‘We are watching you’ – SAPS joins forces with gym companies to improve police fitness

National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola joined police officials for a workout challenge at the Police Academy in Pretoria West after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Virgin Active and Planet Fitness to help improve the overall fitness of the police.

He said the MOU, in which members will be offer a 20% discount on gym fees, was history in the making.

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“Our members operate within a highly stressful environment and it is important that they have an outlet to release some of the stress and at the same time build their bodies to keep healthy,” Masemola said.

He said he would be watching the officers.

“As you are aware some of you, when you go for physical fitness tests to go over from public service to saps members, some of you fail the fitness test.

“That’s why I am watching you. I am waiting for you to get fit and then I can transfer you to the Saps (SA Police Service),” he said.

Masemola said he received a call in the morning to inform him that a police station in an informal settlement in Limpopo was shot at.

“The members did try to respond – and I don’t know if fitness played a role – but they couldn’t catch up with the criminals,” he said.

The commissioner said the MOU will offer members a 20% discount on gym membership fees.

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“We want to open rural gyms countrywide for the current financial year,” he said.

Saps’ National Head of Employee Health and Wellness Major General Busi Temba said this took police wellness to the next level.

“Fitness is a conscience decision, it does not happen by default,” she said.

Better health

SA Police Union (Sapu) national treasurer Lorato Lephoro said they were excited to witness the start of the journey to get the members in better health.

“Mental illness is a challenge in the country, even worse to police members. We believe a healthy body leads to a healthy mind.”

Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union national representative Abel Masoka said they were happy with the new initiative and said they had to make sure their members were fit.

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“We cannot serve and protect if we are unhealthy.”

He said the officers were the human capital of the police and should be invested in.

“We know their work is not easy, but with the support that we get from the stakeholders, we will overcome it.”

Masoka added that said the Rugby World Cup victory by the Spingboks has shown how fit South Africa was.

‘Encouraging police fitness problematic’

However, criminologist Professor Jaco Barkhuizen said it was disconcerting that police entered into an MOU with private companies even though Saps used to have gym and train facilities for the officers.

“To encourage police officers to stay fit was another problematic statement by the national commissioner as it should be a standing order that all police members should have a certain level of fitness,” he said.

Barkhuizen said a police officer should be able to run 100 metres in a certain time and should be able to do a certain amount of push-ups and sit-ups.

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“Encouraging fitness, makes police seem juvenile. It should be a standard, from a training constable to a general. You should not be seeing unfit and overweight police officers,” he said.

Barkhuizen said police officers should look like police officers and be fit and ready to fight crime.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za