The Star reports that the Police Ministry has dismissed reports that it plans to shed 3,000 jobs to curb its budget spending, with spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga saying the plans in its performance report believed to have been tabled before the National Treasury had been misinterpreted.  

“All we are doing is freezing 3,000 posts due to economic constraints  …   We are now sitting with about 195,000 posts filled and are short of about 3000 (posts) to reach our target.  For financial reasons, we will have to freeze those posts and not hire more personnel,” said Mhaga.  But he could not say which posts had been frozen.  The SAPS’s national spokesperson, Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, said they were recruiting new employees as they usually did.  But the acting police commissioner’s spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe indicated that the SAPS was going through a rationalisation process that would only affect office workers and not police officers on the ground.  “We are looking at giving people additional work to do.  In the case of someone dying or resigning, we will not fill that vacancy.  Instead, an existing employee will take over those duties.  It’s a cost-saving measure, but that process has not started yet.”

• Read this report by Lindile Sifile in full at The Star

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