The City of Cape Town is potentially one step away from increasing its policing numbers by easing the recruitment process for Metro Police officers.

Currently, anyone who applies for a Metro Police post is required to be a registered traffic officer, in terms of the Municipal Police Services regulations.

This means that, even if the candidate has the skills and qualifications in all aspects required for the Metro Police Department, they cannot be appointed unless they are a registered traffic officer.

Even new recruits are required to complete the 12-month traffic qualification first, before moving on to securing their municipal policing qualification.

The requirement has slowed down efforts to address dire staff shortages within the Metro Police Department, especially to capacitate units dealing with crowd management, protest actions, training, armoury as well as other crime-orientated functions.

After seeking legal opinion, the City petitioned the National Police Commissioner in March this year, who responded favourably to a request to waive this particular recruitment requirement.

The Commissioner, however, directed the Metro Police Department to approach the Western Cape MEC for Transport, since current legislation prohibits interference with the powers of the MEC for traffic matters.

We have asked that the MEC considers our request to register persons qualified and found suitable during an extensive recruitment process, as traffic officers, notwithstanding the fact that such persons might not have successfully completed the training as traffic officers.

This will be one of the top priorities as we establish a working relationship with the newly appointed MEC.

The City is in the unique position that it has an independent traffic service and therefore the suggested approach would not be in breach of the South African Police Service Amendment Act.

If this application is successful, persons considered will be appointed with specific conditions which can include, but is not limited to work only in identified units/positions until they have completed formal traffic officer training within a specific time period.

More importantly, it will help us to dramatically increase our Metro Police complement which in turn will ensure increased visible policing in our communities where they will make an impact towards safety.

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