Durban - Police unions have slammed Police Minister Bheki Cele’s statement that no police officers will be on leave during the festive season, describing the utterance as “an act of provocation”.
Police unions said while they were in support of the police’s Safer Festive Season campaign, members who had applied for leave in advance for the festive season must be allowed to take their days off.
The SA Policing Union (Sapu) national spokesperson, Lesiba Thobakgale, said the union was disturbed by the statement made by the minister.
The union said that speaking at an event in Limpopo, Cele reportedly said that from December 15 to January 31, police officers would not be granted leave or holiday.
“First, this is a clear act of provocation. Minister Cele has no role to play in the conditions of employment, let alone unilaterally changing them.”
Thobakgale said Sapu would like to send a stern warning to Cele that his populist approach to policing would cause unnecessary tension and instability in the police.
“Police officers will, like any other public servant, enjoy labour rights, inclusive of taking leave during the December period.
“Any change to the conditions of employment are negotiated at the appropriate platform, which is the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council.
“As we speak, members during the beginning of the year have submitted approved leave plans which include December, so we want to say to the minister of police that police officers who have leave planned for December will take their leave despite his utterances.”
Independent Policing Union of SA president Bethuel Nkuna, said the first quarter crime statistics for 2022 showed an increase in all contact crime and therefore all efforts aimed at ensuring that people felt safe were welcomed.
However, he added that there would be no shortage of police members this festive season and there was no need to take away leave that had been applied for by police members.
“While the minister has indicated his desire to see optimum deployment of members during the festive period, no member’s leave must be arbitrarily taken away without their approval.
“Leave is the basic condition of every employed person. All leave approved in advance should not be unnecessarily infringed upon as some members have already committed their finances to it.
“Our members are reasonable, and should they be engaged, they may, as they have done before, come in and assist. We therefore urge management to exercise extra caution in approaching the leave issue during this festive deployment period.”
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Nthabeleng Molefe, said according to SAPS National Instruction 9 of 2019, at least 10% of operational members were allowed to take leave during the festive season.
“The fact is that members plan for their leave in January and really the Minister of Police Bheki Cele should not be making a statement that police members can’t take leave.
“The station commander has already approved leave and it can’t be changed now.
“We won’t have a shortage of police members for the festive season as the majority of members will be on duty.”
Approached for comment, police ministry spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said that in December 2019 Cele also instructed police members not to take leave during the festive season.
“The reason for this call is for communities to be safer as there will be more boots on the ground with our Safer Festive Season (campaign) this year.
“We know that the festive season also sees more opportunistic behaviour from criminals.
“For the crime rate to be kept down, police will have to be on hand at all times.”
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