Ready for this? The number is 1,448. According to South African Police Service (SAPS) acting deputy national commissioner for human resource development, Nkrumah Mazibuko an audit was conducted before January 2010 to determine that stat. When Mazibuko delivered the results to MP’s, many could not believe the high number reported.
Mazibuko listed the ranks of those police officers with criminal offences:
- 1 major general
- 10 brigadiers
- 21 colonels
- 10 majors
- 43 lieutenant colonels
- 163 captains
- 84 lieutenants
- 716 warrant officers
- 267 sergeants
- 129 constables
- 2 personnel officers
A large number of those police officers with criminal offences had been convicted after they had joined the police force. Mazibuko said:
These people are subjected to disciplinary process and then they take the matter up on appeal, and we get an order to reinstate the person.If that person appeals the sentence… and he gets the sentence reduced maybe to a suspended one by a criminal court, then in terms of our own [police] act such a person is entitled to apply for reinstatement.
Cope MP Mluleki George said:
I thought the requirement of employment is that you should be criminal record free. You are now getting involved with whether a person is sentenced to jail or fined and that’s not the issue.The issue is if a person is found guilty in a court of law it means he has a criminal record. So why are they keeping you in the service if that’s what your employment criteria says?
[Source: News24]
