South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is due to give his ninth State of the Nation address at the opening of parliament next week. Africa Check reviewed his previous addresses to assess if he kept promises made then.

Crime

2010: “We are implementing plans to increase the number of policemen and women by 10% over the next three years.”

Verdict: Not achieved

Zuma’s commitment was made on 11 February 2010, during the 2009/10 financial year.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) reported that they employed 190,199 people at the end of 2009/10.

Of these, 151,164 were police officials and 39,035 were Public Service Act employees (who perform support functions such as personnel administration, procurement, financial administration, typing and cleaning).

A 10% increase would have see the number of police officials increase to 166,280.

But by 2012/13 their numbers only stood at 155,531 – an increase of just 2.9%. The latest data from 2014/15 showed that the number of police officials has decreased by 0.1% since Zuma made the commitment.

However, even if Zuma had kept his promise to increase police numbers by 10% it may not have helped to tackle South Africa’s crime problem.

Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cape Town’s criminology department, Dr Andrew Faull, told Africa Check that more police officials don’t always result in better policing and less crime.

“Police officials need to be deployed and managed properly along with targeted interventions and programmes. As importantly, they should be seen as legitimate authorities enforcing legitimate laws fairly and equitably,” said Faull.

“Conversely, illegitimate police practices can promote crime and disorder. In this case the fewer police there are, the better.”
 

Researched by Kate Wilkinson, Africa Check, a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org.