SAPU WELCOMES RE-ENLISTMENT OF OFFICERS.

The South African Policing Union welcomes the re-enlistment of experienced Members like

former detectives and Special Task Force members in the South African Police Service. This is

a long overdue development that will benefit the fight against crime in our country. As much as

we welcome this move by the SAPS we are however concerned how many officers will grab

this opportunity as most of the underlying causes of their early departure are still there. We

have been calling on the SAPS management to act swiftly in addressing structural problems

within the police department. Some of these challenges have been there for years ,National

Commissioners come and go leaving the police service with the same problems that cripple our

efforts of totally eradicating crime in our society.

It is a well-documented fact that the police are amongst the lowest paid in the entire civil

service, lack of adequate resources are some of the frustrating aspects of being an employee

in the police service. The main reason members are leaving SAPS, is the lack of career pathing

because there is no promotion policy for years, then members get frustrated to be on one rank

for a long time. Police killings are also of great concern as the Government is ignoring our call

to declare it as treason, members feel they are not safe as the law favours criminals more than

them. We will continue to bleed experienced and specialist skills to the private sector if we do

not deal with our challenges. Be that as it may, SAPU supports this initiative as a progressive

one as we should rather have too many boots on the ground than few, as it will also add to the

numbers that we are battling with.

Our human resources are lacking behind the internationally

accepted level when looking at the recommended United Nations ratio in terms of policing. The

population growth in our country makes it a necessity that we add more Police Officers in our

Police Service. Whilst we also welcomed the annual recruitment of new members, it is of great

help to have the re-enlistment of experienced officers with a proven track record rather than the

lengthy period that it takes to train new recruits.