Staff shortages compel overtime
DURBAN metro police head of operations Sibonelo Mchunu has defended a more than R65 million overtime bill accumulated by the police, citing staff shortages and increased responsibilities.
In a budget report for December 31, 2021, presented before a council meeting last week, it was revealed that the ethekwini Municipality had spent R66.5m on overtime for the metro police.
The report also projected that the City would have forked out R160m by the end of the current financial year, June, should things remain the same.
While opposition parties in council called for an investigation to find out if the system was being abused, Mchunu said it was “impossible” for the metro police to function without overtime because they did not have enough staff.
In an interview with the Sunday Tribune this week, Mchunu painted a bleak picture of the understaffed unit, meant to maintain law and order in the city.
While the deputy commissioner conceded that there had been abuse in some instances, he said they could not reduce the bill as the unit was hugely compromised.
“When the metro police unit was formed in the early 2000s there was a
projection of having 5 000 police on the ground by 2010. We have never achieved that target up until today, while the population and our areas have grown.
“Currently, we have about 1 700 metro police to cover all areas and enforce the by-laws. It has become a challenge to be all over the place with limited members. To keep going, members need to work overtime which translates to irregular expenditure,” he said.
The duties of metro police had tripled compared to 10 years ago, said Mchunu.
“There are constant violent public
protests that require us to respond, the by-laws and traffic laws must be enforced.
“In some instances, metro police stand in as bodyguards, yet we do not even have half of the number that was projected over a decade ago,” he said.
The City had not been able to recruit staff because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Mchunu said they were planning to recruit 200 people this year, and would put forward a proposal to the council to thereafter recruit 100 each year.
He said the City needed more than 5 000 police to cover all the ground with minimal overtime. Asked about consequence management for the police who had been found to have abused overtime, he said some police had been charged and disciplined.
“There are people who would always abuse the system when there is an opportunity to do so, but we have been acting on that. However, I do not think that is a solution to the problem that we have. We have proposed smart policing to the council that would cost about R150m to introduce. This will be technology-based policing that will assist to monitor many places. The criminals are using the latest technology, including cars. I think we need to adapt for effective policing. Given the members deficit, having smart policing will cover many areas, especially with by-law and traffic law enforcement,” he said.
Mchunu also revealed that the metro police was unable to generate revenue through traffic fines because of a shortage of staff.
“Our revenue collection has declined over the years. I have proposed to the council that we increase the fines. Offenders must be the ones footing the bill so that we avoid using ratepayers’ money. But it is not within our powers to implement that, we need the political will,” he said.