A sign of the unemployment times: SAPS receives more than 900k applicants for 5 500 posts

Indicative of the high unemployment rate in South Africa and the sheer volume of people desperate for jobs, more than 900 000 applied for the SAPS Basic Police Development Learning Programme (BPDLP).

This is according to a SAPS Facebook post on Thursday, just hours before the cut-off.

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“As of Thursday, 17 July, the SAPS [had] received more than 927 000 applications.

“Female applicants continue to lead in terms of numbers, with 527 673 young women having submitted their applications thus far.

“Male applicants are standing at 400 204 applications,” read the statement.

The SAPS went on to say that Gauteng had brought in the highest number of applications, at more than 240 000, followed by KZN with more than 179 000.

More than 102 000 applications came from Limpopo, while more than 93 000 were from the Eastern Cape, and 89 000 from Mpumalanga.

The Western Cape applicants totalled more than 76 000; The Free State with more than 64 000; North West more than 57 000, and Northern Cape 22 000.

Of the total 927 000, just 261 255 hold valid driver’s licences.

“Not everyone will make it to the selection process due to limited space availability on the training programme, with only 5 500 spaces available,” said the SAPS.

“Those who are successful will be called to go through various assessments, including a psychometric and integrity assessment, physical assessment, medical assessment and an interview.”

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