South Africans left waiting for police as 10111 abandons nearly 1.8 million calls

South Africans face significant challenges when dialing 10111 for police assistance, as nearly 1.8 million calls were abandoned in the 2025/26 financial year, according to the South African Police Service (SAPS). Acting Minister of Police Professor Firoz Cachalia revealed these statistics in a parliamentary reply, stating that the call centres are severely understaffed, leading to many emergencies going unanswered. The abandonment rate of 20% or roughly one in every five calls highlights the critical issue at hand.

In a parliamentary question by Member of Parliament Ian Cameron, the scale of the problem became evident. The department explained that abandoned calls include situations where callers hang up due to excessive wait times or when calls are dropped by the system. However, SAPS did not provide an accurate national ratio of operators to incoming calls, citing fluctuating staffing levels and the need to extract the data manually, thus diverting personnel from their primary duties.

Cameron emphasized that this crisis cannot be solely attributed to call-centre statistics, as people calling for help during attacks, robberies, or threats to their life rely on the emergency number to receive immediate assistance. Maitland centre, for example, recorded an alarming abandonment rate of approximately 56.4%, with an average call-answering time of 26 seconds, compared to the national average of about 12 seconds.

Cameron called on SAPS to create a recovery plan addressing staffing shortages at individual centres, technical interventions to resolve dropped calls, and measurable targets for reducing waiting times and abandonment rates. Despite acknowledging disciplinary procedures and in-service training, SAPS admitted that limitations in their systems hindered accurate tracking of mishandled calls.

Police Ministry spokesperson Kamogelo Mogotsi confirmed that a plan is under way to ensure the operation of the 10111 line but acknowledged the challenges, including telephone-line capacity and infrastructure issues.