Car shortage grounds traffic cops
Budget cuts mean many Gauteng officers are on full pay for doing nothing
Athird of the 600-strong Gauteng traffic police unit — 200 officers — are staying home on full pay because there aren’t enough patrol cars for them to do their jobs.
“Since April we’ve been sitting at home but I still get full pay — I’m getting about R20 000 a month for nothing,” said one of the supervisors in Johannesburg, who did not wish to be named. “When we get to head office there are not enough cars and sometimes we travel five in one car just to complete a patrol. In my region, 22 of the 67 [officers] haven’t been to work or only work two days a week.”
The unit is managed by the provincial community safety department and tasked with policing violations on the roads. The department has 12 regions across Gauteng’s three metros and other areas — and just over 100 vehicles to carry out its mandate.
MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane refused to answer a list of 12 questions from the Mail & Guardian about the state of the Gauteng traffic police. She said the shortage of vehicles was an “operational matter” that could not be discussed in public.
In the past nine months, NkosiMalobane approved spending cuts. This included buying fewer cars, barely visible branding on police vehicles and fewer blue lights.
A limit has also been placed on the number of overtime hours officers are allowed to work.
Last month, the head of the provincial community safety department, Stephen Podile, cancelled the subsistence allowance and travel payments of between R15 and R30 a shift.
All these cuts have demoralised the traffic officers, who say the unit is ill-prepared for the festive season, the most dangerous period on South Africa’s roads.
“This department is falling apart. They keep cutting equipment,” said an officer from the Themba region in Pretoria West. “The new cars are plain white, some with no blue lights. How can they [the public] take us seriously during festive season policing? It’s a joke. The only consistent thing is our salary payments.”
Things came to a head last month, when officers took their complaints to the Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (Popcru) in Germiston.
“Comrades, we are travelling five in a car. If an accident happens many police lives will be lost,” bellowed Bheki Nkambule, a Popcru shop steward who addressed the union meeting.
“From January they’ve been promising us a meeting with the chief financial officer but to date there’s nothing … If a car breaks down you must know you’re going to sit at home. They take away our subsidies and can’t even give us fresh uniforms, only socks!”
Bongi Masilela, another senior officer, called on Popcru to hold the MEC accountable by lobbying the ANC. “The very same leader who is frustrating us is deployed by the ANC,” she said.
A supervisor in one of regions on Gauteng’s East Rand told the Mail & Guardian that as many as 22 of the 70 officers under his command were unable to work because there were not enough cars.
The situation has affected officers to such an extent that at times they fail to pitch for work. More than 20 officers stationed in Wadeville in Ekurhuleni have bad attendance records but no disciplinary action has been taken against them.
A new recruit said: “My chief director lives down the road from me and I only graduated in July to join this team. I usually get a lift to work from him but last week I didn’t attend on Thursday and Friday because he knows there’s no patrol cars to use.”
Officers in the special patrols bike unit have also lodged a complaint with their union representatives about the limit placed on overtime pay, saying their jobs included escorting politicians after working hours — something that happened regularly.
Popcru Gauteng last month called an urgent meeting with NkosiMalobane. The meeting, which was scheduled for the end of September, has yet to take place.
A lower-ranking shop steward says more drastic action is needed. “People have been staying at home for up to four months, only coming in for a few days. Now we want to take it to the streets with a march to the Gauteng legislature against that MEC [Nkosi-Malobane],” says Nyembezi Khumalo.
Popcru leaders have promised the officers that their complaints will be addressed, including by securing the meeting with Nkosi-Malobane and lodging a complaint with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) over subsistence allowance and travel payments cuts.
“We urged [officers] to keep submitting invoice slips for what would normally be subsistence allowance and travel payments and, if we win that case, there will be a backdated payout,” said Khumalo.
A CCMA hearing, to hear the union’s demand that outstanding 2014 bonus and performance payments be made immediately, has been postponed until November.