Durban – The Independent Policing Union of South Africa (Ipusa) says it supports the call by Parliament for a turnaround strategy for the SAPS 10111 emergency centre nationally.
This comes after “The Mercury” reported last Friday that as much as 7 million calls to 10111 were dropped over the past three financial years across the country.
This is according to statistics released by Police Minister Bheki Cele in response to questions from the DA’s spokesperson on police, Andrew Whitfield.
It was also revealed that during the period there were only 4 061 staff employed to manage the line nationally against an ideal complement of 10 032 staff.
Bethuel Nkuna, Ipusa president said there needed to be a proper turnaround plan for the 10111 members.
“This starts with proper grading of members where their years of service will be recognised, we cannot have members who have served Saps for over a decade and more to be ranked at a level of constable, and members being left out of because of tattoos (it is against SAPS recruitment guidelines for officers to have tattoos) and previous transgressions.”
Nkuna added that solution to this matter was to properly grade employees in terms of salary according to their years of service and fill up posts according to the fixed establishment of the various 10111 call centres nationally.
Public Servants Association (PSA) said that the union condemns the failure by the police to fill vacant positions at 10111 call centres.
“The PSA has consistently been calling for the filling of vacant positions in the entire public service.
“The Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele, recently commented in Parliament that the call centre received a lot of calls and that not all calls were answered because of a shortage of staff.”
PSA added that it is a known fact that South Africa’s crime statistics were increasing.
Citizens who depend on the 10111 facility for their safety are in danger of not getting protection from this unit as their last resort.
“The call centre provides critical services to vulnerable people and cannot be paralysed by ignorance or a lack of capacity.
“The PSA calls upon the minister to urgently fill in vacant positions at the call centre to maintain and advance service delivery in support of crime eradication.”