Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has raised alarm over what he calls a “collapse” in South African Police Service numbers across the metro. Speaking in Council on Thursday morning, Hill-Lewis revealed that SAPS staffing in Cape Town has dropped by about 15% over the past 4 years.

This is while the City has added over 1,200 new Law Enforcement and Metro Police officers through its LEAP programme, effectively “stepping into the gap” left by a struggling South African Police Service.

Hill-Lewis says the data speaks for itself.

Since 2021, the number of operational SAPS officers in the Cape Town metropolitan area has declined from 8,668 officers to only 7,355 in 2025.

That’s a reduction of more than 1,300 officers. It comes as the SAPS embarks on its next phase of its 2025/26 recruitment drive, although it is unclear how many police trainees will make their way to the Western Cape.

READ: SAPS Launches Next Phase of Recruitment for 5,500 Police Trainees

Hill-lewis says this is very concerning, especially as Cape Town is the fastest-growing metro in South Africa.

“And that’s not coming off a satisfactory base either. We all know that Cape Town’s hardest-hit crime areas have been under-resourced by SAPS for decades. The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into Policing back in 2012 confirmed this.”

Furthermore, there are more than 200 detective vacancies currently in the Cape Town metro area.

“These numbers are deeply concerning and actually outrageous. It is possible, even likely, that this is the lowest SAPS deployment in Cape Town ever. While SAPS should be greatly increasing its deployment in Cape Town, it is actually in retreat.”

Statistics also show the City’s fleet of law enforcement vehicles now outnumbers the SAPS fleet in the Cape Town metropolitan area by around 360 vehicles.

There are 2,433 law enforcement vehicles, while SAPS only has 2,071, of which only 78% are operational compared to over 90% of the City’s vehicles.

Hill-Lewis says this is unacceptable, given the high rates of gang violence plaguing the Cape Flats.

“Not a week goes by without a terrible new example of innocent people killed by warring gang members, and very often, they are young children who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like 12-year-old Faizel Challis who was shot and killed in Tafelsig three weeks ago while running ahead to collect party packets for his younger siblings. And just two days ago a 14-year-old boy was left fighting for his life in Tygerberg Hospital after being caught in gang crossfire in Elsies River, while on his way to school.”

The Mayor has demanded that these SAPS resource numbers must be rectified, even though he says he is not holding his breath.

 

“We’re getting on with doing what we can do here.”

He has lauded the recent milestones achieved in the Safety and Security portfolio this year, including the graduation of over 700 new City police officers in September and their deployment to every ward in the city, and then the deployment of 40 new officers as part of our new N2 highway unit.

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Hill-Lewis concludes that he will keep fighting for the City’s law enforcement officers to be granted investigative powers, with the most recent letter that was sent to Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia on 20 October, in which he also outlined the deteriorating SAPS resourcing in the city.

ALSO READ: Cape Town Mayor hopes for more city policing powers, under new police minister