DA welcomes move to rehire police officers and end moratorium on reservists 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the announcement that former senior officers in the South African Police Service (SAPS) will be allowed to re-enlist in the SAPS, and also that the moratorium on the hiring of new reservists has been lifted (see here).

These were two daft policing policies which the DA stringently opposed, and which have blatantly set South Africa back years in our combating of crime.

In recent years I have seen case after case of police officers withdrawing from the police service, then asking to be rehired, but being blocked from doing so. Officers often leave the service for reasons that are personal and have no bearing on their loyalty or dedication to the SAPS; in these cases, there is no comprehensible reason they should be blocked from re-entering the SAPS. Likewise, the nonsensical policy of blocking new reservist applicants has been a cause of great concern to many safety experts, as well as a source of confusion for those who are willing to offer up their services to the police.

Over the last half a decade, the ANC government has attempted to shift the hiring of new officers away from reservists and senior ex-officers. This means that although police numbers have risen steadily, what we see in the Police Service is a pervasive level of inexperience, and increasing ‘juniorisation'. It is true that we need even higher levels of police officers - at present we barely meet most of the international norms, which themselves would be insufficient because of the enormous case loads our officers are expected to take on. At the same time, simply turning a blind eye to the quality of officers employed, and the training they are provided, is obviously reprehensible. The fact is we need to increase both the size and the ability of our Police Service.

Credit where credit is due though. Commissioner Cele appears to be responsible for taking this action, and if this is the case I believe he has made a really excellent decision for our Police Service. It will have significant, positive ramifications, in terms of up-skilling the ranks of our Police Service. Many stations rely heavily on reservists, and many former police officers, who have moved out of the SAPS in the last few years, but who want to return, can make a valuable contribution to our crime fighting efforts.

We trust the move to allow re-enlisting will not be a repetition of the debacle under Minister Nqakula, where upon announcing an end to the re-enlistment policy, many hundreds of applicants were still turned away based on all number of fatuous technicalities.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of police, January 17 2010

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