Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron, has joined the chorus of calls for better mental health support for police officers, following a recent murder-suicide.
With at least 300 officers having ended their own lives since 2017, Cameron questioned the SAPS’ “current capacity in providing ongoing safe, confidential, and specialised mental health support to its members.” He further raised concern about the “adequacy of SAPS’ pre-employment mental and psychological screening procedures and whether they are fit for purpose.”
According to the SAPS 2022/23 annual report, the police employs only 138 psychological professionals, 57 “Quality of Work Life” professionals, 205 social workers, and 190 chaplains, a total of 590 Employee Wellness Programme (EWP) workers. These 590 EWP personnel are responsible for the well-being of over 180 000 SAPS employees, many of whom operate in “extremely high-stress and high-risk environments.” Cameron noted there is currently a 28.7% vacancy rate for councillors within SAPS, emphasising that “capacitating this division presents a significant challenge for top management that must be tackled with the utmost urgency.”
With concerns around the Employee Wellness Programmes being raised as early as 2022, Cameron noted his predecessor on the committee expressed his grave concern regarding the “poor health and wellness services.”
Agreeing that SAPS needed to strengthen their operational capacity, he said it is vital that “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.” Cameron called for the establishment of “effective, confidential and specialised mental well-being programmes within the SAPS,” urging the Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu to set it as a priority.
Stressing the importance of these programmes, Cameron notes they provide SAPS leadership with an opportunity to “understand and engage with the extreme pressures faced by our boots on the ground.” This would allow for leadership to effectively support their staff through the “extraordinary challenges they face on a daily basis.”
The comments by Cameron followed a shooting in which a police sergeant in Polokwane shot and wounded a former police officer at his house before driving to the station where he gunned down a female brigadier. He then took his own life with his service pistol. The incident is believed to have occurred over a love triangle.
