Sunday Times reports that the SA Police Service (SAPS) spent R131m on paid sick leave in the last financial year, most of it for periods of longer than six months. This was revealed by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu last week in response to a written parliamentary question.
Mchunu told MPs that the SAPS had spent R131,585,808 on more than 600 police officers’ paid sick leave during the 2023/24 financial year. “The total number of SAPS employees who were on paid sick leave for a period exceeding six months, during the 2023/24 financial year, is 618,” he added in response to DA MP Lisa Schickerling’s question. Schickerling commented on Friday that during the police committee’s oversight visits to police stations, absenteeism and “burnout” of the men and women in blue were often cited as headaches by station commanders. She said that while some cases of long sick leave were justifiable due to “traumatic and stressful” working conditions, there were instances of abuse, including in the top management of the service. Schickerling argued that the SAPS was lax in its management of paid sick leave. The SA Policing Union (Sapu) flatly rejected suggestions that its members were abusing sick leave. Sapu spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale said those making such claims had no idea what their members were subjected to in the line of duty. He also claimed there were gaps in how the SAPS was providing “employee wellness support” to police officers. “There’s not enough personnel who can give that debriefing to our members, they go home with that traumatic experience, tomorrow they come back to attend to another one. And then they start to pile up,” he explained.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thabo Mokone at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
- Read too, SAPS spends more than R100 million on paid sick leave, at The Citizen
- En ook, Polisie mors R130 miljoen op betaalde siekverlof, by Maroela Media
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