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Trade union Solidarity today said the South African Police Service (SAPS) itself is responsible for unnecessarily delaying the promotion of 1 634 police members in the rank of lieutenant, captain and major. This comes after National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega recently said in a statement that Solidarity’s Labour Court Case was to blame for delaying the promotions in question.

Phiyega announced in a press release last week that she had promoted more than 7 500 police members in various ranks countrywide. She claimed it was Solidarity’s doing that the promotions had been delayed, as the trade union had declared a dispute and insisted that all appointments and promotions in the mentioned ranks that had been approved following changes to the previous rank structure be put on hold. The trade union wanted the Labour Court to first determine the legality of these appointments.

According to Dirk Groenewald, Head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practice, the court proceedings could have commenced in June this year. However, the police repeatedly caused the process to be delayed unnecessarily. Although a court date was set, the registrar of the court has in the meantime indicated that the case will be heard at a later stage.

“The SAPS undertook to supply us with a signed pre-trial minute by the end of July, but we have not received it to date and they are not responding to our enquiries. Solidarity intends to finalise the lawsuit as soon as possible, but the SAPS are delaying the process,” said Groenewald.

Solidarity declared a dispute with the SAPS in 2011 after members of minority groups had been unfairly discriminated against with respect to appointments on the level of lieutenant, captain and major.

Issued by Solidarity