Failed cadets want in on ceremony

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Published Nov 26, 2015

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Pretoria -

More than 200 Tshwane Metro Police Department trainees booted out in August for failing their exams want to be part of the graduation ceremony planned for next Tuesday.

The former cadets have approached the DA to intervene, claiming they had made unsuccessful efforts to be part of the training programme.

However, the city is sticking to its guns, saying the students were expelled because they failed, and reinstating them would be a contravention of the legislation and terms of their contracts.

Mahori Mikateko, who was on the programme, said in giving them the boot, the department informed them spending money on people who couldn’t meet the requirements was tantamount to wasteful expenditure.

Mikateko said most cadets failed one module, but were denied a chance to write a supplementary examination.

Another trainee Thapelo Dlamini said the DA had pledged to fight their battle by taking the matter to court.

DA mayoral candidate Solly Msimanga told a media briefing the party would approach the courts to interdict the graduation ceremony if the expelled trainees were not reinstated.

The trainees were fired from the training programme in August.

They were among 2 200 cadets recruited to make the city safer by deploying at least 10 officers in each municipal ward, once they had completed the course.

Msimanga has given MMC for Safety and Security Terrence Mashego a 48-hour ultimatum to reinstate the trainees or face court action. He said that he would approach the high court in Pretoria if the trainees were not reinstated by the end of this week.

The former cadets alleged that the recruitment process was tainted with corruption and favouritism and claimed that those without political connections did not stand a chance of being recruited.

The department had said the trainees were expelled for not meeting the requirements of being a metro police officer. But the cadets have disputed this, saying it was contradictory to the contracts, which allowed a second chance to write a supplementary exam in the event of a failure.

Pretoria News

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