There are 1,448 criminals on the South African Police Services payroll. This was the shocking admission by police management in Parliament today.
A SAPS audit has found that the 1,448 are guilty of serious offences like rape, attempted murder, corruption, fraud and assault.
They are all still on the beat.
More than 300 of the officers managed to get a job despite having criminal records and it seems they did so by cheating the system.
Nkrumah Mazibuko, SAPS HR management, said: “There are instances where the people who submitted themselves for psychometric assessments were not necessarily the same people who submitted themselves for finger printing.”
Several of the convict cops are highly ranked in positions like captains, majors and colonels — shockingly 10 brigadiers and 1 Major General are also on the list.
A member of Parliament remarked that a SAPS member can have his firearm on his hip until the moment he is marched down to the cells. “That’s how seriously SAPS takes this.”
The law prevents the SAPS from firing those with criminal records until they’ve had an internal disciplinary hearing.
The SAPS has established a board of fitness to assess whether each of the 1448 criminal cops should stay on the job.
The board is expected to start its work this week, but MPs were left fuming when police management couldn’t give them a deadline as to when it’ll finish the process. – eNCA