By Chiara Carter
The government has had enough of fat police who are too flabby to catch crooks. They have been ordered to shape up or else.
The SA Police Service has drawn up plans to tackle unfit and overweight police by sending them on a training programme they hope will create a sleek, street-smart force capable of keeping up in the war against crime.
According to sources in police management, there are plans to test the fitness of serving police by checking whether they can still do things required of recruits.
This includes scaling a wall, lifting weights, balancing on a variety of surfaces and basic sprints.
Failure to meet basic fitness requirements could affect career prospects.
The office of national SAPS commissioner Jackie Selebi confirmed this week that a new fitness and street-survival programme for police recruits would be extended to all members of the SAPS throughout South Africa.
The programme would include those who had already succumbed to middle-age flab.
The move follows adverse publicity about fat police officers.
Vishnu Naidoo, spokesperson in the office of the commissioner, said the training programme, aimed at ensuring optimum fitness and health, was to be gradually extended to all members of the force.
It was being implemented in the basic training course for recruits, and would be extended to everybody in the SAPS - from police stations to the national office.
It would have to take into account the wide range of age and health of SAPS members.
The programme is managed by commissioner Gary Kruser, who is in charge of police training and who, earlier this month, warned that health and fitness were essential for police to meet their obligations.
Police sources in Cape Town said that some police stations and units had already been advised that police who were unfit should report for help at the Faure base, where they would receive fitness training.
Recruits to the SAPS have to meet certain basic weight and height requirements and undergo a battery of tests - ranging from psychological suitability to physical fitness - before they are hired.
But not all maintain this state of health.
This week, Cape Town tabloid the Daily Voice published photographs of overweight policemen, and commented: "These police can barely catch their own breath never mind a suspect who is hot-footing it from a crime scene."
Earlier this month, former UCT vice-chancellor Mamphela Ramphele singled out obese police as a problem.
Ramphele was talking about the state of the civil service in the annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture.
She asked: "How have we come to the current disturbing trend of overweight police officers with their uniforms literally bursting at the seams? How can they catch criminals when they look so unfit?"
Naidoo pointed out that it was unfair to brand all police as unfit fatties.
- South Africa is not alone in its problem with hefty police. Other countries that have experienced similar problems include China, the Philippines and Romania.