Four out of ten Gauteng cops can’t drive
5 April 2013 8:41
Nearly 40% of Gauteng
police do not have drivers’ licences.
Community safety MEC Faith
Mazibuko told the Gauteng Legislature that 11 611 SA Police Service (SAPS)
operational members in the province did not have drivers’ licences, compared to
18 872 who did, The Star reported today.
Mazibuko said 60% 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.
Democratic Alliance Gauteng
provincial leader John Moody, who asked the question in the legislature, 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 members were deployed as Mazibuko said.
“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,”
Moiloa told the newspaper.
SAPS Gauteng 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,” Colonel Nxolo Kweza was quoted as
saying.
“In 2009, the licence
requirement was then removed as a requirement for recruits as an entry-level
constable.”
- Sapa
