South African Policing Union Submission to the Portfolio … · 2019. 7. 23. · Honourable, I am a...

South African Policing Union

Submission to the Portfolio

Committee on Policing

Budget Vote 25

Mpo Kwinika, President of SAPU

Date: 26 March, 2013 Parliament, Cape Town

2 | SAPU Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Police, Budget Vote 25

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3

National Development Plan ....................................................................................................... 4

Programme 1: Administration................................................................................................... 5

Personnel Numbers ............................................................................................................ 6

Budget on Infrastructure .................................................................................................... 6

Budget for Police Barracks ................................................................................................ 7

Budget for Training and Development .............................................................................. 7

Programme 2: Visible Policing .................................................................................................. 8

Programme 3: Detective Services ............................................................................................. 8

Figures for Detectives ...................................................................................................... 10

Forensic Science Laboratory ............................................................................................ 10

Specialised Investigations ................................................................................................ 10

Programme 4: Crime Intelligence ........................................................................................... 10

Programme 5: Protection and Security Services ..................................................................... 11

Other Budget Issues ................................................................................................................. 12

Suspension without Pay ....................................................................................................... 12

Recruitment .......................................................................................................................... 12

Specialised Units .................................................................................................................. 13

POLMED ............................................................................................................................. 13

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 14


Introduction

The Portfolio Committee Chairperson, honourable portfolio members, Members from the

Media, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen; the South African Policing Union (SAPU)

would like to thank the Committee once again for inviting our organisation to make a

submission to the 25th budget vote. Honourable members, I bring to this Committee greeting

from our 80 000 members of the South Africa Policing Union (SAPU) and wish you well in

your oversight responsibilities. .

For us, it is a rare opportunity but an opportunity that we always look forward to every year

to interact with law makers of our country. Honourable Chair, because of the rarity of this

invitation to interact, we want to exhaust the entire hour that has been given to us up to the

last second. We do not deliberately intend to go beyond the allocated time to us.

Honourable member SAPU has been making these presentations to this Committee during

this time of the year but admittedly, this has been a very difficult year for our police services

as well as our country. We have no doubt that this Committee will rise to the occasion and

provide oversight that will ensure that we restore the confidence and trust of our people and

international community on the SAPS. We are under no under illusion because we know that

the road ahead will be difficult given the serious credibility and trust issues facing our police

services. Our police service is on the media spotlight every day, mostly for the wrong

reasons. An enormous effort will be required to change the shattered image of the police

service in our country and restore community police relations, which forms the cornerstone of

our policing philosophy.

We have no doubt that the recent incidents of Marikana killings, the brutality of the police

and excessive force during violent strikes has changed how communities relate to the police.

One could even say that we have lost ground in our quest to build a community centred

police services. The valuable gains in our community policing approach which we had

adopted have encountered serious challenges in the past few years. Our view is that at the

centre of all this has been the militarisation of our policing. We are still convinced that this

policing approach is contrary to our collective aspiration of having a community centred

policing. We don’t think that the two approaches are compatible with each other. Our

collective aspiration in 1994 was to break away completely from fear of police officers and

create a police service (not a police force) that is accountable and responsive to communities


that they serve. Those in power need to be held accountable for our state of policing in our

country which means that it cannot be business as usual if our state of policing is to change

for the better.

Honourable members, we say this mindful of the serious problem of lawlessness and crime in

our country. Our argument has always been the police cannot be responsible to addressing

social and economic problems of our country. Most of the root causes of un-lawlessness and

crime in our country can best be solved by other departments and not police officers. The

problem of unemployment, lack of housing, teenage pregnant end up being police

responsibility yet these are problems that needs to be addressed by other departments. This is

not to say that we have no role to play, we have a role to play but as police officers we are

unlikely to alter the conditions which perpetuate these problems.

Having said this, Honourable members, I want to focus our presentation on the budget.

National Development Plan

Our organisation welcomes the National Development Plan (NDP) as a guiding document for

the vision of country. The vision of the Plan give meaning to our Constitution, as it seek to

promote the safety and security of all citizens of our country. For the vision of this Plan to

succeed requires the police to be professionalised. This means a u-turn and a paradigm shift

in the recruitment process, working conditions of police officers, issues of salary, training and

development as well as going back to the community policing approach. It also requires that

police officers are adequately equipped with both lethal and less lethal weapons and are

provided appropriate gear to use in appropriate places.

We also welcome that the National Development Plan seek to build a safer society by

increasing community participation. This is what we despised with the Apartheid policing

(especially for some of us who served during that time) and we cannot continue with the

same approach in a democracy. Young and junior officers who are forced by senior

commanders to open fire on violent demonstrators and criminals are suffering serious post

traumatic stress disorder as well as related psychological problems. We have no doubt that a

community centred policing approach is compatible with the aspiration of the majority of our

people and is consistent with the spirit of our Constitution.


We are not convinced that this vision in the NDP will be achieved within the current policing

approach which is militaristic in approach. This policing approach has undoubtedly impacted

negatively on community participation in policing. Our interaction with CPF tells us that

these democratic institutions have been rendered dysfunctional and impotent by this policing

approach.

Honourable, I am a professional police officer who has served as a police officer for 25 years.

I never in my wildest dreams think that I will again experience the level of police brutality in

a democracy similar to what l experienced during the dark days of Apartheid. The recent

incident involving a Mozambique national being dragged at the back of a police van during

day light and in front of cheering community members is not only disheartening but

sickening. It also reflects the sickness that still exists in our policing environment.

Honourable chair, some of the worst atrocities do not take place in the glare of the media or

community members but within our militarised environment. SAPU joins all the like minded

in condemning these atrocities and calling for not only those involved by senior commanders

to be held vicariously accountable for the behaviour of police officers.

We also welcome the National Development Plan’s recommendation regarding the fight

against corruption. Corruption needs to be fought because the failure to defeat it will have

major consequences for our democracy. In order to achieve that we need to create a police

service that respects the policing profession. This means that we also need to create an

independent unit that will address police corruption from within. We need to restore the

restore the integrity and credibility of the police service if our attempt to fight corruption in

society is to be effective. Every year we have raised this issue as a major fault line in the

delivery of policing services especially to underprivileged communities. We have called for

the introduction of the Anti-Corruption Unit within the SAPS to intensify the fight against

corruption. We remain convinced that a specialised Anti corruption Unit that is adequately

resourced will have more successes in dealing with the problem of police corruption.

Programme 1: Administration

We also applaud the decision taken by police management and the Treasury with regards to

the previous decision of reducing police personnel. We think that this is a correct decision


given the high unemployment rate in South Africa. However, there are several issues which

we wish to raise regarding personnel numbers.

Personnel Numbers

According to the budget report, there are 199 038 funded posts. This implies that there are

199 038 people employed in the Department. The report states that this number is expected

to increase from 198 184 in 2012/13 to 199 936 in 2013/14. It is not clear to us why the

increase will be from 198 184 and not 199 038 which is the current strength of personnel in

the Department. This raises the question of exactly, how many personnel are there in the

Department?

Also, the budget report shows that there are 37 223 posts in the Administration Programme.

This number is expected to increase from 35 713 in 2012/13 to 37 705 in 2013/14. It is not

clear to us the number of personnel in the Administration programme.

Budget on Infrastructure

A budget of over R1.1 billion was created in 2009/10 and in 2012/12 a budget of R796.6

million was created which is expected to increase to R1.1 billion over the medium term yet

the state of many of our police stations is very bad. Some police stations lack basic

infrastructure such as toilets and good working conditions. Some of these police stations

have been exposed in the media showing police officers relieving themselves in the bush.

There are many other police stations where the infrastructure is basically falling apart

because of lack of proper maintenance. In some police stations the floors have pot holes,

ceilings have been vandalised and are falling apart, there are no windows, gutters and some

buildings look like there have never been painted since there were built.

Our view is that creating a professional policing service start with creating a conducive

environment for police officers. It is impossible for anyone to be professional when there are

working in sub-human conditions. We have been to police stations where police officers

have to stand all day because there are no chairs to sit. Where there are chairs, some of the

chairs have no back rest. As a union we are asking this Committee to ensure that the budget

for infrastructure is used where it is most needed. It cannot be used to fix air conditioned

offices while police stations on the ground where actual policing takes place are dilapidated.


Budget for Police Barracks

For a long time we have often been told that the refurbishment of police buildings and

government buildings is the mandate of the Department of Public Works. As a result, police

management has always indicated that their hands are tight yet they are controlling a budget

over a billion rands on infrastructure. That said, we cannot create a professional police

service and disregard the living conditions of those that we seek to be professional. The

living conditions of police officers in barracks are a great cause for concern. Many police

barracks have never been refurbished since there were built by the Apartheid government.

While we do not claim that there is enough, our view is that the more than a billion rands that

get budgeted for infrastructure every year some of it must address this crisis.

There is a lot of other infrastructure at police stations that have been left to rot. The

infrastructure that was previously used sport and recreation is now decaying. This is

unfortunate given that given the stressful nature of police work; such infrastructure could be

put to better use by police officer to de-stress.

Budget for Training and Development

Programme Budget

Administration R37 307 000

Visible Policing R 1 083 000

Detective Services R 7 010 000

Crime Intelligence -

Protection and Security Services -

Total Budget 45 400 000

The adjusted overall budget for training and development shown on page 3 of the budget

shows a budget of R46 833 223 yet a breakdown of budget from different programmes shows

a budget of R45 400 000. The analysis of the budget shows that in the current budget there is

no budget allocated for training and development to Crime intelligence and Protection and

Security Services programmes. More than 80 percent of the budget has been allocated to the

Administration programme and 15 percent to the Detective Services. Our view is that given

the state of our policing more investment is required particularly in the Visible Policing

Programme. Visible policing is a critical component of the police given that it is also the face


of the police service. The complaints against the police are often from this Component

because of the interaction it has with the community.

Programme 2: Visible Policing

Visible Policing is the face of policing in South Africa. Within Visible Policing there is

Crime Prevention, Border Security and Specialised Intervention Units.

Sub Programmes Budget Personnel

Crime Prevention 25 696 441 93 206

Border Security 1 493 512 6 333

Specialised Interventions 2 325 176 8 044

Total Strength 29 515 129 107 583

The major concern we have in this budget is the budget allocated for training and

development in this Programme. The problem of police brutality, unnecessary use of force

and general criminal activities by the police requires major investments in this Programme.

Training is important to empower police officers and in order to shift attitudes as well as

policing culture. We think that until more investment is provided to this component we will

continue to encounter serious problem which ultimately undermine policing in South Africa.

We welcome the budget for creating victim friendly facilities but our view is that all police

stations should be friendly facilities for victims. In other words, police stations should be

friendly to provide services to victims of rape and sexual assault, Assault GPH and everyone

who uses police stations. These improvements of facilities are critical if professionalism of

our policing is to be achieved. We need to be able to offer victim a chair to sit but how can

you provide a chair when you don’t have it.

Programme 3: Detective Services

Honourable members, our considered view is also that this budget must also prioritise our

detective units. Detectives are very important in ensuring that suspected criminals are

investigated, arrested and evidence gathered presented in court. Our detectives are a window

to many victims of crime to achieving access to justice.


We have on all occasions in this committee raised the problems in the detective unit which

make it difficult for all victims of crime to achieve a sense of justice. In some cases this is as

a result of investigators overwhelmed by their work or handling too many dockets at the same

time. This is a perennial problem and this committee has a Constitutional responsibility to

ensure that all South African have access to justice.

It is not practical that one investigator can adequately solve 150 to 200 dockets.

Again, we do not ask that police officers be fast tracked to become investigators because that

will not address the problem. We do not want to come back to this committee and plead for

investigators to be trained when they fail to solve simple crimes because there was

expediency in their appointments. We are appealing to the honourable members to realise

that justice for all will remain a dream to many victims for as long as we do not address the

capacity issue in the detective services. For our organisation it is disheartening when we hear

and see cases being withdrawn or thrown out of court or dockets closed because of lack of

evidence and because the detective did not have enough time to properly investigate the

cases.

The year 2012/13 was declared the year of the Detective Services. In this year a number of

improvements including increasing human capacity was to be prioritised. According to the

budget report, there are 39 189 personnel in the Detective Programme as following.

Sub Programmes Budget Personnel

Crime Investigations 8 591 242 29 092

Criminal Record Centre 1 699 886 5 451

Forensic Science Laboratory 2 025 160 1 476

Specialised Investigations 1 226 636 2 802

Total Strength 13 542 924 38 821

Our view is that this Programme is the engine of policing in South Africa because all dockets

end up in this Programme for investigations. Clearly, this Programme is understaffed which

severely impacts on policing and pupils perception of policing. Given the work load that

detectives generally have it is no wonder that there is pressure in the police for detectives to

concentrate on priority crimes. Crimes that are less serious are not investigated and this often

results in community members not reporting less serious crimes. Worse still, the problem of


vigilantism that have been experienced in this country can be linked directly to negative

attitudes towards the police. When community trust diminishes, they are more likely to resort

to extra judicial practices such for example people taking the law into their own hands and

vigilantism.

Figures for Detectives

Honourable member, we also do not think that the figures of police personnel in the detective

services are a correct figure. In fact, the figures of personnel in this budget report are

questionable. In 2012, there were just over 26 000 police detectives and it is impossible that

in one year the system would have produced close to 3000 detectives.

Forensic Science Laboratory

The figure above shows that there are 1 476 personnel in our Science Laboratories. Given

the backlog and the time it takes to get DNA and other evidential evidence from our

laboratory urgent intervention is required to ensure that investigations are completed quicker.

There is a huge backlog of specimen that need to be processed and depending on the case,

some of these specimens end up in cardboard shelves and dustbins.

Specialised Investigations

Honourable chair, we would like to know whether the Special Investigations subcomponent

referred to in this budget report refers to the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigations

(DPCI). As part of the Detective Service the personnel of 2 802 tasked with the investigation

of serious and organised crimes is very thin given the complex nature of organised crime in

our country.

Programme 4: Crime Intelligence

Honourable members, we want to highlight the plight of this unit which has been neglected

by Police Management. In a country such as ours, crime intelligence is an integral part of

policing. In fact, most successes in our crime prevention efforts are as a result of information

provided by crime intelligence. Our concern is that the personnel in this unit lack the kind of

support required. For instance, Crime Intelligence is not allocated any training in the budget.


The last time there was an allocation was in 2009/10 when only R3 000 was allocated. We

wonder what kind of training this was that was conducted for R3 000.

We call upon honourable members of this Committee to seriously consider voting for a

budget which clearly does not support intelligence work. Also, there are 9 206 personnel in

the police services of which 3 324 are personnel responsible for intelligence operations and

5 882 are responsible for intelligence and information management. We would like to

encourage this committee to look at creating a budget that will increase capacity in the

Detective Services as well as Crime Intelligence.

Honourable members, as a committee tasked with the oversight of the Police Department you

will be well aware of the importance of crime intelligence in infiltrating the syndicates and

dealing with organised criminals. Our view is that this important unit is understaffed and

under resourced to be effective. As a organisation we are extremely concerned that our

country has become a country of choice for drug lords and syndicate bosses especially from

Eastern Europe, West and North Africa. We are concerned and honourable members must be

concerned because here with are dealing with highly sophisticated syndicates who know what

they are doing. We need our crime intelligence to be on top of the crime situation and have

the capacity to infiltrate these syndicates wherever there are within our borders.

It is also clear in our minds that the best policing approach is one that takes on board

communities. We are really concerned about the level of apathy about policing in many

communities. Criminals are taking advantage of this apathy and ensuring that the status quo

remains.

Programme 5: Protection and Security Services

We are happy with the budget and the personnel of 6 315 in this Programme. We think that

looking after dignitaries is very important as the failure to do so may plunge our country into

chaos.

However, our concern is mainly with regards to the purported merger of this unit to the

Intelligence Unit. The Intelligence is tasked with the important task of fighting crime and not

driving around dignitaries. They however fight crime using very obscure and overt methods


and we think that merging them with the Protection and Security Services will in fact weaken

their capacity to fulfil their mandate.

Other Budget Issues

There are other issues Honourable Chair that we hope to raise which we think need to be

considered in this budget. These issues may already been catered for in the budget but we

hope to highlight them so that there are dealt with.

Suspension without Pay

Honourable Chair, we have raised this issue of mostly junior police officers being suspended

without pay while senior ranking officers being suspended with full pay and benefits. This is

worrying to us because our labour law guarantees this unless there is an agreement to the

effect that employees will be suspended without any payment. We cannot have two set of

rules for senior managers and junior personnel in the same organisation.

This also brings us to the issue of legal support provided to senior police officers and lack of

legal support to junior ranking officers. We simply do not understand how this works

because how is it justified that a General who is accused of serious crimes is suspended on

full pay and his legal costs are also paid by the organisation. We believe that all police

officers regardless of rank should enjoy same treatment. Our would like to be supported as

well when they are facing criminal or misconduct charges.

Recruitment

Honourable members, our organisation believe that the issue of recruitment should be

directly linked to the issue of professionalising our police service. This means that the

screening of candidates should be tougher and those who make it into our college must earn

it. Gone are the days when people came to the police service after exhausting their preferred

options. Our recruitment processes should compete with other sectors and get the best

candidates. Most of the challenges that our police service face is as a result of recruiting

candidates who are not coming to serve our communities.

Linked to the idea of professionalising the police service is the issue of training and payment.

In order to attract the best candidates the payment must also be competitive. We cannot be

taken seriously as police officers if we have 27 000 police officers in our organisation who


are declared incompetent to carry a firearm. We cannot be respected as an organisation if we

have close to a thousand police officers facing a variety of offences from murder, rape and

other serious crimes. This requires a paradigm shift in the manner in which we seek to turn

around policing in this country. Part of the process start with our government and this

committee must investing money into training and support of our police officers. We equally

want to get to a stage where all police officers can wear their blue uniforms with pride and

honour to serve and not think about the medical aid that gets exhausted only after a few visits

and a place to stay because the majority of police officers do not qualify to access bonds

neither do they qualify to access RDP houses.

Specialised Units

Our considered view is that the issue of specialised units should never be undermined.

Internationally, police departments do create specialised units in order to fight specific

crimes. While we do not want to dwell much on the lost opportunities when an approach was

taken to disband specialised units we are happy of their introduction. Understandably, it will

be sometime before they reach their full potential.

In saying that, we want to pray before this committee to ensure that substantial budget is

created in ensuring that these specialised units have the right personnel who are adequately

resourced and equipped. We have seen FCS members attending rape crime scenes without

crime kits to collect evidence. When crucial evidence is not collected property it often results

in poor evidence and subsequently the state loosing cases. We believe that when that

happens it is travesty and denial of victim to justice.

POLMED

Honourable members, the last issue that we wish to raise is with regards to POLMED. We

raise this issue last year with this committee and we did not receive any support. As a result

our organisation has taken a decision to get our issues resolved by our courts. POLMED has

become a nightmare for the majority of police officers and we do not think that it is serving

the interest of our members. How does the scheme justify increasing the payment and benefit

of the CEO by 200 percent when the scheme is in the red financially. We have requested for

information to support this expenditure without any success.


Honourable members will recall that POLMED enjoys the monopoly of servicing all

members employed in terms of the Police Act. What concerns our members is that despite

the monopoly that POLMED enjoys, it fails to meet the expectations of its members. In fact,

we think that POLMED has become complacent and arrogant in dealing with the health care

needs of our members. This is mainly because all members Employed in terms of the Police

Act are forced to join POLMED regards of the pathetic service they receive. We think that

our members will be better serviced when there is competition in the environment. We think

that the Constitutional right of our members which is guaranteed in the Consumer Act is

being violated by this arrangement. We are confident that when this issue gets to the Court

our position will be vindicated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we would like to thank the support that we continue to receive from this

Committee. We think that more support may be provided. In particular, we would encourage

Committee to continue visiting police stations not only in the urban areas but in remote areas.

We are confident that you will be able to verify all the issues that we have raised. The face of

government when looked through the prism of policing is in crisis. However, given the

budget that gets allocated to the police each year we think that it more improvements can be

made. We are encouraged by the energy of the honourable members of this committee and

we wish you well in your oversight responsibilities of the Police Department.

Let me conclude honourable chair on a much more positive note. Once again our men and

women in Blue demonstrated to world that with resources and support they can deliver

quality policing to our people and the world. We want to congratulate our police officers for

their sterling work during the African Cup of Nations which took place in January this year.

We applaud our police officers for working tirelessly and securing this event. Indeed Africa

and the World were focused on us and we did not disappoint.

We do acknowledge that in spite of this success, our policing is at the lowest ebb with regards

to public confidence and trust and it is a challenge that we need to turn around. Within a

short space of time since the football spectacle, a number of events have taken over which

have put the police is bad light.


Finally, with your permission honourable chair and the house, I wish to humbly ask this

Committee to please stand up and observe a minute silence in remembrance of our men and

women who have died in line of duty in the previous year.

{Pause}

May their soul rest in peace and may their death continue to inspire all of us to work hard in

creating a safe and peaceful South Africa.

I thank you

South African Policing Union Submission to the Portfolio … · 2019. 7. 23. · Honourable, I am a...

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