Cape Town - The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI/Hawks) has managed to surpass the 50% mark in employment of its personnel.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the directorate had an organogram for 5 332 posts, but 2 642 posts were filled and only 1 500 were investigating officers as at March.
Briefing the standing committee on public accounts on Wednesday, DPCI head Godfrey Lebeya said the unit had this month promoted 244 of personnel, including those taken from greater SAPS.
“Our capacity has grown now to over 50%. We are now sitting at 52%,” Lebeya said.
He said they intended to appoint another 290 with effect from January 1.
“We are currently doing a selection process where there are more than 50 000 applications that we must sift through,” he said.
Lebeya said they were building the capacity of the DPCI to be able to respond to the volume of work on hand.
“We work hard to fully capacitate the DPCI. The workload on hand requires that we get more hands so that we can be able to speed up the investigations.
“Once we finalise the 290, we shall have an exhausted budget. It means there shall be a need to get an additional budget. This is calculated to R1.3 billion additional budget.”
Lebeya also said the new head of serious commercial crime was expected to take up the position on December 1.
“We delayed because of the issue of top secret vetting. That is something that delays some of the appointments we are doing,” Lebeya said.
The position is currently headed in acting capacity by Brigadier Mmeli Makinyane for a few months now.
Lebeya said they could have made the appointment a long time ago if vetting was quick.
The DPCI was waiting for the vetting of 17 senior managers before confirming appointments.
“We would like to appoint, but because there is a decision that we can't appoint unless there is top security clearance, this is affecting us,” he said.
Lebeya explained that the law required that those appointed should have security clearance even if it was not top security so that people could perform duties while applying for those security clearances.
“On senior management services (SMS), we can’t take a risk and appoint an SMS when you don’t have top secret clearance,” he added.
Lebeya said they have advised their manager responsible for vetting to ensure it was finalised within 60 days.
The DPCI, he said, normally advertises posts before they are vacant, especially when people are due for retirement.
“Within three months before the period, we advertise so that those identified can go through the vetting process.”
Meanwhile, there were 11 000 accused persons who were appearing in various courts after being arrested by the DPCI.
Lebeya said more than one person was charged for one count and that they try to ensure that they do not lose the cases.
“Once in court you don’t see the Golf, it is individuals. It is where the publication is not really much visible,” he said.
“I see this on a daily basis. On any given day there are cases in court,” he said, adding that they issued press statements daily.
His comments on the court appearances were made after Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa noted that the DPCI made early-morning arrests with suspects “getting a nice ride” in the directorate’s Golf 7s.
“The public relations is good and sends a message of a sense of being at work. The public relations must translate to tangible consequences and outcomes,” Hlengwa said.
Cape Times