Forcing police to permanently employ all reservists looks like extortion – expert

Police officers in the Pretoria CBD had to guard its human resources offices yesterday against National Reservist Concern Group (NRCG) members who marched to demand permanent employment.

NRCG national chair Thendo Mulaudzi said they represented 1 600 police reservists who wanted to be employed permanently. He said some reservists had more than 20 years of experience that was not utilised.

“Some of the demands related to fighting corruption and fighting for the permanent employment they promised us in 2009,” said Mulaudzi.

He said some reservists were deactivated from the system without any explanation.

“Some went on maternity leave, only to be deactivated from the system. Some of the stations didn’t have coordinators to manage the reservists,” Mulaudzi claimed.

He said being a reservist was a calling to help fight crime and they wanted members reactivated.

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“Reservists help to fight crime in their communities… They also play a role in social crime prevention by supplying information to prevent some crimes.”

Employing reservists permanently might be problematic

Security expert Dr Johan Burger said this was an ongoing issue.

“This attempt to try force integration in the police service cannot be supported.”

Burger said when someone applied to join the police as a reservist, they accepted their service was unpaid and allocated according to the needs of the SA Police Service.

“This does not prevent a reservist from applying to join the police permanently, provided he or she meets the requirements for employment,” he said. “To now try to force the police to employ all reservists through peer pressure looks too much like a form of extortion.”

Burger said the reservist system was not intended as a shortcut to employment by the police.

A criminologist at the University of Limpopo, Prof Jaco Barkhuizen, said the idea behind police reservists was community members who can, or want to assist police in certain tasks.

“It’s designed with the idea to bring in individuals on a reservist basis into the police service with skills and knowledge that police don’t have or need in a certain area,” he said.

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Barkhuizen added that employing reservists permanently might be problematic.

“Reservists don’t undergo the same strict training, the normal route through the police college,” he said.

“It might be a little problematic because you might have a reservist with talent, but a background of something dubious in the past. So, when they are permanent and it comes out, the evidence collected by the reservist could be tossed out.”

But Barkhuizen said police needed more boots on the ground.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za