Unions to go to court if crime intelligence officers redeployed

The failure to have a clear plan of action is the Achilles’ heel in the decision to redeploy crime intelligence officers‚ which has led to unions threatening to approach the Labour Court.

This is according to Gareth Newham‚ head of the governance‚ crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies‚ who said the lack of planning would cause destabilisation of the Crime Intelligence unit.

President of the South African Police Union Mpho Kwinika said the union had served crime intelligence head Major-General Pat Mokushane with a letter requesting that he rescind his decision to redeploy crime intelligence officers to regions.

“Should he fail to rescind his decision by 4pm today (Monday) we are going to the labour court on Tuesday morning and I can assure that we will win the case.

Newham said the police commissioner needed to explain why he had decided to redeploy crime intelligence officers and have a clear plan as to why he had made the decision.

“It sounds like this is going to be a destabilising sudden drastic step with no explanation or consultation as to how it will work‚” said Newham.

He added that if the plan is not tested to see how it will work it could do more damage than improve the regions.

“We haven’t gotten all the details and it’s worrying when drastic measures are taken and all those involved have no clear indication of what is happening‚” Newham said.

Police and Prisoners Civil Rights Union spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said union bosses were still discussing the way forward and would comment at a later stage.

-TimesLIVE