The DA is calling for more psychological support for police officers in the face of rising suicides.
Following a shooting incident involving a police sergeant, a former cop and a female brigadier in Limpopo which left two of them dead this week, the DA is calling for better psychosocial support for the South African Police Service (SAPS) officers.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) on Tuesday confirmed that a sergeant based at the Westernburg Police Station in Polokwane shot and wounded a former police officer at his house before driving to the station where he gunned down a female brigadier.
In a statement, Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said the police sergeant later took his own life with his service pistol. Mamabolo said the former cop, who lived in the same vicinity as the senior officer, was rushed to the hospital for medical attention. However, he did not disclose the motive for the shootings.
But a source with intimate details of the shooting said the three were involved in an alleged love triangle. The brigadier was allegedly in a relationship with the sergeant when she started an affair with the former cop.
Mamabolo said that officers experienced profound mental and emotional stress in their line of duty which may lead to suicide.
He said it raised questions about SAPS’ current capacity to provide ongoing safe, confidential and specialised mental health support to its members and raised questions about the adequacy of police’s pre-employment mental and psychological screening procedures and whether they are fit for purpose.
The SAPS 2022/23 annual report recorded 138 psychologists, 57 “quality of work life” professionals, 205 social workers and 190 chaplains operating in employee wellness programmes.
DA’s spokesperson on police, Ian Cameron said Popcru‘s statement that at least 300 SAPS officers had committed suicide since 2017 was concerning and the issue needed urgent attention.
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Cameron said:
These individuals are responsible for the mental wellness of about 180 000 SAPS employees, all operating in extremely high-stress and high-risk environments.
Cameron added that the SAPS had a 28.7% vacancy rate for psychologists and counsellors, making it extremely difficult for top management to adequately staff this section. He said in 2022 SAPS conducted an “organisational climate survey” in which concerns about the police service employee wellness programmes were raised.
He added that Parliament’s portfolio committee’s chairperson at the time expressed grave concerns about the poor health and wellness services within the SAPS.
Said Cameron:
While strengthening our police service’s operational capacity is key to building a safer society and kickstarting our economy, we must not neglect the health and well-being of the men and women on the ground who put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. Building effective, confidential, and specialised mental well-being programmes within the SAPS should be a priority for the ministry [of police] and legislators alike.
READ: Toxic masculinity blamed for rising murder-suicides by cops
He said these programmes should ensure that the SAPS leadership understood the extreme pressures faced by their employees for them to be in a better position to support the officers and effectively deal with the “extraordinary challenges they face daily”.
Mamabolo said the programmes were inadequate:
This is allegedly due to the reasons that these employee health and wellness representatives, usually psychologists and priests, are not doing what is required of them or they do not understand their roles. Further, there are claims of lack of confidentiality and that there are no regular visits to victims and that the services are stigmatised, limiting individuals’ upward mobility within the ranks.
He added that most of the SAPS employees were not familiar with the health and wellness programmes at their station. Confidentiality should be strengthened as most police officers felt their information might be compromised.
“We need to ensure that the EHW representatives are not reactive in approach and they should do more visits to police stations as opposed to visits that are only conducted when there are challenges.
“All role players should do more in informing police officers about what the EHWs are aimed at. Currently, most officers do not fully understand what these programmes are aimed at and for this reason, there is a stigma created around the issue,” said Mamabolo.
Cameron also said the DA would be submitting questions in Parliament to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, to obtain further information on this matter to better engage with the SAPS on the way forward.
“The DA extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of the two Saps officers who lost their lives this past Sunday in a tragic shooting incident in Limpopo. This event follows closely on two similar incidents in the North West in May this year, when two more SAPS officers took their lives over a weekend,” he said.
Zamokuhle Ndawonde
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