I was sad to hear of the liquidation last week of Castellano-Beltrame, a family run enterprise in East London that produced high-quality passamenterie for interior décor, and ribbons for fashion and confectionery over the past forty five years. From humble beginnings, they grew to become a leading international trimmings manufacturer employing hundreds of people. Now, as a result of the recession, they are all out of work. Unemployment is a national curse at present but the good news is there is one big employer still offering work to the lucky or the connected.
The South African Police Service is busy with a nationwide recruitment drive, to increase the number of police personnel by 22 600, bringing the force up to 190 000 members ahead of the 2010 World Cup. They say that you have to have a Matric certificate, driver’s licence, a working knowledge of two official languages and a clean criminal record to qualify. These criteria would apparently automatically disqualify quite a large number of the currently serving boys and girls in blue if push came to shove, but let’s not go there. The South African Police Service is also trying to lure back 50 000 retired officers to replace the skills that they lost through affirmative action in the areas of forensics, ballistics, fingerprinting, the air arm, the dog unit, the bomb squad and the information technology department. So far they have had little response because, according to SAPU General Secretary, Oscar Skommere, most officers who left are currently in well-paid jobs that no sane person would give up to join a peanuts employer like the SAPS.
The conditions that caused these people to leave in the first place haven’t changed much. So, what is needed is something to lift the image and profile of the SAPS to a whole new level to attract better talent. Maybe this is why top cop Bheki Cele and Minister Nathi Mthetwa were so keen to press ahead with their National Police Day celebration last Friday. This, despite the DA’s Helen Zille accusing the Police Minister of breaching his constitutional duty to prevent crime by taking 50 000 police officers, one third of the active police force, off the street to attend the event that she estimates cost us around R70 million. She added that Mthethwa would do far more to polish their image by “overhauling the criminal justice system to effectively catch, prosecute and convict criminals”. Amen.
But this suggestion fell of deaf ears and the party went ahead. So, was the event a success and did we get our money’s worth? Was the image and morale of the boys and girls in blue boosted to new and exciting heights? Er…probably not much, but what have been boosted are 3000 SAPS firearms over the past year. No, I’m not joking. 3000 police weapons have fallen into the wrong hands and no one is making much of a fuss.
Just how the cops have managed to lose 3000 weapons without it being declared a national crisis is a mystery to me. If you or I “lost” a firearm, we would be in serious trouble, possibly even facing a charge of criminal negligence. But this doesn’t seem to apply to policemen. They seem to lose their weapons with impunity if the statistics can be believed. But why is such a cavalier approach to lost or stolen weapons is tolerated in the ranks of those who are paid to keep us safe and secure? By simply ordering another 4 000 new Beretta pistols at a cost of R16 million, as the SAPS has just done, they are de facto ‘unwittingly fuelling the illegal arms trade’ according to the DA’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard, another faint voice of reason drowned out by the deafening entertainment on National Police Day. But, hey, it’s not all bad news. The Police have indicated that 106% of civilian guns that went missing last year have been recovered. That’s brilliant – 6% more recovered than actually went missing – and you say you don’t believe in miracles anymore. Oh, ye of little faith! So, that kind of makes up a bit for the 85% of missing police weapons that weren’t recovered. It’s a triumph.
They might even get Mbongeni Ngema to give the saga a theatrical spin for the next National Police Day. For another million or so, he might even be tempted to borrow a few lines to give it some cross cultural appeal… “This story shall Nathi teach Bheki; But we in it shall be remembered: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that loses his gun with me, Shall be my brother: be he ne’er so vile…” Welcome to this week’s edition of Life & Style also available online
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