written to the Acting Minister calling on him to urgently publish amended regulations in line with the detailed proposals the City has submitted to his office for more policing powers,’ said Mayor-Hill-Lewis.

The City’s latest investment to add 700 officers includes neighbourhood policing in every ward for the first time, a beefed-up N2 safety presence, and more protection escorts for frontline service delivery teams. This builds on the successful LEAP initiative to grow policing resources in Cape Town’s most vulnerable communities together with the Western Cape Government. The City is also driving a major safety technology rollout across its policing services, including dashcams, bodycams, CCTV, gunshot detection, and licence plate recognition, amongst others.

‘The gang violence plaguing our communities can only be stopped through intelligence-led investigations that dismantle syndicates and remove them from our streets. This is exactly where the City can assist.

‘This week, the Madlanga Commission exposed the crisis in SAPS’s ballistics and forensic divisions, with SAPS’s own expert confirming he sits with 29 000 firearms at any given time, showing how critically under-resourced SAPS are to conclude investigations and gain convictions.

‘The City stands ready to help, all we need now are the investigative powers to build prosecution-ready dockets alongside SAPS and the NPA,’ said Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.

Issued by City of Cape Town