300-year-old town in South Africa where dialling 10111 when you need help is useless

[Newsfeed]

300-year-old town in South Africa where dialling 10111 when you need help is useless

The town of Phokeng in the North West is the only place in South Africa where you can't use 10111 to report an emergency.

 

[Lupus]

I mean, this is still pretty useless here in JHB as well.

 

[Jam Sandwich]

Phokeng hell... Thats terrible...

 

[system32]

in South Africa where dialling 10111 when you need help is useless

FTFY

56% of SAPS stations do not answer their phones​

See https://www.da.org.za/2026/06/56-of-saps-stations-do-not-answer-their-phones

• Out of 1,025 police stations audited across all nine provinces using official contact numbers, 571 stations (56%) failed to answer,
• Limpopo recorded the lowest reachability rate, with 78 out of 87 stations failing to answer
• The Free State recorded the second-lowest reachability rate. Multiple high-crime priority stations nationwide also failed to pick up calls.
• Underlying Issues: The investigation highlighted severe operational bottlenecks mirroring problems at the 10111 Emergency Communication Centre, including chronic staff shortages, outdated technology, and internal communication failures.

 

[Gordon_R]

Is Newsfeed going to do a separate article for every town where 10111 doesn't work? This could be a never-ending series...

 

[Jam Sandwich]

Maybe rename the town to Bhrokeng

 

[Hemi300c]

I think every town has the same issue 10111 doesn't work and if you do by some miracle to actually describe and give a location takes a huge amount of patience and one sided intelligence.

SAPS as everything anc is fvcked.

 

[Justanotherguybythesea]

Havent tried calling 10111 for decades, because you never will get response from them. Merro police are more likely to respond, along with NPA, called via 112.

 

[The Gilded]

Dialing 10111 for help in most of the country is useless.

Also, why is the Royal Baphokeng Stadium seldom in use nowadays? I remember how a big deal was made of it in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup with the Springboks beating the All Blacks there one year.

It's still a great stadium and should see more use. It's a shame how Durban has so many useless PSL clubs and they have to play in awful township "stadiums" where no one wants to go whereas many of the World Cup stadiums lie neglected. The Limpopo clubs mostly play in the old Peter Mokaba "stadium", not the new one.

Such is Africa.

 

[Bad Ballie]

Pretty sure that dialing 10111 anywhere in the country is an exercise in futility.