Cops' 16-hour shifts

Gauteng police have embarked on a two-week crime blitz, in which some police officers have been ordered to work 16 hours a day - without overtime pay or rest days.

Officers above the rank of lieutenant have been ordered to hit the streets by their station commanders throughout Gauteng. They have to report for duty at six in the mornings and knock off at 10pm.

According to a police source, this order came directly from Gauteng police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mzwandile Petros, and was handed down to station commanders on Monday.

"We were told [that] as of today [Tuesday], all of us who reported for work from 7am to 4pm would only knock off at 10pm," said a captain who works in social crime prevention and victim support at a Johannesburg police station.

"We were told we won't be receiving compensation or rest days."

The officers would have to work straight through weekends for the next 14 days. "I have a daughter. Who is going to look after her?"

A policeman from Brooklyn, Pretoria, said officers there were merely moved onto shifts to times where crime is expected to be high.

The disbanding of the crime prevention units saw members transferred to sector policing.

"If we still had the crime prevention units, the plans that are being pushed now would see us complementing these units [in] properly fighting crime," he said.

"Now, by taking away these members and putting them onto different shifts all that will happen is that the crime will be driven to different times or different areas."

According to Mpho Kwinika, president of the South African Police Union, police officers are only allowed to work eight hours a day, unless they are on shift.

"If they are on shift they can work longer hours, but they are not allowed to work more than 160 hours a month," he said.

Gauteng police spokesman, Brigadier Neville Malila, said if crime patterns change, the responsibility lies with the station commander to adjust strategies to combat crime.

"It can be that certain stations changed strategies to address crime trends, but as far as the provincial order is concerned, I am not aware of anything," he said.