The South African Policing Union (SAPU) has rejected Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s decision for two critical units within the South African police service (SAPS) to be disbanded. Briefing parliament’s Joint Sitting of Portfolio Committees on Police and on Agriculture, Mchunu said the two are the Inspectorate and Police Killing Units, and their resources in terms of funds and personnel will be redirected where their much needed.
“We said the National Police Commissioner (General Fannie Masemola) must look at phasing out or even disbanding this unit called Inspectorate, so that we release funds and that capacity to some of these priorities that are much more on the frontline in terms of what we need to do to give security and safety services to police,” said Mchunu.
The minister sought to emphasize that government is aware about the importance of two units, particularly the police Killings Unit.
“Again, it’s a question of optimising because of the (rather than opening gaps) demands on services that we have.Now I just want us to work together in that regard that as more demands come on what SAPS need to do and do well.We need to cut somewhere so that we prioritise those things that are seen to be a priority. There’s no other way that we know of that we can do this successfully,” explained the minister.
Meanwhile, SAPU’s national spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale said that the union was not consulted and believe the decision was ill-considered.
“We have been on record talking about the issue of addressing the high level of murder in this country.Our position which was clear to say we need to have the re-establishment of specialised unit which include murder and robbery. So, if really resources can be beefed-up, moreover, to look at the issue of the high level of murder, but unfortunately, we were not consulted about this decision,” remarked Thobakgale.
The union said that it is more concerned particularly because over 30 police officers have already been killed in the country since January this year.
