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Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu's crime-fighting efforts: Recruit 5 500 new police officers
The Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu and National Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola outlined crime-fighting efforts on June 13 in Pretoria.
The briefing was to outline effective strategies and plans that were being continuously implemented to boost and improve the morale of dedicated and hardworking members.
Read more: Norwood CPF commends police station for fourth quarter crime stats
Mchunu noted that in the past week, 13 915 suspects were arrested for various crimes including 190 for rape and 2 041 for the possession of drugs.
'Ninety-nine illegal firearms and 82 hijacked vehicles were seized and confiscated. These are some of the successes achieved through Operation Shanela every week.'
5 500 new police officers to join the ranks
At the end of June 2025, SAPS will be advertising for the recruitment of 5 500 police trainees to join its ranks. Their training will commence between January and February 2026.
The age limit to join the police is 35 years, in line with the National Youth Policy.
For the first time in the history of the police, SAPS is introducing an online electronic recruitment system, which will allow aspiring applicants to apply online. The introduction of this online electronic recruitment system aims to avoid allegations that manual applications are being lost and misplaced in the recruitment process.
Applicants are reminded to note that joining SAPS is free; no one should ask an applicant to pay any fee to secure a place in the training programme.
There are currently 5 500 police trainees at various SAPS academies nationwide.
Capacitation and filling of vacant posts
SAPS has been hard at work in ensuring that it increases its footprint and brings services closer to the communities it serves. In the past five years, it has built 31 police stations across the country.
These include Bolobedu Police Station in Limpopo, Qhasa in the Eastern Cape and Tafelsig in the Western Cape.
In terms of capacitation, through Project 10 000, the police service increased its numbers on the ground.
In the past three years, 30 393 more boots were added on the ground.
Also read: SAPS release fourth quarter crime stats, as well as battle plans
These newly trained police officers have been deployed to various police stations and detective units; the Public Order Police (POP) unit to enhance crowd management capacity and capabilities; and the Forensic Science Laboratories to increase the processing of forensic evidence that will ultimately assist in convicting perpetrators of crime.
SAPS have decided to introduce the detective investigator scarce skills allowance as an extra incentive. This extra incentive is over and above the increase in the service allowance that SAPS operational members are currently receiving.
Crime Intelligence
In the crime intelligence environment, 300 more operatives are currently undergoing the necessary training, and upon conclusion of their work exposure training, they will be deployed to the various provinces to enhance the police's intelligence capacity.
Forensic Science Laboratory
An additional 675 Forensic Science Laboratory analysts and crime scene experts are busy with their workplace training at the station level. At the end of this period, they will also be deployed to the Local Criminal Record Centres (LCRC) to boost crime scene management expertise with the aim of expediting evidence collected at crime scenes. Others will also be deployed to capacitate forensic labs.
Public Order Police Unit
SAPS has also trained and deployed 5 000 public order police members in the past two years to enhance and capacitate crowd control management capabilities across the country.
10111 Call Centres
From the newly trained police officers, 575 call centre operators have been trained and deployed to serve as call takers at the police's 10111 call centres across the country. This has assisted the service in ensuring a rapid response to crime-related emergencies.
Station Commanders
To ensure increased productivity and service delivery at the station level, SAPS has filled 150 station commanders' positions at various police stations. These include stations in the four provinces that experience high crime levels, such as Gauteng, Western and Eastern Cape and KZN.
SAPS has also introduced a mandatory station commanders' induction course over and above the station management learning programme for all newly appointed station commanders.
Scarce skills allowance for high-risk units
As a way of retaining skills and talent within SAPS' high-risk environments, it is introducing a scarce skills allowance for the National Intervention Unit (NIU).
The NIU is a unit within the SAPS that responds mainly to high-risk incidents such as cash-in-transit armed robberies and ATM bombings.
SAPS will be increasing the scarce skills allowance for the Counter Assault Team (CAT). CAT members also respond to high-risk operations and situations.
Last year, the management of SAPS aligned the ranks of the Special Task Force (STF) unit to the entry-level of Warrant Officer rank and also increased their scarce skills allowance as a retention strategy.
Scarce skills for other environments
Among other environments that will receive a scarce skills allowance are the following:
Hostage negotiators
SAPS divers
Airborne Law Enforcement Officers
Coastal skippers
Vessel handlers who are responsible for conducting inspections on vessels that come into the country at the country's seaports
Resources
SAPS currently have a fleet of more than 43 000 vehicles in all nine provinces. A budget has been set aside to procure more vehicles for provinces with a focus on the operational environments.
The priority will go to police stations and units to enhance police visibility and police response.
SAPS is also focusing on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of its garages to improve and enhance the turnaround time of repairs and servicing of its vehicles. More artisans and mechanics are being employed at these garages.
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