Action in sight for police quarters

DEPUTY Minister of Police Makhotso Sotyu berated the state of the barracks housing police officers in Gugulethu, comparing their living quarters to “jail”.

This came after Sotyu, along with national head of the SAPS Employee Health and Wellness Programme, Major-General Mzwandile Mzamane, provincial police commissioner general Arno Lamoer and other police officials inspected the Gugulethu barracks yesterday.

Visibly upset after a short walkabout, Sotyu told Lamoer that management did not care about the lives of the officers living there.

“You can’t say that people living here are supposed to guard our lives 24/7. This place is dirty, it is not being maintained. I’m told there is no security here, and everyone can just walk in and out here. It’s a serious concern.

“There is no way that they can be able to work if they think of coming back to a place like this,” she said.

Sotyu said she would sit down with management and then come up with a strategy to deal with the state of the barracks.

Lamoer said the area was currently undergoing maintenance and renovation.

Shortly before the visit, Terence Govender, of the Metropolitan Health’s wellness programme, said healthscreening results show that 75.9 percent of the officers screened were overweight, 46.8 percent had high blood pressure and 20.3 percent had high cholesterol.

In the Western Cape, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and psychological well-being ranked in the top five health risks.

“When it comes to their well-being, their health, you can’t have police with 76 percent obesity, cholesterol and

What I have observed, I think they are not getting enough support from the police management

high blood pressure. It means we need to do something as leadership,” Sotyu said.

Sotyu added that the health and wellness programme, rolled out four years ago, was slowly making headway to combat these issues.

“What I have observed, I think they are not getting enough support from the police management, and that’s what needs to be addressed. If we want them to fight crime effectively, they need to be healthy.”

Sotyu commented that police may have been tempted to make extra money selling illegal substances, owing to a low remuneration.

“The salaries they are getting, we are working on that. In some instances, they are not consuming the drugs – they become part of the people who are selling, to get money.”

Lamoer said there were 526 attacks on officers from April 2014 to February this year. Ten died in the line of duty.

“The conditions that our members must go out and attend to complaints and to cases, it has a serious impact on our members. The same police officers that saw their colleague get killed must go back into the same community and serve,” he said.