Johannesburg - Are former cops who resigned queuing up to rejoin the force? The SAPS says yes, but unions representing police officers say no.
The SAPS announced that almost 3 000 former members had applied to be re-enlisted.
It had received 2 800 applications from former officers who wanted to rejoin the service and 1 000 applications came from former police detectives by the June 15 closing date. Only 748 posts are available.
But the South African Police Union (Sapu) says the supposed re-enlistments are “a joke”.
Sapu general secretary Oscar Skommere said this week that most members had left the service because of the trying conditions under which they worked – and many who resigned had not been paid a severance package.
“This is the joke of the year if the national commissioner thinks former officers would just jump and come back to the service because she invites them to,” he said.
“The re-enlistment of former officers could only be realistic if the SAPS dramatically transforms itself. Promotions have been in the forefront but members are not promoted. Most of them have 10 years or longer service, but remain in one rank, so their pension funds are negatively affected.”
He said national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega should first consider the reasons why officers were leaving in droves instead of praising their return.
He said the re-enlistments would create tension in the workplace because of the emotional impact it would have on those who had remained and hoped for promotions.
Johan Burger, from the Institute for Security Studies, shared the sentiment about re-enlistments causing tension. He said the SAPS would need to ascertain, especially within the senior ranks, that no officer who was qualified was available for posts that were vacant before giving the job to a former officer.
But Burger said the SAPS needed to re-enlist former officers to fill departments that needed capacity. “They will bring many years of experience and well-developed skills.” But if the plan was not well managed it could explode in their faces, he said.
Police spokesman Brigadier Vish Naidoo said there was nothing sinister about the loss of members in the SAPS as all government departments and private companies lost employees for various reasons.
“Many government departments lose sizeable numbers of employees as a result of confusion about pension fund benefits. The SAPS was also affected. Despite this, our attrition rate for 2014 was 3.5 percent of our workforce, well below the normal 4.5 to 5 percent.
“From these applications, the SAPS aims to appoint former constables, sergeants, warrant officers and lieutenants to posts in the detective service and visible policing divisions, the two environments within the SAPS that need capacity.”
Applicants who had left the service while a disciplinary matter was pending against them will not be considered, nor will those with criminal records, Phiyega said.
The applicants would be vetted and their fingerprints checked to ensure that none had criminal records.The successful 748 candidates would be re-enlisted in the ranks they had previously held in the service but not above the rank of lieutenant, irrespective of the rank they held when leaving the SAPS.
They must be 50 years and younger because they need to be able to serve at least 10 years in the service before reaching the pensionable age of 60.
Naidoo said re-enlistment boards would be convened in all provinces with representation from police headquarters to consider applications and make final recommendations to a human resources committee. The plan was to finalise the process by the end of November.
Saturday Star