Durban — Police unions in KwaZulu-Natal have expressed concern over the police danger allowance increase of R300, demanding R1 500 monthly, especially with KZN police working twice as hard in fighting crime.
Police and Prisoners Civil Rights Union (Popcru) KZN secretary, Nthabeleng Molefe, said the union would contest the danger allowance to be at least R1 500 as of the next financial year.
This comes after it was said that the police danger allowance is set to increase from R400 to R700 per month.
“The increase is small, especially looking at what KZN police have to deal with since the province has a very high crime rate, always in the top three in the country.
“When making these decisions they also need to take the recent attacks and killings of police into consideration because they create a void that cannot be filled within the police service.
“It contributes to the shortage of members, which leave members within the service overstretched.
“Police work under dangerous situations, as a result the R700 will never be enough and no money can ever amount to someone’s life,” said Molefe.
She said as much as R700 was not enough, in the meantime the police would have to settle for what was on the table because it was better than nothing.
“We may agree with what is given at present, but come next financial year, we demand that the danger allowance increase on a yearly basis.
“Police have been getting this R400 for as long as I can remember,” said Molefe.
Independent Policing Union of SA (Ipusa), general secretary, Mpho Kwinika, said for more than 30 years, the police had been on the ground and asking for the allowance to be increased with no response from management.
“We hope that management will link the increase with inflation so that it is automatically adjusted every year.
“We also want to see it at R5 000 and this will be a great boost to encourage those in offices to work outside,” said Kwinika.
He said South Africa was in trouble with criminals who kept communities in fear because of the shortage of manpower and vehicles.
“With this allowance, there is no doubt in our minds that it will motivate our members to work even harder,” said Kwinika.
Meanwhile, KZN Public Servants Association of SA (PSA) provincial manager, Mlungisi Ndlovu, said the allowance increase was not the only concern KZN police had to deal with.
He said the province also needed to focus on increasing the visibility of police officers because there was not enough police to deal with a variety of crimes committed on a daily basis.
“KZN has always been at the top of the list of crime, also, last year, a report stated that South Africa is 90 000 behind in police officers, hence it needs to deploy more police.
“We need more police stations in the province and the ones that we have lack proper infrastructure and are failing to deal with certain cases,” said Ndlovu.
He said a police salary increase was also necessary, looking at what the police were faced with.
DA KZN spokesperson on community safety, Sharon Hoosen, said the R300 increase was an embarrassment to the police.
“It is clear that yet again the priorities of the government are not based on the interests of safety, but merely to create an impression that the government cares.
“In this province, we have a high rate of rape and murder and we have not seen any reduction in figures in the past five years or more,” said Hoosen.
The actions of the government thus far had proven yet again that it is not serious about reducing crime in the province where criminals thrive, she said.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said: “The service allowance was increased from (R)400 to R700. The SAPS is welcome to enter into discussions with organised labour for next year subject to the availability of funds to increase the danger allowance.”
Mathe added that the well-being of officers remained a priority for the SAPS and that the organisation was constantly filling positions through the internal post promotions process and external advertisement process.
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