Pretoria - The South African Police Service (SAPS) management has announced the finalisation of various interventions to boost the morale in the SAPS.
The various improvements include re-grading of lower level posts, salary adjustments, re-enlistment of former members and the recruitment of new members to key positions.
Speaking to the media in Pretoria on Tuesday, Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Johannes Khomotso Phahlane said a settlement agreement has been concluded with trade union Solidarity which allows the release of the interdicted promotion of 802 Lieutenants and 513 Majors, which totals to the promotion of 1315 personnel.
Salaries will be adjusted during February 2016.
“Thirty seven members who have been promoted in the meantime will remain in their current posts but will be backdated to 1 April 2013. [A total of] 291 members have also qualified for promotion but have since left the service and will be considered separately,” said Phahlane.
Regarding the re-grading of posts, Phahlane announced that during a first phase, five categories of clerks which includes accounting clerks; provisioning administration clerks; human resource clerks; administration clerks and registration clerks as well as typists were re-graded.
The second phase will see the regrading of 3502 employees in various fields such as general workers, cleaners, switchboard operators and security officers.
In total, 19138 employees benefitted from this process.
A process is underway to extend the benefits to occupations such as auxiliary services officers, tradesman, messengers, food services aids and library assistants during the 2016/2017 financial year. The re-grading of these occupations was not covered in the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) mandate, said Phahlane, adding that the DPSA has however already been approached and a business case has been registered to commence with the process of job evaluation for such occupations.
The SAPS management has also commenced with the promotion process which will commence during January 2016 with the internal advertising of more than 5000 posts on various ranks and levels.
This is planned to conclude the process during March 2016 with a promotion date of 1 April 2016.
SAPS has also re-enlisted former members with no criminal records and no pending criminal cases against them and with a commendable track record of good performance. The posts were advertised in June 2015 which saw 3152 applications received, for the allocated 1105 posts.
“Up to now the first batch, totalling 584 former members have been approved for reenlistment. Of this number 330 will be deployed to the visible policing environment, 200 to detectives and the last 54 to the support environment.”
The recruitment of 5000 new police officers has already been advertised to increase capacity especially at police stations. Training of these new police officers will commence during February and March 2016, said Phahlane.
“Posts for 500 additional forensic analysts were advertised during September 2015. Planned to make appointments in February / March 2016,” he said.
For the enlistment of Public Service Act personnel 1256 posts were advertised - of which 1000 have been enlisted.
Phahlane the promotions are part of efforts to ensure that the integrity of the South African Police Service is restored, re-claim the badge while promoting proactive policing as part of going Back to Basics of Policing approach.
“The approach places the wellness of police officers as a top priority. It seeks to ensure that the morale of the men and women in blue is lifted so that their primary preoccupation remains crime fighting,” he said adding that it also puts an emphasis on police visibility across all public spaces. -SAnews.gov.za
