Swaziland’s Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini and his press
secretary Percy Simelane are making it up as they go along when it comes to the
need for more police officers in the kingdom.
Dlamini told newspaper editors at a meeting on Thursday (28
February 2013) that there was one police officer to every 700 people in
Swaziland, but the figures ‘are supposed to be’ one officer to every 200 people.
This, he said, meant that Swaziland needed to employ more
police to avoid compromising security. He said Swaziland must not reduce the security
budget.
But he was wrong. In fact, if Swaziland were to conform to
the average for policing in Africa it would need to reduce its police force by
2,356 officers.
Last month (February 2013), Simelane told the Times of Swaziland the accepted international
ratio was one officer to every 400 people (half the number the PM came up
with).
The Times
published figures from the 2012/2013 Establishment Register from the Ministry
of Public Service that showed the kingdom had 4,329 police officers.
It also found that the Central Statistical Office for the
year 2012/2013 put the population of Swaziland at 1,055,506.
Based on these figures, the ratio of police officers to people
in Swaziland was one officer to 244, the newspaper concluded.
The figure supplied by the Times contradicts the Prime Minister’s claim that at present in
Swaziland there is only one officer to 700 people.
The Times went on
to say that based on Simelane’s claim that there needed to be one officer for
every 400 people, in Swaziland the police service was overstaffed by 1,690
officers.
Now, the Prime Minister has moved the goalposts and says the
ratio has to be one officer to 200 people.
But Dlamini and Simelane are both wrong. A United Nations-
published report International
Statistics on Crime and Justice
demonstrates
there is no global average ratio for police to population. However, it shows in
Africa, the median average number of police officers to population is 187
officers per 100,000 people.
If that figure applied to Swaziland there should
be 1,973 police officers in the kingdom, not the 4,329 there are, according to
the Establishment Register. To meet the average for Africa, Swaziland would
need to sack 2,356 officers.
People in Swaziland are suspicious of the PM’s motives in
demanding more money be spent on security.
This week the Times, in an editorial
comment, said, ‘The message being sent by government to the ordinary Swazi on
the street is that the government is hiring more officers to put down dissent,
paying them comparatively well to ensure their loyalty.’
See also
ANGER AT POLICE 30pc PAY RISE
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