No cops to lose jobs

2008-09-05 19:04

Johannesburg - No police officers will lose their jobs in a massive restructuring process aimed at streamlining the police force, the national police commissioner's office on Friday assured.

"There is really no need for the members to start panicking," said spokesperson Director Sally de Beer.

"Nobody will be moved to the end of the earth," she added.

Every single officer at the 1 114 police stations countrywide and at three national police units has to re-apply for his or her job, according to a letter distributed to them this week.

This is part of a restructuring process that started in 2006 to phase out the so-called area level, which acted as an administrative point between stations and provincial offices. Now there are only three levels: station level, provincial level and national level.

"The area levels were like a post office, they were receiving post from stations and sending it to the provinces. We decided we rather needed the expertise and high-ranking police officers at police stations to help fight crime.

"We redeployed the experienced personnel and but it was an interim arrangement and now we want to make it a permanent arrangement," said De Beer.

Police officers would need to fill in a placement form before September 19, after which placement committees would decide whether the officers would stay in their current positions or be moved elsewhere.

Nobody would be moved to a station further than 60km from their homes.

"At station level, the bulk of the members will remain where they are," said De Beer.

This phase of the restructuring process, which also affects three national units - Crime Intelligence, Visible Policing, National Inspectorate - and a component of communications, will be completed by the end of the year.

After that, the provincial offices and other divisions of head office will go through the same exercise, until the entire 175 000-strong workforce has had their posts re-evaluated.

- SAPA