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Thank you greatly for this opportunity to deliver a message of support at the eighth SAPU Central Executive Committee meeting as you chart a way forward on how to take this important structure forward.
I also stand to pledge our support and willingness as the SAPS management to continue to work closely with SAPU to ensure our members’ best interests are always considered. Over the years, SAPU has consistently demonstrated its commitment to prioritising the needs of our members; and we recognise, acknowledge and applaud you for your unwavering commitment to better the lives of our workforce.
In a clear demonstration of your commitment to your strategic objective to ensure sound working relations and improved benefits and quality of life for SAPU members, you have stayed the course despite challenges along the way. SAPU has stayed the course out of care for all valued members of the SAPS. Suffice to say, whenever we have robust discussions, they are always conducted in a respectful manner in order to ensure we have a meeting of minds that will enable us to better the working conditions of our workforce. I have come to realise that this is so because we both understand that we all have one thing in common; which is the well-being of our members.
The management of the SAPS is cognisant of the fact that SAPU is an important stakeholder of the SAPS, whose interest is the wellbeing of our members. We are optimistic about the future because we are a listening management that is willing to work together with all stakeholders in the best interest of our members to ensure they are well taken care of and also ensuring they have fulfilling careers in the SAPS. We are fully committed to collaborative efforts aimed at improving the well-being and quality of life for SAPS members.
The wellbeing of our members is important to us. We cannot have a functioning SAPS without a physically and emotionally sound team of men and women in blue; let alone to fulfil our Constitutional mandate without our members. We appreciate the cordial relationship we enjoy with your good selves and every opportunity to refine our relations is greatly welcomed. When we engage, we tend to have a better understanding of our individual predicaments as SAPS management and yourselves as the leadership of the union that has been devotedly looking out for our members’ best interest.
The SAPU 8th Central Executive Committee meeting meeting is taking place at a time when the SAPS has finalised the post promotions of our members. 1707 members were promoted as of the 01 November and it is envisaged that about 1800 are under consideration for promotion as of 01 December 2024. We are also envisaging that 224 Public Service Act employees will also be promoted with effect from 01 January 2024.
Indeed, Post promotions are an important talent retention strategy which SAPS has in place to improve working conditions of our members are improved. Despite budget cuts, we remain committed to our strategy of post promotions which we embark on every single year because this has long-term impact in the betterment of the lives of our members.
The issue of post promotions is closely linked to mental health of our members because they go beyond the call of duty in serving the people of our country.
Indeed, Policing is a thankless job because when others run away at the sound of gunfire and violence, our Police Act members decisively avert danger and any possible loss of lives.
Suffice to say, our members want to be rewarded for their work because being on one level for a long time can affect the way our members perform their duties due to despondency. Our members’ mental health is an important issue that is very close to our hearts, which is why we have various programmes in place to ensure our members’ mental health is in tiptop form to enable them to perform their duties with excellence.
As management, we are also happy to announce that 1800 newly trained graduates have already been deployed to various stations across the country to bolster crime combatting efforts. The remaining 2700 will graduate in December 2024 at various academies with Tshwane Acadmey hosting the largest parade.
Our members’ excellence was on display during the course of this year because we were able to Police the national and provincial elections which were largely incident free from the beginning of election campaigns and the elections themselves. Again, the inauguration of the President was well executed from a safety point of view and the same can be said about the Opening of Parliament, including the State of the Province Addresses. All members who were called up to be on duty during this period were paid what is due to them in the form of overtime and special allowances.
The issue of Police killings in the country is a concern, and this is an issue that gives us sleepless nights as Police management. We are working tirelessly to equip our members with necessary tools of trade so they can protect themselves and their colleagues. Unfortunately, in the past financial year alone, we lost 39 police officers in the line of duty. These members are not just a number. They were fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, sisters and brothers. This is why on an annual basis, we raise funds so that members who die in the line of duty, their children’s educational continue to be taken of until they receive their first qualification. This year, we managed to raise over R6.6 million rand which will go into the SAPSET coffers to ensure children of our deceased members stay in school. Since inception, the SAPSET has managed to ensure 1 631 children of our deceased members stay in school. Some of them have graduated and have since gone to find employment in both the public sector and the private sector.
As I conclude, I would like to wish you all the best in your deliberations. I am confident that the Central Executive Committee will meet the expectations of your members and broader society as a whole because all of us are here to service our country.
SAPS wishes you well and as management of the SAPS of the SAPS, we want you to know that you have our unreserved support in all that your endeavours because as we appreciate that SAPU has our members’ best interests at heart.
I thank you!
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