Pretoria -The South African Police Services (SAPS) is on a nationwide recruitment drive to increase the number of police officials to 190 000 ahead of the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup.
On Thursday, the Office of the National Commissioner said all provinces would be embarking on recruitment drives and the public would be notified through the media and advertisements from this coming weekend.
"We are aiming to recruit about 11 300 every financial year," said Senior Superintendent Lindela Mashigo, adding that there was a serious need to increase the numbers in the police service.
"It's not a question of a shortage, it's a question of not having them at all."
He said the police were hoping to target all groups as well as women. "If you go to our training colleges now, you'd find that the majority, about 99.9, if not 100 percent of trainees are exclusively African."
Senior Superintendent Mashigo said there was a perception that the SAPS only employed uniformed officers who ran after criminals and arrested them, despite exhibitions at schools and during government izimbizos.
"They don't know that we have professions. We have DNA analysts, aviation technicians, people to keep our fixed-wing aircraft and choppers in good working order."
To meet the requirement for the posts, candidates must have a matric certificate, driver's license and be between the ages of 18 and 35 as well as have at least an understanding of the two local languages and no criminal record.
Once selected, candidates will be sent on a training course in June. Training will include six months of theoretical training and six months of practical work in various police stations in the province.
North West provincial police spokesperson Superintendent Lesego Metsi said the police hoped to recruit about 358 new members to help tackle crime in the province.
He said they had been recruiting new members since the announcement of the plan three years ago and this year they were going to recruit 358 new police members.
"We are going to start with the recruitment by advertising this coming weekend and we would like to advise all those unemployed matriculants in the province to apply for the posts when advertised."
Since 2004, over 40 000 entry level Constables have been trained and recruited into the SAPS. By the end of the year, this figure is expected to increase to 193 000.
Safety concerns are a priority prior to the soccer events and government has been spending millions in increasing capacity and employing the latest technologies, such as procuring special crowd control equipment, including unmanned surveillance aircraft, helicopters and mobile cameras, among others, which are used for the monitoring of big events.
Meanwhile, the SAPS will celebrate National Police Day on 27 January this year. The day is held annually to honour officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty and to also honour those who have done their best to ensure that high profile criminals are put behind bars.
