KZN Police Commissioner Lt. Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi Worried About Declining Police Numbers

• The KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, expressed concern that there were fewer cops in the province
• He revealed that the South African Police Service in the province lost almost 900 police officers for different reasons in the past financial year
• He said most of them resigned, and some of them lost their lives in the line of fire

With nine years’ experience, Tebogo Mokwena, a current affairs writer for Briefly News, provided insights into the criminal justice system, crime statistics and high-profile cases in South Africa at Daily Sun.

DURBAN, KWAZULU-NATAL — The KwaZulu-Natal South African Police Service (SAPS) provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, said the decreasing number of police officers in the force was worrying.

Mkhwanazi speaks on decreasing policing numbers

According to TimesLIVE, Mkhwanazi was speaking on the state of policing in the province in Durban on 6 May. He revealed that the force lost 893 members in the previous financial year. Mkhwanazi said 240 of them resigned from the force, 140 took early retirement, 116 died, and six were killed on duty.

Mkhwanazi revealed that four of the six who died on duty were killed by criminals. He added that 106 cops were fired for misconduct ranging from violation of the disciplinary code, bringing SAPS into disrepute and corruption. This brought the number of active police officers in the province from 25,000 in the previous years to 19,600.

VIP protection absorbing cops

Mkhwanazi pointed out that wealthy people have developed a tendency to recruit members of the police to get protection. These officers, he said, are offered compensation that the police force could not compete with.

He also said the private sector was recruiting detectives, which is also a boon, as they remain allies in fighting crime in the province. He also applauded the provincial police for cutting down on the number of claims against them from 3,754 to 3,057.

Police officers who were killed in KZN

Two off-duty cops were shot and killed in a tavern in KwaZulu-Natal on 3 February 2025. Five suspects allegedly opened fire on patrons, and four others were injured during the shooting after one of the officers got into an altercation with them.

An off-duty police officer was shot and killed on 9 April while he was on his way to the shops. The officer was parked outside a shop and stepped outside of his car when armed suspects appeared. They fired multiple times at him and robbed him of his firearms. They then fled in a white VW Polo.

Mkhwanazi discusses KZN crime statistics

In a related article, Briefly News reported that Mkhwanazi revealed that 4,278 citizens were killed in KwaZulu-Natal from April to December 2024. He added that criminals are at war with the citizens of the province.

Mkhwanazi spoke on 14 April and said while the police were making gains, it was concerning that almost 5,000 people were killed. This was despite the numbers going down from 2,836 people in the same period of 2023.

Source: Briefly News