Pretoria - The South African Police Service is set to recruit former officers who left the organisation, it said on Thursday.
The SAPS said the decision was taken after an analysis on loss of police officers was done.
“The re-enlistment process will be relevant to the 2015/2016 financial year only and we are looking to re-employ former members and appoint them into the ranks of constable, sergeant, warrant officer and lieutenant,” the institution said in a statement.
“The areas where we would particularly re-enlist employees are in the detective service and the visible policing environments.”
Applicants would be subjected to a screening process. “Former members who left the SAPS more than 10 years ago, left on retirement, [some] were dishonourably discharged or dismissed, left pending the finalisation of disciplinary criminal proceedings, or left due to ill-health retirement or medical boarding, will not be considered for re-enlistment.”
National police commissioner General Riah Phiyega said normal police recruitment would continue.
“This re-enlistment process will not replace or affect the normal recruitment and training process. It is a once-off extraordinary measure aimed at boosting production levels, particularly within the detective and visible policing areas,” she said.
“It goes without saying, that we are looking to re-employ the best of the best, former employees who have a lot to offer in terms of past experience, skills, integrity and commitment.”
The recruitment drive would be advertised within two weeks.
Meanwhile, hundreds of police reservists say they feel exploited after serving as unpaid volunteers, some for more than a decade.
On Wednesday, they received support from former Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi.
He said reservists needed his “physical support” and their demands were “legitimate”.
“This is what we want Cosatu to be doing. Taking up the struggles of ordinary people,” he said. “The reservists are permanent casuals and it’s not right. From 1995, generals made promises, and when they apply for permanent positions, other people get the jobs. That’s why they complain that they are used as condoms.”
Sibongile Mvubu has been a police reservist for 11 years and claims she has nothing to show for it.
She has been injured in car accidents and sustained a head injury on duty. Unlike permanently employed officers who reservists claim go to private hospitals, Mvubu had no choice but to go to a public hospital.
As a mother of three, she feels she has been treated unfairly by the SAPS who have taken no responsibility for her injuries. “I became a volunteer and a reservist, because I wanted to contribute to the safety of our community and because I wanted to keep busy while I was unemployed,” Mvubu said.
She was speaking to the Pretoria News on Wednesday in Marabastad, where about 300 members of the Police Reservists’ Forum gathered to march to the SAPS head office in the Pretoria CBD.
The reservists went on to hand over a memorandum with their grievances and unfulfilled promises of employment made to them in 2009.
“I did not set out to gain employment when I started in 2004. But a promise of integration was made to us in 2009. I was involved in three accidents and I injured my head when a metal sheet fell on me while I was chasing a suspect.
“The police did not want to help me with my hospital bill on each occasion. They need to pay for that. But I don’t even want the job they promised, because they have been treating us like dogs,” Mvubu said.
A Limpopo reservist Anna Nkgadima said it was difficult to be appointed as a police officer due to the alleged corruption within the police ranks.
On Wednesday, police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo said reservists were explicitly told they were not entitled to a stipend or salary, nor would they automatically qualify to be recruited into the SAPS.
ANA and Pretoria News