DA wants Mthethwa to explain cops’ drivers licenses
April 7 2013 at 02:12pm
By SAPA
By SAPA
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Johannesburg - Police Minister Nathi
Mthethwa must explain why national figures of police officers without drivers
licenses differ from those given by the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal legislatures,
the DA said on Sunday.
“The difference in the national and
provincial figures raises concerns about the credibility of the minister’s
reply,” Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard said in a statement.
“It also leads to questions about
possible manipulation of information to avoid further political embarrassment
for a department besieged by one PR disaster after the other.”
Kohler-Barnard said the minister,
replying to a parliamentary question, stated that 16 584 police officers
nationally did not have drivers licences.
This is in comparison to the stated 18
304 police officers without a licence in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, following
questions by the DA in both legislatures.
“Police officers are not meant to sit
behind desks while criminals terrorise the streets and neighbourhoods of our
country,” said Kohler-Barnard.
“A well trained, properly equipped and
highly mobile provincial police service is absolutely critical to tackle
crime.”
She said former national police commissioner
Bheki Cele told Parliament's police portfolio committee in 2010 that police
were trying to relax the requirement a police officer must have a drivers
licence.
Gauteng police leadership had now
admitted that this requirement began being relaxed in 2007, and then removed as
a requirement for recruits as an entry-level constable in 2009.
“This admission, which has never been
made to the police portfolio committee, is astounding,” said Kohler-Barnard.
“Minister Mthethwa must appear in
Parliament to answer for the discrepancy in these figures.”
Mthethwa's spokesman Zweli Mnisi said
the DA's assertion that thousands of Gauteng police officers not having drivers
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 drivers 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 police nationally began to
relax the requirement in 2007.
Police officers without licences were
being used as crew members in response vehicles while others are posted to
service centres and other duties which do 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 drivers
licenses 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 drivers licence
expires registered those persons as then not having a licence, of which there
were many such cases.
Police management had now been tasked
with correcting this anomaly.
“It is not a scientific challenge but a
systemic one, which simply requires an integrated approach so that all the
details are regularly and correctly updated,” he said.
Mnisi said the DA were creating hype
unnecessarily and giving a false impression, as though police's crime-fighting
efforts have been hampered.
Co-ordinated planning inroads were
being made, especially when dealing with serious and violent crimes. - Sapa
