Police Minister Bheki Cele has disputed claims that a number of police members might lose their jobs.
This follows the announcement by National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole that there will be a considerable reduction of the police force after the adoption of drone policing.
In an exclusive interview with SABC News, Cele says members of the police force will be shifted to rural areas.
“The main element of policing is visibility. It doesn’t matter what the technology does and all that. Technology does not respond, technology does not arrest; it helps you make your life easy. The people that will have to implement all those outcomes of the technology are the police. But besides, we are not going to have this revolution of the smart cities all over; there will be areas that will come much slower, the rural areas, so you shift your personnel there.”
Cele says drone policing will begin in the near future, as they have begun talks with major cities.
“In South Africa, we have spoken with the big cities; it is called the smart cities or the smart safe cities. We have spoken with Durban already, the Cape Town and Jo’burg because it’s supposed to be a combination of all state levels starting from the province, national and the city. And not in a very distant future, we will be able to put the city in one place and be able to respond accordingly.”
