40% of Gauteng cops can’t drive
April 5 2013 at 09:25am
By LOUISE FLANAGAN
By LOUISE FLANAGAN
Johannesburg - Nearly 40 percent of
Gauteng police don’t have driving licences and the SAPS management say they
don’t need to drive.
Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko
told the Gauteng Legislature that 11 611 Gauteng SAPS operational members do
not have driving licences, compared to 18 872 who do.
The ranks and concomitant number of
those without licences are:
* 5421 constables
* 1295 sergeants
* 3318 warrant officers
* 1098 captains
* 352 lieutenant colonels
* 127 colonels.
Mazibuko said 60 percent of those
without licences were functional members working outside police stations as
crew on response and sector vehicles, client service centres, as guards at cells
and courts, at roadblocks and as domestic violence co-ordinators.
DA Gauteng provincial leader John
Moodey , who asked the question in the legislature, on Thursday said it was “an
explicit requirement for employment under the SAPS Act” to have a valid driving
licence.
Department of Community Safety
spokesman Thapelo Moiloa said that the members without licences were deployed
as Mazibuko had described.
“However, it is a worrying factor
(that) in the event that they are requested to drive attending to scenes of
crime, this would compromise the safety of other drivers on Gauteng roads,”
said Moiloa.
SAPS Gauteng provincial office said
police no longer required licences.
“Since 2007, the SAPS nationally began
to relax the mandatory requirement for a licence from applicants for employment
in the SAPS.
“In 2009, the licence requirement was
then removed as a requirement for recruits as an entry-level constable,” said
Colonel Noxolo Kweza.
“The perception that functional members
who do not have driving licences are performing administrative duties or ‘desk
jobs’ is incorrect. As operational members perform their duties outside, they
constantly need assistance from support members.”
louise.flanagan@inl.co.za
The Star
