OVERLOOKED
POLICE Minister Bheki Cele yesterday said the promotions process for officers would be reviewed.
Cele was speaking to the media following the gathering of more than 1500 police station heads and commanders from around the country in Pretoria.
The meeting was held in a bid to avert a looming national police strike due to officers being upset about how promotions had been handled.
Cele said the concerns raised by the station commanders revolved around the preferential treatment of specialist units regarding promotions.
“The biggest bone of contention was that some junior officers who were attached to special units jumped from being constables to warrant officers if they were in the Tactical Response Team, or sergeants if they were in the National Intervention Unit.”
Yesterday he said that despite assurances of promotions being processed, they were informed that members felt the process was taking too long.
Cele said the police management had agreed to review the process with stakeholders and the people affected the most.
Once the review was completed, Cele said they would be able to accurately give officers proper time frames, costs and feasibility assessments.
“Because at the end of the day we don’t want to make promises that we
Officers are pitching up for work, but aren’t really doing very much. Morale is very low.
Anonymous police officer
can’t keep, so rather have us gather advice on the way forward,” he said.
In Durban yesterday, hundreds of officers gathered at Gugu Dlamini Park to sign a petition demanding fair and equal promotions for all police officers.
For the past two weeks police officers have embarked on a go-slow over the promotions issue.
At the gathering, initiated by a newly formed union, the South African Police and Allied Workers Union (Sapawu), officials aired their grievances.
Sapawu spokesperson Constable Lie Mchunu said officers were frustrated with what was going on and that if action was not taken soon, many would take their grievances to the streets.
Many of the police officers who spoke to The Mercury, anonymously, said they were fed up with being overlooked.
“At our station we have a cadet who can barely fill out paperwork, yet he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He only came to the station in November last year. His training is not even complete and he will go back to college next year, yet he has been promoted,” one officer said.
He said he knew of a captain within the force who had served as a captain for the past 20 years.
“The morale at the station is very low. Officers are just pitching up for work but are not really doing much,” the officer said.
Cele added that since the rumblings of a strike began, they had picked up a pattern of a high number of officers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape not pitching up for their duties and bringing in sick notes.
He said they were reviewing the sick notes.
According to Cele, between 100 and 120 sick notes were received from KwaZulu-Natal, and a “worrying” 400 in Western Cape.
Popcru Provincial Secretary Nthabeleng Molefe said the matter was not about promotions but about implementing an agreement signed in December last year that evaluated jobs within the force.