6 000 KZN police not licensed to drive
January 18 2013 at 11:31am
By SIHLE MLAMBO
By SIHLE MLAMBO
Almost three out of every 10 police
officers in KwaZulu-Natal are unable to take part in car chases to catch
criminals because they do not have a valid driving licence.
This was revealed by MEC for Transport
Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, in a parliamentary response to
questions posed by the DA.
The response paints a grim picture – 6
693 of the province’s 21 525 police officers are carrying out law enforcement
without driving licences.
The MEC’s response showed that the
number of police officials who did not have driving licences included those of
high rank, such as colonels and majors.
Mchunu provided the following figures:
* Four in every 10 colonels are not
authorised to drive on South African roads (103 out of 249 colonels do not have
a driving licence).
* Three in every 10 majors and
lieutenant-generals are not authorised to drive on roads (256 out of 813 of
them do not have driving licences).
* A third of lieutenants and captains
are not authorised to drive on roads (888 out of 2 640 do not have a driving
licence).
* Three in every 10 warrant officers
are not authorised to drive on roads (1 920 out of 6 083 warrant officers do
not have a driving licence).
* Nearly three in 10 sergeants are not
authorised to drive on roads (614 out of 2 123 with this rank do not have
driving licences).
* Three in 10 constables are not
authorised to drive on roads (2 896 out of 9 547 constables do not have a
driving licence).
Provincial transport spokesman, Kwanele
Ncalane, said the department would respond once the figures had been updated at
the end of this month.
The figure was accurate until November
30 last year.
Violence monitor and researcher, Mary
de Haas, said the updated figure would not be too different.
She called on police to explain why
they were recruiting so many people without licences and said it was a concern.
She said the number of constables who
were recruited without licences was “ridiculous”.
“That suggests that they have been
recruiting young people without driver’s licences. We have thousands of
matriculants who have licences who would want to be police officers,” she said.
De Haas suggested that having a driving
licence for a minimum of six months should be a requirement for recruitment.
She said the figure for senior ranking
police officers without driving licences was alarming, and she questioned how
the officers had been promoted in the first place.
“I could understand if it was a small
number, but 30 percent (referring to the total of 6 693) seems quite excessive.
It must surely impact on service. What happens when people with licences are
off duty, or if they are sick? Who will respond to the call?” she asked.
De Haas added that just on Thursday,
she received a call informing her that police had taken more than three hours
to report to a woman who had been raped in a rural area. She said not having a
driver, or a shortage of working vehicles, could be a reason.
She said bicycles in urban areas and
horses in rural areas could be viable options of helping to increase the
effectiveness of the police force.
The DA’s Sizwe Mchunu said that while
his party acknowledged that not all functions within the South African Police
Service necessarily required staff to have a driving licence, it was a valuable
life skill.
“The perception among South Africans is
that police officers would have driving licences,” he said.
The leader said it was a major concern
that “on the ground” policemen such as constables and sergeants who were
usually involved in arrests and crime scenes were causing an unnecessary burden
of needing to be transported by other police officers.
Mchunu said he would write to the
provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, seeking answers
and asking about steps the police had taken to address the problem.
Police spokesman Colonel Vincent Mdunge
said police had “sufficient capacity in terms of official drivers”.
The issue of driving licences, he said,
“has no negative influence on the efficiency of our workforce”.
He felt there was a sufficient pool of
drivers daily on each shift.
