The KwaZulu-Natal police top brass should come up with solutions to the English language challenge identified by the provincial commissioner, police unions said.

According to the unions, one of the solutions is to have someone who will monitor and ensure that statements and affidavits are accurate and reflect what a complainant has said to the officer in the charge office.

The South African Police Union (Sapu) and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said the police leadership should develop programs meant to improve how their members took statements in English if there were gaps.

Police commissioner says some cops can’t speak English

The unions were reacting to provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s utterances during the second day of a recent community policing imbizo in Durban, that police had to use the English language in performing their office duties.

“There are police officers who have a challenge speaking English. You listen to them when they speak and you realise that ‘no, my colleague doesn’t speak English fluently’. If he is not speaking it fluently, he is not writing it correctly.

“This means that you will have an issue with the statement you left at the police station. Do you blame them? You can’t blame them because they come from where they come from.”

“The Constitution says there were 11 official languages, now there are 12 including Sign Language, the law says that. But the justice system is not in support of the Constitution,” Mkhwanazi said.

What are the solutions?

Sapu provincial manager Nurse Mdletshe said the observations by the commissioner should be accompanied by possible solutions.

Mdletshe said police officers needed all the support they could get as English was not their mother tongue.