Major General Oswald Reddy, Honeydew Cluster Commander explained, in detail, the events leading up to the decision to redeploy the management of the station.
Reddy said racial allegations by junior members of staff and detectives at the station against high ranking officers in management began six months to a year ago. In light of the racism claims, he deliberately appointed a coloured investigator to look into the matter as the allegations were made by black members of staff against a mainly-white management team.
According to Reddy, the investigator submitted a report and found no substance to the allegations, so a decision was made at the time that management and staff would all remain at the station. Reddy said that until 29 January, when station staff members held an illegal protest, he was unaware of any further problems at the station.
The protesting staff called for the removal of former station commander Brigadier Leon Kruger, Colonel Tinus Swart and the former human resources manager at the station, Colonel Barbara Kruger. Reddy said that at one point, during the protest, 25 to 30 police officers confronted Brigadier Kruger in his office and threatened both him and Colonel Swart.
Reddy said both the provincial and national office of the police intervened and identified 80 members of staff who were involved in the protest by looking at photos and videos published by the media. The 80 members included detectives, police officers and support staff. All officers were disarmed and dismissed, however, they were allowed 60 days to appeal the decision.
Due to the large number of members who protested, a decision was made to overturn the dismissal and to redeploy all staff involved in the strike to other police stations in the Honeydew Cluster. The conditions of the overturned dismissal were that all members involved had to admit their misconduct and agree to never engage in a similar activity in the future.
All received written warnings and were redeployed according to the choice of the cluster commander. However in the interest of keeping the peace at the station, it was decided that the management team of Douglasdale Police Station would also be redeployed.
Read our previous story, Huge changes afoot at Douglasdale Police Station
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