| 2025/02/11 |
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SAPS Tshwane Academy, Pretoria
The Deputy National Commissioners present Ladies and gentlemen Good morning! It is my honour to welcome you to the SAPS Tshwane Academy on this very important benchmarking visit by the Norwegian and Swedish delegations. Most importantly, welcome to South Africa. The South African Police Service has a mutual and cordial working relationship with the two recognised labour unions –SAPU and POPCRU. Though we work independently, we are nonetheless all committed to finding and implementing measures to better the lives of our common members. Together, we have made critical and potential life-changing decisions to the benefit of our members. This, ladies and gentlemen, we do to ensure better lives of our members, increased productivity and well-being in the workplace, as well as attract and retain skilled people in the SAPS. As the SAPS management we are especially delighted that your respective organisations saw it fit to benchmark with us when it comes to policing and union matters. This serves as an encouragement for us to work together in producing even more life-changing endeavours for the betterment of our members. The SAPS and our two unions saw it very early on that working together and not in silos, will be to the benefit of our members and this strategy has produced tremendous results. Police and unions working together involves a complex relationship where law enforcement agencies and labour unions collaborate on issues such as police rights, working conditions, public safety policies and community relations. One of the key aspects of our collaboration with the two unions that I am happy to talk about, is our ability to seat together and negotiate contracts that balance police officers’ benefits, wages and working conditions with department budgets and public accountability. This is done through the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council (SSSBC) which you visited yesterday. When it comes to crisis management, we are both able to handle conflicts between police management and unions, especially during high-profile incidents. We are also able to balance union interests with political and public demands for accountability. So, we have forged a very close and mutually respective work relationship which only gets better by the day, as we all agree that the common goal is the betterment of our members’ lives. The exchange of knowledge between police organisations and unions is crucial for improving law enforcement practices, police officers’ welfare and public safety. Key areas where collaboration and knowledge sharing can benefit both sides are for example: training and professional development, mental health and officers’ well-being, public accountability and transparency as well as policy development and best practices. Ladies and gentlemen, we hope that the presentations that are about delivered will give you a clearer and easier sense of our work relationship with our two unions. As you network and discuss, feel free to talk to our SAPS members on issues you need clarity on or that you seek deeper knowledge of forging relationships with police and unions in other countries can strengthen law enforcement capabilities through shared knowledge, training and cooperation. We hope you leave here with a better sense of understanding of the work done by the SAPS and our two labour unions –POPCRU and SAPU. As you leave here and continue with the rest of your working visit, we trust you will enjoy our hospitality and our spirit of UBUNTU, which translates: I am because you are. Thank you.
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