The SAPS is hiring thousands of officers – young and old
Police minister Bheki Cele says his department plans to rapidly ramp up recruitment in the coming year – which will include thousands of new officers and bringing older officers back into the fold.
Answering a recent written parliamentary Q&A, Cele said the South African Police Service plans to add 12,000 new recruits in total. A total of 7,000 new recruits will be enlisted in the 2022/2023 financial year, with a further 5,000 recruits added in the 2023/2024 financial year.
“In addition to the above, 3,000 posts were advertised during the 2021/2022 financial year and the SAPS recruits will undergo training – therefore a total of 10,000 recruits will be trained in 2022,” Cele said.
The training of these recruits is expected to be completed on 15 December 2022, after which they will be deployed across the country.
“Posts for the re-enlistment of former experienced SAPS members were also advertised in the national media on 13 March 2022, with a closing date of 28 March 2022. Successful former SAPS members will be placed at specialised units and police stations.”
Cele said the SAPS is continuously ‘capacitating’ and re-skilling members to enhance their knowledge and skills, to execute functions effectively and efficiently.
“Once the new SAPS recruits have successfully completed their training., they will be placed at police stations, Public Order Policing units, family violence, child protection and sexual offences units, as well as other specialised and general detective units.”
Data published at the end of April shows the number of SAPS employees has declined over the past decade and is expected to plateau going forward. The SAPS noted that the biggest outflow of workers in recent years has been at the police station level, leading to fewer boots on the ground.
The SAPS’ latest annual report shows that employees work across a range of sectors including ‘administration’, ‘visible policing’ and ‘crime intelligence’, with salaries averaging at R206,000 for the lowest skills level (1-2).
This rises to an average salary of R1,435,000 for senior management and executive employees (levels 13-16), while the average salary across all levels is R416,000.
Read: Here’s how many police officers there are in South Africa – and what they earn