SAPU IS CALLING FOR THE PRESIDENT TO FIRE MASEMOLA

The South African Policing Union (SAPU) is calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire the National Police Commissioner General Masemola over the inability to fight the high levels of crime. The picture shown through the crime statistics released by the Police Minister on 2023- 05-30 continue to show high levels of crime rampage as we have 6289 people murdered within a period of 3 months, when compared to a previous quarter there is an increase recorded meaning that crime is out of control.

We have since made a call for the re-establishment of specialized units informed by the fact that in order to deal with some crimes one need members who are specializing in that field specifically. We made this call from the tenure of current Minister of Police Bheki Cele when he was a National Commissioner and further made it during General Sithole were we tabled a position paper in the SSSBC bargaining council and it was agreed upon during 2020 when we concluded an agreement on restructuring on principle that specialized units will be re- established.in the current tenure of General Masemola we made this call and further proposals on the re-establishment, unfortunately he does not want to listen yet he is failing. The units proposed by SAPU are as follows: murder and robbery, Drug Unit(SANAB), Diamond, gold, and Precious Stones Unit, Stock Theft unit, Family Violence, child Abuse and Sexual unit, Public Order Policing Units, Crime Intelligence, Initial Investigation (Former Uniform Investigation Unit).

We are tired of a publicity stunt that is being done by the Minister of Police Bheki Cele through releasing crime statistics, because after that there is no action taken to show any efforts made to deal with crime, instead there is fear that is instilled in the society when it is shown on how bad the situation of crime is in South Africa. Crime stats are released in order for SAPS to assess themselves on policing then after that measures should be taken to curb crime.

We are not being personal with General Masemola but we are on a principle that we gave him support since his appointment, also gave proposals that will assist him to fight crime; yet it is evident that General Masemola has no political will to take our proposals into action for the benefit of the service and of the country as everything we propose fall on deaf ears. We are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to assess the National Commissioner and that has not happened, we are now calling on the President not to politicize or normalize crime because being a victim of crime is a painful experience.

We cannot have a National Commissioner of Police who is too silent when innocent lives are being lost in this manner, and as we speak today his office is empty because there is no Deputy National Commissioner for Detectives which plays a critical role on investigation in the service, also he has a Deputy National Commissioner for Support on suspension for so long without finalizing that matter. SAPU had to march to the office of the MEC of Community Safety Security and liaison wanting to know of who was the Provincial Commissioner of Mpumalanga, through that action he was then forced to declare through a letter on who was the Provincial Commissioner. This made us to wonder what type of National Commissioner do we have who has to be forced to act on critical issues that affect members and South Africans at large? Since 31st March 2022 when the National Police Commissioner was appointed ,we were hopeful that he is a seasoned police officer and he should know better yet we have not seen any improvement in the SAPS for the member’s benefit or for the benefit of communities being done by his leadership as the National commissioner, instead we continue to see high crime levels and he also blocked the implementation of restructuring agreement which is seeking to channel most resources from the National Level to the station level where crime is happening.



It is his poor performance on his primary job of combating crime that we judge him on. We are calling on General Masemola to spare himself the embarrassment and save the country the waste of time and resources through the establishment of a board of enquiry into his fitness to hold office. We are calling on General Masemola to fall into his sword and go home. He has dismally failed in all aspects of his job as Hundreds of functionary members on the ground have lost confidence in him. We can no longer have a National Police Commissioner who is proving to be not having an idea of his primary mandate. We were of the view that as a career officer he would bring drastic changes in the police, yet Crime statistics speak for themselves. There is nothing to spin here, our people do not feel safe whether they are in their homes or in the street and that cannot be business as usual.