Mchunu said the police ministry was in talks with the Gauteng government and the three metros in the province to sign an agreement that will see law enforcement agencies having a close working relationship.
“This is an effort in part to try and make up for the numbers that we do not have ourselves, not just on detectives but on visible policing, but also to make up for the number of people we have per policing area,” he said.
Mchunu said there were police stations with fewer officers than they should have. “We are now going to pull them together to fight side by side; the SAPS, metro (police departments), law enforcement and even private security companies because we want to make sure we rid Gauteng of crime,” he said.
Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya said the Hawks worked closely with the National Prosecuting Authority on the Mthimkhulu case. “The arrest was effected in 2015, which shows that some of these matters can take time because there are various defence mechanisms that individuals can bring forward.”
Lebeya said he believed the jail term given to Mthimkhulu should serve as a deterrent to would-be fraudsters who used false qualifications to attain higher positions. “There are other people who continue to do this, and we will catch up with them. It does not matter how long it takes,” he said.
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Police adding 1,000 detectives this year to lessen workload: Mchunu
The police service is adding 1,000 more detectives this financial year to address the personnel shortage in this critical area, police minister Senzo Mchunu said on Thursday in Soweto.
Mchunu was addressing the media on the outstanding work done by the Hawks and the prosecution teams in securing the conviction and sentencing of former Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) head of engineering Daniel Mthimkhulu.
Mthimkhulu was this week sentenced to 15 years in jail for falsifying his qualifications and submitting a fake employment offer from a German company to bump up his Prasa salary.
Answering parliamentary questions recently, Mchunu revealed the police had an alarming shortage of detectives in regions with high levels of crime. He said detectives employed in the police service stood at 22,413, with a shortage of 8,594.
Mchunu said the addition of 1,000 detectives on Thursday demonstrated management’s desire to find resources to help ensure they were dealing with fewer dockets each. “They (detectives) must take it in their stride while we are augmenting the numbers. The expectation is that each case must be taken to its final processes,” he said.
Mchunu said the police ministry was in talks with the Gauteng government and the three metros in the province to sign an agreement that will see law enforcement agencies having a close working relationship.
“This is an effort in part to try and make up for the numbers that we do not have ourselves, not just on detectives but on visible policing, but also to make up for the number of people we have per policing area,” he said.
Mchunu said there were police stations with fewer officers than they should have. “We are now going to pull them together to fight side by side; the SAPS, metro (police departments), law enforcement and even private security companies because we want to make sure we rid Gauteng of crime,” he said.
Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya said the Hawks worked closely with the National Prosecuting Authority on the Mthimkhulu case. “The arrest was effected in 2015, which shows that some of these matters can take time because there are various defence mechanisms that individuals can bring forward.”
Lebeya said he believed the jail term given to Mthimkhulu should serve as a deterrent to would-be fraudsters who used false qualifications to attain higher positions. “There are other people who continue to do this, and we will catch up with them. It does not matter how long it takes,” he said.
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