More than 6 000 junior and senior police officers in KwaZulu-Natal do not have driving licences.
|||Durban - More than 6 000 junior and senior police officers in KwaZulu-Natal do not have driving licences.
Provincial statistics show that 2 896 constables, 614 sergeants, 2 896 warrant officers, 888 captains, 256 lieutenant colonels and 103 colonels were not licensed drivers.
In reply to a parliamentary question by DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said 16 584 police officers nationally did not have licences.
However, Mthethwa’s figure does not tally with the total of 18 304 police without licences in KZN and Gauteng, revealed following a question in the provincial legislatures.
Barnard accused Mthethwa of misleading Parliament and described it as a “major offence”.
In a statement yesterday, Barnard said Mthethwa needed to explain the discrepancy.
The legislature figures show that 18 304 police officers - almost 2 000 more than the national total – were without licenses in KZN (6 693) and Gauteng (11 611).
Said Barnard: “The difference in the national and provincial figures raises concerns about the credibility of the minister’s reply.”
She said it also led to questions about possible manipulation of information to avoid further political embarrassment “for a department besieged by one public relations disaster after the other”.
“Police officers are not meant to sit behind desks while criminals terrorise the streets and neighbourhoods of our country. A well trained, properly equipped and highly mobile provincial police service is absolutely critical to tackle crime.”
She said in 2010, former National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele had told the police portfolio committee they were trying to “relax” the driving licence requirement, despite it being an explicit requirement for employment under the SAPS Act.
“It is clear the extent and impact of this controversial decision is greater than we were previously told.”
She added police were wasting millions of rand sending officers for repeat driving tests.
“Consultants are hired at huge cost and policemen and women are failing over and over again. This should be a prerequisite of the job. In that way we will ensure quality recruits and not jobs for pals.”
Mthethwa’s spokesman, Zweli Mnisi, said the DA’s assertion that thousands of Gauteng police officers not having driving licences hampered crime fighting was a “narrow analysis which must be corrected”.
“Within SAPS there are different units whose core functions go beyond possession of a driving licence,” he said.
“We have forensic analysts, detectives and even crime analysts who need to possess key competencies to be able to perform and execute their tasks.”
Mnisi said the police nationally began to relax the requirement in 2007.
Police officers without licences were being used as crew in response vehicles while others are posted to service centres and other duties which did not require them to drive.
In Gauteng, sector policing was introduced which involved deploying two police cars in each sector.
“We challenge the DA to prove us wrong because all these sector vehicles are driven by members who possess driving licences and, for the record, they can drive efficiently,” said Mnisi.
“We can also emphasise that with the introduction of sector policing, many communities continue to phone these sector vehicles when they need assistance, and this has led to significant crime reduction.”
He said the ministry had been informed that in Gauteng, the system used to record when a person’s driving licence expired, and registered those persons as then not having a licence – and there were many such cases.
Police management had now been tasked with correcting this anomaly.
Mnisi said the DA was creating hype unnecessarily and giving a false impression, as though the police’s crime-fighting efforts had been hampered.
Co-ordinated planning inroads were being made, especially when dealing with serious and violent crimes.
Daily News