Over 8,000 SAPS funded posts vacant amid calls for recruitment and accountability - IOL

Security experts and Parliament's portfolio committee on police are concerned about vacant posts with the SAPS.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) security expert Willem Els blamed poor governance and lack of consequence management for the 8,000 vacant posts in the SAPS.

Els was responding to a National Treasury (NT) report that the SAPS spent R2.7 billion, approximately 8.3% lower than projected, on compensation of employees and goods and services because of the vacancies.

The SAPS budget for the 2026/27 financial year is R127 billion, while compensation of employees (CoE) amounted to approximately R102 billion; goods and services approximately R19 billion.

On Tuesday, Ulrike Britton, the Deputy Director-General: Public Finance, presented the 2026/2027 Q1 spending outcomes and 2025/2026 Q4 report of selected public entities to the Standing Committee on Appropriations.

Among the top five departments that recorded lower-than-projected spending was the SAPS. Britton said the slower-than-planned spending on compensation of employees was mainly due to the 8,023 vacant funded positions recorded by the department.

“The SAPS plans to appoint 11,000 new police trainees, which will mainly be funded from the department’s compensation of employees’ baseline and slightly augmented through savings emanating from phase 1 of the early retirement programme,” Britton said.

Security experts and Parliament's portfolio committee on police are concerned about vacant posts with the SAPS.

She said the intakes are scheduled to be spread between July 2026 and February 2027. She added that delays in implementing pay progression and senior management promotions also contributed to lower spending.

She stated that the lower-than-projected spending on goods and services was mainly due to items such as computer services resulting from the delayed State Information Technology Agency (SITA) invoicing. On fleet services, including government motor transport, Britton said the slow spending is attributable to lower expenditure on fuel, as invoiced amounts were less than projected.

The Standing Committee on Appropriations expressed disappointment that, despite its proposals in committee meetings and engagements with NT throughout the year, public finances continue to show no improvement.

Committee Chairperson Dr. Mmusi Maimane said urgent intervention is needed following the recent killings in and around Ekurhuleni and mass shootings across the country over the past few days.

“The reported shortfall of 8,000 police officers is serious, particularly if the posts were funded but could not be filled. The shortage also appears to have increased since the previous budget,” said Dr Maimane.

Responding to the issue of vacancies, Ian Cameron, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, said the committee needed clarity on what the figure of 8,000 represents. 

“If funding was available to appoint these officers and the posts remained vacant, SAPS management must explain why, where recruitment stalled, and when those posts will be filled. Communities bear the consequences through fewer officers available to respond and fewer investigators to pursue cases,” Cameron said.

Cameron questioned whether the funded vacancies, a shortfall against a personnel target, and the number of additional officers needed operationally are different things. He said the SAPS and Treasury must provide the underlying figures before he can conclude that the shortage has increased since the previous budget.

Cameron said the SAPS’s 2026/2027 Annual Performance Plan envisages stabilising its personnel complement at 188,018, with annual intakes of 5,500 trainees to offset natural attrition.

“Those recruitment numbers should therefore not automatically be presented as a net increase in policing capacity. The priority must be properly trained officers deployed where the need is greatest, particularly frontline policing, detectives and units investigating crimes against women and children. They also need working vehicles, reliable communications and forensic support,” Cameron said.

He said he will seek a clear reconciliation from NT of funded posts, actual personnel numbers, departures and appointments, together with deadlines to address the gaps.

“Where funded vacancies remain unfilled, accountability must follow,” Cameron said.

Els said that 8,000 fresh boots on the ground would have filled many gaps within the SAPS.He said this would require a great deal of time because of the rigorous training process.

“They must walk the walk before they can talk the talk. The challenge is with specialised work. We have a shortage of detectives. We keep arresting criminals, but bringing them to finality in court is a concern. We don't have the capacity to investigate every case thoroughly. That is why we have a detection rate of 12%. That is a good statistic for the criminals and not for the police,” he said.

Els said a rookie cannot be expected to win court cases. He said the underspending by the SAPS was troubling, considering the vehicle shortage police are currently experiencing. He said the unspent budget will be returned to Treasury placing a burden on the next financial year.

“At one of the detective branches, three officers share a laptop and do not have a vehicle. How must they do their work? There should be some sort of consequences for those unable to do their job,” Els said.

In October 2025, the Standing Committee on Appropriations also received briefings from National Treasury (NT) on first-quarter expenditure performance for the 2025/2026 financial year and from the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) on its submission for the 2026/2027 Division of Revenue.

During discussions on vacancies and resource pressures in the SAPS, committee member Michael Segede observed that funding for the SAPS was projected to increase by R8.5 billion in the 2025/2026 financial year but the number of funded posts across all levels remained unchanged.  He asked NT how SAPS intended to address the vacant posts that had contributed to lower-than-projected expenditure in the first quarter.

Segede sought clarity on whether SAPS was expected to absorb cost pressures through reprioritisation and reallocation, and whether timelines existed for filling vacancies. Segede also asked whether recruits, once appointed, would have adequate operational resources to perform their duties effectively, given that employee compensation already accounted for a large portion of the SAPS budget.

In response to Segede, the Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana stated that he had prioritised the issue upon joining government due to concerns about crime levels. He noted that SAPS personnel numbers remain below 2010 levels, and additional funding had been allocated to recruit 20,000 police officers over the medium term. Godongwana said underspending often arises from unfilled funded posts. SAPS, he explained, recruits in large intakes to achieve critical mass, which creates temporary fluctuations in expenditure between recruitment cycles.