The Citizen reports that as crime continues to spiral out of control, salaries for the SA Police Service (Saps) gobble up 43 cents out of every taxpayer rand spent by government on civil service wages.

The “security cluster” – police, defence and correctional services – vacuum up 71% of the government wage bill, leaving less than 30 cents out of every rand to pay teachers, doctors and nurses and other essential public sector workers. This is according to figures from Statistics SA on salary bills for 47 national government departments.  Yet, Prof Johan Burger from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said police remuneration expenditure was understandable considering that Saps had 187,358 personnel (147,035 police and 40,323 civilian employees). Despite the high overall cost of the police, it was ranked 44th out of 47 departments in terms of average compensation, with employees earning an average of R298,002 per annum. The value for money for the country from the huge amount spent on the police troubles former police officer and Democratic Alliance MP Ockert Terblanche. He commented: “Until the Saps is completely transformed in terms of how it is structured, SA’s soaring crime rate is far from decreasing. The current Saps structure is top heavy, clumsy, with police brigadiers and generals out of touch with what is happening on the ground.” Saps spends R978 million per year on salaries for its generals and brigadiers and the top brass earn an average annual salary of R1.5 million. The average annual salaries of front-line officers varies between R54,000 for a trainee constable, R243,260 for a constable, R300,026 for a sergeant and R391,007 for a warrant officer.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Eric Naki and Brian Sokutu at The Citizen (paywall access only)

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