Popcru fails to stop SAPS overhaul

Lt General Kgomotso Phahlane, the acting police commissioner at a press briefing at Maponya Mall in Soweto. 231215 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Lt General Kgomotso Phahlane, the acting police commissioner at a press briefing at Maponya Mall in Soweto. 231215 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Published Jan 22, 2016

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Johannesburg - A bid by the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) to halt acting national Police Commissioner Khomotso Phahlane’s restructuring of the SA Police Service has failed.

On Thursday, the Labour Court in Joburg dismissed Popcru’s urgent application to stop what the union had called Phahlane’s unilateral restructuring of the SAPS.

Judge Hamilton Cele ruled that he did not consider the matter urgent. He did not agree with the union’s stance that the restructuring would cause harm.

“There is an absence of irreparable harm and it is just an expression of an opinion. The application cannot succeed and it has been dismissed,” the judge said.

Popcru had filed the court papers in a bid to stop the restructuring of officers at the crime-fighting organisation, announced by Phahlane last year in Parliament.

Popcru’s lawyer advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC told the court while delivering his heads of argument that the SAPS, including Phahlane, had failed to consult with the union when he instituted the changes.

He said that when they called a meeting to inform them about the restructuring, they provided Popcru officials with only a one-page document detailing the procedures.

“Sufficient information should have been provided to enable all parties to consult.”

Ntsebeza said Popcru had approached the court with the urgent application as restructuring was already under way, and that the process could cause harm to the public as it would affect service delivery.

But advocate Paul Kennedy, for Phahlane, hit back at Popcru, arguing that the restructuring - specifically involving SAPS management - was necessary to improve the work of the police.

He poked holes in the union’s argument that the restructuring could cause harm, and instead said it was merely Popcru’s opinion.

He disputed Ntsebeza’s argument that by the time the council reached a finding, the restructuring procedures would have already happened. Instead, he reiterated that changes to the police structure could be reversed.

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The Star

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