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It could take as long as 45 minutes for the police's 10111 centre in Gqeberha to be up and running again following a bout of load shedding.
That's according to Community Safety and Transport MEC, Xolile Nqatha, in reply to questions from the Democratic Alliance in the Bhisho Legislature on problems at the 10111 Centre.
The MEC said absenteeism was also a big factor, where at times just two to three operators are available to deal with 24 incoming telephone lines.
"When all calls takers are busy on 10111 calls, all other incoming calls from the community go into a queuing system causing the community to have to hold on until a call taker are finished with his/her call and that is why the community at times complains that they do not get through to the 10111 lines," Nqata said.
He said the 10111 Centre has 71 members employed on a four-shift basis. However, he says a shift of 18 members includes a relief commander, supervisor, assistant supervisor and five dispatchers.
"It, therefore, leaves you with 10 members of which two are on vacation leave at any given time, and two on sick leave, causing (sic) only six members" to be available to deal with calls.
"To curb all these aspects the call Centre needs more manpower, especially for the 10111 lines," he said.
In his reaction, DA MPL and spokesperson on Community Safety, Bobby Stevenson, says "the failure to answer calls is potentially life-threatening to people in danger from the criminal onslaught."
Stevenson said the MEC also revealed that load shedding had destroyed the centre's UPS system in mid-September, taking the Global Emergency Command and Control Centre System offline. The cost to replace the UPS is estimated at R4 million.
This has resulted in all complaints coming in having to be manually captured by hand on 297 forms, with no reference numbers being issued for calls logged.
He said he had written to the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay to request that the SAPS 10111 Centre be exempt from load shedding.
