AfriForum approaches court to compel SAPS to make use of available resources
7 November 2018
Although the SAPS pointed out on numerous occasions that it did not have the manpower and therefore ability to execute its constitutional mandate, it still refuses to use available resources such as reservists for support.
Reservists who do not complete their annual competency exercises, will forfeit their status as active reservists and therefore their competence to support the SAPS. It is the SAPS’s duty to ensure that the status is retained.
AfriForum brought an application in the Northern Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to compel the SAPS to ensure that reservists in Kameeldrift complete their competency exercises according to applicable legislation, including the Firearms Control Act (Act 60 of 2000) and the SAPS’s National Instructive 3 of 2014. If the court application is granted, the SAPS will once again have access to additional members to address the manpower shortage.
“It is frustrating that the SAPS is concealing its inability to fight crime effectively with the argument that it does not have sufficient manpower, yet untapped resources exist that the SAPS simply refuses to use,” says Marnus Kamfer, AfriForum’s Legal and Risk Manager for Community Safety.