South Africa could say goodbye to 10111 and other emergency numbers

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi has proposed to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) that the country phase out three public emergency numbers, including 10111.

Malatsi is proposing the axing of 10111, the police hotline; 10177, the ambulance hotline; and 107, an emergency number for Tshwane and Cape Town residents.

This will leave only one emergency number for South Africa — 112.

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) notes that matters relevant to the 112 emergency number concern section three of the Electronic Communications Act (ECA), which Icasa oversees.

Malatsi pointed out that although the ECA prescribes using the other three hotlines, it does contemplate having an exclusive public emergency number — 112.

However, according to the regulations, this would require the construction of 112 Emergency Centres, which have not been built.

“Even though no 112 Emergency Centre was established, electronic communications network service licensees use their own communications centres where the 112 emergency number is routed to,” the document said.

Thus, Malatsi is proposing that Icasa amend the regulations to remove references to public 112 Emergency Centres to ensure that South Africa receives a sole national public emergency number.

The department published the proposal in a government gazette on 1 November and is open for public comment until the end of the month.

South Africa’s emergency call centres have been under a lot of scrutiny recently due to a large number of dropped calls.

Former police minister Bheki Cele said only 41.31% of SAPS emergency call centre positions were filled.

This was revealed during a response to questions posed in parliament by Democratic Alliance’s Andrew Whitfield.

The Western Cape had the highest average call centre staff capacity of the nine provinces at 86%, followed by the Northern Cape (68.9%) and Limpopo (64.9%).

Gauteng had an average of 51.4%, while the Free State and Mpumalanga had the lowest at 34.2% and 33.3%, respectively.

The lack of staff resulted in 14.9 million calls being abandoned in 11 of South Africa’s ninteen call centres between the beginning of the 2018/19 financial year and May 2024.

The Free State had the highest percentage of calls abandoned at 64.6%, followed by the North West (52.2%), Gauteng (29.7%), and the Western Cape (26.1%).

The Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga had the lowest call abandonment rates at 20.3% and 19.3%, respectively.

No data was provided for Limpopo and the Northern Cape.

The data shows that no call centre anywhere in the country meets its “ideal situation” of posts filled.

Cele explained that the ideal number “refers to the number of resources which the SAPS should ideally have to perform” their functions.

Looking at provincial averages, Mpumalanga has the lowest number of posts filled, sitting at a third (33.33%) of the ideal target.

This contrasts with the Western Cape’s 86% of posts filled in its only call centre, Maitland. However, this is an 8 percentage point drop from the 94% it recorded in 2023.

The centre with the lowest percentage of posts filled is Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, at 8.2% of its ideal requirement. This is followed by Secunda in Mpumalanga, at 14.1%.

In hopes of improving the short-staffed call centres, Cele said in May that SAPS was finalising a revised Fixed Establishment in the budget, which “will absorb 535 additional entry-level constables” allocated to 10111 call centres.