Unions and police reach restructuring deal to see more boots on the ground
Unions have given the South African Police Service (Saps) the green light to embark on its restructuring programme.
The initiative is intended to cut costs within the service, address a top-heavy structure, and to put more boots on the ground.
In a statement on Sunday, Saps said that it had entered into a collective agreement with the unions at the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Councils.
The agreement with the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and the South African Policing Union (Sapu) was made on 30 November.
As part of the process, the police service has already started to offer early retirement packages to employees aged 55 and older.
In addition, it will reduce the four current Deputy National Commissioners to three and rationalize the current thirteen divisions to 10.
Popru welcomed the agreement while Sapu said the restructuring process would see the service get rid of its “bloated” top-level and the re-establishment of specialized units to address specific crimes.
SAPS RESTRUCTURING AGREEMENT SIGNED FOR THE PERIOD 2020-2021 TO 2023-2024
Over the past 5 years SAPS went through 3 major restructuring processes, mostly informed by changes in political landscape. pic.twitter.com/CvRGo4L9Cm
— SAPU (@wearesapu) December 1, 2020
“The process will unfold in a phased-in approach and will cascade resources from Head Office Divisions, Provinces and Districts down to police station level and specialized units where the core functions of policing are implemented,” the Saps statement read.
It added that senior managers would be redeployed and that it would be strengthening policing at “grass roots level”.
“The matching and placing of members into the new structure will be done by the committees which are being established by the National Commissioner at both National and Provincial level.
“This process will also inadvertently address the directives of National Treasury to scale down on the compensation budget.
As part of the restructuring process, Saps will implement the District Development Model of policing.
-The Citizen
In other news – Shock as what happened to Kwaito star Lvovo revealed
Thokozani Ndlovu, aka Lvovo Derrango, narrowly escaped death after he was involved in a major car accident on Friday.
The accident allegedly happened on the N2 Highway near Scottburg, in KwaZulu-Natal. The Kwaito star was admitted at St Augustine-Netcare and later discharged to recover at home. Learn More
