Only 44% of South Africa’s police stations answered their phones during a recent Democratic Alliance audit.
The party said it called 1 025 South African Police Service stations across rural, urban and metropolitan areas between 2 June and 12 June 2026.
Each station was called once on a weekday between 08:00 and 17:00.
According to the DA, only 454 stations answered. The remaining 56% could not be reached.
The party said many calls were dropped, engaged or rang without being answered.
“The audit found key issues with reaching the police, with a high frequency of calls being dropped or engaged,” the DA said.
Limpopo performs worst
The Western Cape recorded the best reachability rate, with 115 of 153 stations answering their phones.
That gave the province a reachability rate of 75.2%.
Gauteng was the only other province where more than half of the stations answered, with 60 of 117 stations reachable.
Limpopo performed the worst.
The DA said only nine of 87 stations in the province answered, while 78 did not.
“The most shocking of these findings was in Limpopo,” the party said.
The Free State recorded a 30.9% reachability rate, while KwaZulu-Natal recorded 37.2%.
Priority stations also unreachable
The DA said several national priority stations in high-crime areas also failed to answer their phones.
In the Western Cape, these included Atlantis, Elsies River, Harare, Khayelitsha, Kleinvlei, Lentegeur and Nyanga.
In Gauteng, unreachable stations included Hillbrow, Akasia, Ivory Park, Johannesburg Central, Kagiso and Moroka.
KwaZulu-Natal stations that did not answer included Phoenix, Umlazi, Plessislaer, Pinetown, Inanda and Chatsworth.
The DA said every unanswered call could represent an emergency.
It plans to submit the audit to the Minister of Police and the National Police Commissioner.
10111 problems add pressure
The findings come amid concerns over South Africa’s 10111 emergency system.
The DA said its findings matched issues raised during an oversight visit to the 10111 Emergency Communication Centre.
Officials reportedly flagged staff shortages, communication problems, outdated technology and difficulty contacting police stations.
In May, Communications Minister Solly Malatsi said an administrative error caused a key 10111 system upgrade tender to lapse.
SITA previously said SAPS lacked a single integrated system to manage reported incidents.
Malatsi said the 10111 platform remained operational nationwide and posed no operational risk.