Police officers still waiting for July unrest allowances

Unsettling and detrimental to moral. That is how police unions have described the delay in the payment of overtime work to their members who were deployed to quell the July riots that swept through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

In July the SA Police Service (Saps) told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police that more than 4,500 police officers were involved in returning order in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with the cost of quelling the unrest estimated at around R350 million.

The costs included overtime allowance, meal, accommodation and night shift/service allowances, payment for called-up reservists as well as procurement of necessary resources.

According to the latest data from the BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index (BTPI), overtime payment made to the Saps and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for the unrest added almost R1 billion to the BTPI’s overall salaries.

But Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said their members’ overtime allowances for the July unrest was only paid in December and that some, mostly in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, were still waiting.

This week The Citizen reported how sweeping budget cuts of R26 billion over the next three years for Saps will take 11,000 cops and 2,000 detectives off the streets.

This comes after it was revealed in October that Saps underspent its budget on visible policing by R2.665 billion and it had underspent on detective services by R997 million.

Popcru has lamented that Saps is marred by challenges, including the killing of police officers, continuous attacks of police stations, inadequate training and the health impacts of Covid over the past few years.

“It is concerning that there have been underspent funds while most members are yet to be remunerated for having been deployed to areas affected by the July unrest in the past year, while detectives have also not been paid for the overtime worked,” Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo  said.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo is yet to respond to requests for comment but Mamabolo said Saps had indicated the rest of the allowances will be paid once their audits are completed.

Also of concern, the agreement of 2017 stipulates that detectives were a five-day establishment, and any other work beyond the 45 hours should be remunerated. But management is pushing the much-needed detectives to take days off instead of overtime payments.

“This takes place when there has been understaffing, limited detectives who have a lot of outstanding work. Resources should be channelled to allow them to reduce the workload they currently have,” he said.

The SA Police Union (Sapu) confirmed they were aware of members still waiting for their allowances, with spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale saying they have intervened and are engaging Saps on the matter.

“[The allowance is] paid separately for it was declared a special event and its in addition to the salary at that specific worked time,” he said, referring to the unrest duties.

On the issue of overtime pay for detectives, Thobakgale said overtime work was regulated in terms of a collective agreement and called on Saps management to follow such prescripts.

– siphom@citizen.co.za