National Commissioner Riah Phiyega: Address on promotions in SAPS
30 September 2015
Good afternoon colleagues and members of the media,
We called this briefing to share with you some of the work we are doing to keep our men and women in blue motivated as well as our endeavours to meet capacity challenges of dealing with the core function of fighting crime.
We have introduced a number of measures, some of which will see more than 7000 constables and sergeants being promoted to the next ranks in the current financial year. A further R150 million will be set aside for the next financial year to promote another 7000 (constables and sergeants) who will be having 11 years of service at the time of promotion.
After successfully concluding a collective agreement in the safety and security sectoral bargain council, the human resources management division of the SAPS put measures, money and resources in place in order to put all of these processes in place.
As a start SAPS has made available R150 million for the grade progression of 3761 constables to sergeants and 3614 sergeants to warrant officers, the criteria being that these personnel should have been in their current ranks for 11 years and more.
Furthermore another 87 514 employees who, among them, include the police act and public service act employees, will receive pay progressions. In addition to the 7% annual cost of living increase (which they received early this financial year), pay progression will be 4% for police act employees and 1, 5% for public service personnel (bringing annual increase to 11% and 8,5% respectively). For the realisation of this progression exercise, which will kick in on October 2015, the SAPS has set aside R580 million for this financial year.
We believe that these interventions will address most of promotion-related issues, some of which have taken longer than necessary as we are being taken to courts every now and then, thus delaying the implementation thereof.
The SAPS has been looking forward to addressing employees qualifying for major and lieutenant ranks. But owing to legal challenges by Solidarity, the SAPS has no choice but to wait until the court process has run its course.
Maintaining an employment equity plan is not an easy task, as anyone familiar with these dynamics may attest. It is more than about the numbers but about people and redressing past imbalances in a fair manner. It is in this context that we are always accused of being Anti-White members. That is not true and the people making these claims are fully aware as the statistics are there for all to see and extrapolate.
Contrary to this unfounded accusations the SAPS values the contributions of all racial groupings and we have no intention of deviating from this way of doing things. We would like to keep in line with the employment equity plan of a police service that is racially, culturally and gender representative as possible in line with area-specific racial demographics.
It is unfortunate that because of the "winner takes all" approach by Solidarity, 1611 promotional posts are frozen. We are stuck and cannot move forward because of this. So far, they have lost their case in the labour but instead of letting up for the greater good, they are pressing on by appealing. Had Solidarity not interdicted us, we would have seen the promotion of 111 Whites, 21 Indians, 117 coloureds and 1362 Africans.
However, we remain determined to promote these members, so much so that as much as R300 million has been ring-fenced for this purpose in this financial year. All of these will be subject to the outcome of the court challenge. All legal avenues, include external independent legal advice, are being pursued.
To further increase capacity within the service, the SAPS is proud to announce the appointment of a chief financial officer at the level of a Lieutenant General, Mr Phalaphala Avhashoni Ramikosi. His appointment is with effect from 1 October 2015.
Mr Ramikosi is in possession of Bachelor of Commerce degree, a Bachelor Honours in Accounting Science and in addition also has a Higher Diploma in Law and a Higher Diploma in International Tax Law. He is furthermore registered as a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, CA (SA).
He was previously appointed at Price Waterhouse & Cooper, Rand Investment Bank, Standard Bank, South African Revenue Service and is currently a Director (Head of Business Consulting) at Sekelaxabiso.
We also have a total of 1667 promotions from lower ranks to middle management and another 47 appointments and promotions in the senior management brackets.
A total of 6256 police act and public service recruitment is currently underway, while 3125 applications have been received for our re-enlistment invitations. From the re-enlistment applications we are hoping to hire about 1000 of the applicants.
In conclusion, I would like to state yet again that our people work extremely hard and get very little recognition for their perseverance and get success where others had failed. It is with this in mind that we took a decision, to promote members of the Special Task team investigating Rodavan Krejcir.
They will all be moved one rank up. Given where we are with the investigation, we can say with confidence that Krejcir is going to spend time behind bars. He knows it and that is why he is trying to escape. So, to the team, well done and congratulations.
I thank you.
Issued by the SAPS, 30 September 2015
