Mon, 29 Jul 2013

South Africa’s national commissioner of police is to consider what recruitment changes may be needed after the discovery that 1,488 employees of the South African Police Service (SAPS) have criminal records.

Police minister Nathi Mthethwa says the service’s “resolve to root out any unwanted elements within the police will never be deterred by anything”, after the release of the internal audit revealing that figure.

The audit was two years in the making and in January 2013 it was suggested that SAPS start publishing the names of recruits for public scrutiny in an attempt to “cleanse the South African Police Service of unwanted people who shame our image”.

This spring, pressure to clean up the image of SAPS rose after a series of high-profile incidents, including the alleged murder by Paralympic and Olympic star Oscar Pistorius of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, brought the service into international disrepute.

Speaking yesterday (28 July), Mthethwa said: “The next step is for the national commissioner of police, General Riah Phiyega, to act on the outcome of the audit. I have now instructed her and the management team that feedback on action should be provided to me by the end of October this year.

“This is a legal process where everyone will be given an opportunity to state his or her side of the story. That said, our resolve to root out any unwanted elements within the police will never be deterred by anything, no matter how long and what it takes.”