SAPS salaries gobble up 43c of every tax rand

As crime continues to spiral out of control, salaries for the SA Police Service (Saps) gobble up 43 cents out of every taxpayer rand spent by government on civil service wages.

The “security cluster” – police, defence and correctional services – vacuum up 71% of the government wage bill, leaving less than 30 cents out of every rand to pay teachers, doctors and nurses and other essential public sector workers.

This is according to figures from Statistics South Africa on salary bills for 47 national government departments.

Despite the high overall cost of the police, it was ranked 44th out of 47 departments in terms of average compensation, with employees earning an average of R298 002 per annum, according to the Stats SA report.

Prof Johan Burger from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said police remuneration expenditure was understandable considering that Saps had 187 358 personnel (147 035 police and 40 323 civilian employees).

Burger pointed out, too, that Saps took care of infrastructure and assets, including helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, which demanded high expenditure.

However, the expenditure reported by Stats SA does not include that of a capital nature. It relates solely to personnel costs.

“I agree with all the critics on the poor police performance, but one cannot only look at the police but also what the politicians, including the minister and the portfolio committee, are doing to improve the Saps’ performance in fighting crime. Why do they not implement the policy as suggested in the National Development Plan?” Burger said.

The value for money for the country from the huge amount spent on the police troubles former police officer and Democratic Alliance MP Ockert Terblanche.

With over 40 years of experience as a policeman, he said: “Until the Saps is completely transformed in terms of how it is structured, SA’s soaring crimerate is far from decreasing. The current Saps structure is topheavy, clumsy, with police brigadiers and generals out of touch with what is happening on the ground,” said Terblanche.

Contributing to the police service delivery crisis, Saps confined trained police officers in the administrative sphere “instead of being deployed to do functional police work”.

“Police patrols are the basis of functional policing – being more proactive that reactive. Currently, police officers are reactive, with rural areas largely neglected and people unable to access police services. They need to be restructured in a user-friendly manner, making police officers visible.”

But United Democratic Movement leader General Bantu Holomisa said the real problem was the criminal justice system, which “fails police who daily apprehend criminals, to be released due to poor prosecution”.

Terblanche said: “To a large extent, police find themselves being responsible for unsuccessful cases in court, due to such things as incomplete reports and DNA samples.”

One South Africa Movement’s Mmusi Maimane proposed national departments be cut from the current 46 to contain the wage bill.

Info

• Saps spends nearly R1 billion (R978 million) per year on salaries for its generals and brigadiers.
• Saps’ top brass earn an average annual salary of R1.5 million.
• The average annual salaries of front-line officers varies between R54 000 for a trainee constable, R243 260 for a constable, R300 026 for a sergeant and R391 007 for a warrant officer.
• The top management consists of over 170 majors-general and 654 brigadiers.
• Police or sheriff’s patrol officer: R99k to R380k
• Police captain: R200k to R462k
• Constable: R115k to R211k
• Police officer: R130k to R361k
• Police sergeant: R199k to R243k.

– news@citizen.co.za