Pretoria: The South African Police Service (SAPS) has announced the receipt of over a million applications for its 2025/2026 Basic Police Development Learning Programme (BPDLP). The application window, which closed at midnight on July 18, 2025, saw a total of 1,049,998 submissions from aspiring police officers.

According to South African Police Service, the applications included 595,049 from female applicants and 454,949 from male applicants. The province of Gauteng led the submissions with 267,031 applicants, followed closely by KwaZulu-Natal with 205,802. Other provinces contributing significant numbers include Limpopo with 115,877, Eastern Cape with 108,709, and Mpumalanga with 100,516 applicants.

The Western Cape accounted for 86,496 applications, followed by the Free State with 73,214. North West had 66,167 applicants, while the Northern Cape had the fewest with 26,186 submissions. Notably, 334,765 of the applicants possess qualifications at NQF Level 6 (Diploma) or higher.

The SAPS has closed its application portal and expressed best wishes to all applicants on their journey to potentially joining the police force. The organization has stated that candidates whose profiles meet the necessary requirements will be contacted within three months. Due to the overwhelming number of applications, those who do not meet the criteria will not receive notification.