News24 reports that after almost two years, the SA Police Service (SAPS) has decided to resume its Basic Police Learning Development Programme (BLDP) intake.

In a statement last Wednesday, police said the training of new recruits, which had been scheduled to start in March 2020, was suspended following the declaration of a National State of Disaster and nationwide lockdown by President Cyril Ramaphosa. This effectively meant that over the last 23 months, no new police officers have been trained and deployed into service. Police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said the decision to resume the intake and training was taken because the country had moved to lockdown Level 1. "The recruitment process had already reached an advanced stage with recruits having undergone various stages in the recruitment and selection process and were only awaiting the final stage where they were to be subjected to a medical assessment," she indicated. Mathe added that, with the recommencement of the recruitment process currently under way, all applicants who had undergone all stages of training and were only awaiting the medical assessment, would receive an SMS from the respective SAPS provincial recruitment offices. Police also warned that there were several hoax messages containing fake job advertisements within SAPS, circulating on social media and other channels.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Alex Mitchley at News24

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