Police spent about R19.3 million on 10111 emergency call systems in five years. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia gave the figure. None of the three main systems behind the service were upgraded.
Cachalia gave the figures in reply to questions from DA MP Ian Cameron, IOL reported.
The call centres’ Cisco phone system has reached its official end of life and end of support. This means it no longer gets software updates, security patches or support from the maker.
Cachalia said this created “operational, reliability, cybersecurity, and system sustainability risks”.
The centres rely on three systems. They are the Cisco phone system, the GEMC3 command system and the Mobile Data System.
Spending on GEMC3 and the Mobile Data System was R4.04 million in 2021/22 and R4.15 million in 2022/23. It was R2.70 million in 2023/24, R3.19 million in 2024/25 and R5.20 million in 2025/26.
The money paid for software licences, standby services and routine maintenance. No money was spent on modernising or replacing any of the three systems.
“No upgrades or enhancements were implemented on the Cisco telephony system during the period under review,” Cachalia said.
SAPS has asked the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) for a new, fully supported replacement. SAPS also wants to replace GEMC3 with a computer-aided dispatch system.
“SITA is currently in the process of republishing the bid,” Cachalia said.
The centres are also short of operators. Cachalia said there are not enough operators to keep up with calls, especially at peak times.
He said this may cause delays in answering calls and puts more pressure on staff.
In 2023, then police minister Bheki Cele told Parliament that over seven million emergency calls had been dropped. That covered about three financial years.
SAPS’s 2023/24 annual report recorded a national average abandoned-call rate of 26.44%. Some centres took between eight and 35 minutes on average to respond.
SAPS later allocated 535 newly trained constables to the centres under a 10111 reform plan.
In 2024/25, the 20 command centres received 8,510,839 calls. About 845,795 of them were police-related emergencies, according to the SAPS annual report. SAPS said the many non-police calls put heavy pressure on staff.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.