BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION IN SAPS RECRUITMENT PROCESS

There’s trouble brewing in the South African Police Service (SAPS) recruitment process.

It has been reported that more than 1,000 trainees who passed their tests were left out of the final list, and were replaced by people who paid bribes to recruitment officers. This has led to the arrest of three (3) people who allegedly accepted bribes from recruits to attend SAPS academies without passing the rigorous tests.

Some of the tests include physical tests, Psychometric tests and personality assessments, background checks and medical tests.

The 12-month Police Development Learning Training Programme is a prerequisite for recruits before they can be employed by SAPS. The police unions claim that SAPS personnel who handled recruitment allegedly took money from potential recruits in exchange for a spot at one of the police academies.

The allegations of corruption have been forwarded to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), who are conducting an investigation. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that since last year, more than 10,000 new police members had graduated from police academies and a further 10,000 will be recruited and trained this year.

Some of those who slipped through the cracks illegally were among the 10,000 new constables who marched out to the streets in December last year. Due to the alleged corruption, there are demands to halt the recruitment process until IPID has concluded its investigations.

“Anyone found guilty of any unlawful activity in this instance be it as a SAPS recruitment officer or a trainee will be dealt with decisively as SAPS has no room for corruption within the organisation.” said National Police Spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe

SAPS may bring criminal charges against thousands of these recruits if they are found to have entered the training colleges illegally.