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Police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi has made it perfectly apparent that, for two months, the Department of Police has made absolutely zero progress vetting or employing new staff members to the Hawks.

Compare these two statements:

STATEMENT ONE: 20 May 2009

"Recruitment has been done, and what is outstanding is the process of vetting all the staff, with a huge number of almost 800 people who are going to be employed." (Panyazi Lesufi)

56 days later:

STATEMENT TWO: 15 July 2009

"What is outstanding is the process of vetting all the staff, with a huge number of almost 800 people who are going to be employed" (Police Ministry spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi)

You can deduce the following from those two statements:

56 days, eight weeks or two months have passed since the original statement;
56 days ago 800 people needed to be vetted, two months later, 800 people still have to be vetted;
For 56 days, the Hawk's staff complement grew by the sum total of 0;
For 56 days, the Hawks did not investigate a case or prosecute a criminal, because they didn't exist; and
For 56 days the Police Department waxed lyrical to the public about the speedy formation of the Hawks when, behind the scenes, it was making no progress at all.

The Police Department's attitude to the public in this regard is disgraceful and has been defined by a lack of respect. Quite clearly it believes it can feed any line it wants to the public - indeed, exactly the same one at two month intervals - and the public will just nod and agree.

Those in charge need to understand they serve the public, as do the Hawks and, having conveniently shut down the Scorpions, losing a wealth of institutional knowledge and expertise in the process, it has systematically failed to fill a vacuum of its own creation.

No doubt criminals themselves are taking great comfort from the ANC government's poor administration - the longer it takes to get the Hawks up and running, the more time they have to ply their trade.

So when will the Police start to put the public first? It is impossible to tell from the public statements they make. Even as a gauge of their progress it is unhelpful - if one had to use their public pronouncements as an indicator there is every reason to believe that in two months' time they will still need to vet 800 people.

The Democratic Alliance will be submitting a parliamentary question to the Minister of Police asking who, specifically is in charge of the vetting process, why no progress was made in this regard for 56 days and what action will be taken against those responsible.