National Police Day 2019 was held at Mbombela Stadium on Thursday and Sitole addressed the officers.

On National Police Day the South African Police Service remembers the sacrifices that were made by individuals.
Sitole said this was part of building a motivated organisation.

“We invested R2,1 million for the excellent awards and also R2,7 million that is going to your pockets through the awards. This year has been a year of surprise and you have made the country proud. The country had an increase in cash-in-transit heists and it was happening in all the provinces.

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“We asked you to go out to face the criminals, then we also introduced the 72-hour turnaround.

You surprised us, because some of the heists would fall down before they even start and for that I want to say congratulations to all the officers.

“What you don’t realise is the impact of what you were doing, cash-in-transit heists were stopping economic growth and immediately after you stabilise the heists the economy started to grow.
“If you continue to do it, the country will be a rich country, and when this happens it means that there will be more funds invested in policing. There will be more money for promotions and, as the organisation, we are proud,” said Sitole.

Police minister, Bheki Cele encouraged the officers to continue working hard and reminded them that he does not want to see any more officers being killed on duty.

Cele attended a funeral in Port Elizabeth on Saturday of an officer who was recently shot on duty during a robbery.

He said he was proud of the fact that, even if the situation was bad and officers are mourning one of their members, the criminals will mourn four people.

“I am not calling you to disrespect the law and I am not calling you to surrender yourself then hand yourself to the hands of the criminals nor to be irrelevant to the task that you were given.
“When criminals go out there to do their things, they do not carry brooms, they carry hard stuff. This is the reason why we need hard stuff to respond to them. I am not going to call you to die again, never.

If I have to do that I rather go home,” he said. They opened a police station in Khamhlushwa area and raised funds during a golf event.

The funds will be used to pay for the studies of the children of the officers that died in the country’s service.