Last month, the Minister of Police and the National Commissioner introduced a new rank structure for the SAPS.
The structure follows the military rank system of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), and is aimed at maintaining better discipline and uplifting morale among police personnel.
Last month, the Minister of Police and the National Commissioner introduced a new rank structure for the SAPS.
The structure follows the military rank system of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), and is aimed at maintaining better discipline and uplifting morale among police personnel.
The Commissioner, now General Bheki Cele, explained that it was “deemed appropriate” that the military ranks be adopted to ensure mutual respect between the police (now the South African Police Force- SAPF) and the SANDF, “who are on a regular basis involved in joint operations”.
Cele also said that the new structure was introduced for protocol, command and control purposes. Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa said that the ranks had changed to transform “the force” and effect a change in “attitude, thinking and operational duties”.
Mthethwa also described the fight against crime as a people’s war against criminals. “For us to achieve these and other objectives there are certain steps we have undertaken to ensure we win this war, which by the way has been waged by senseless criminals.
“For any force to discharge its tasks effectively there needs to be a commander because wars are led by commanders,” he said.
Members of the SAPF were converted directly from their current ranks to the new ones, with no members being promoted to higher ranks.
The salaries therefore remain unchanged. The new rank structure has introduced two additional rank levels Lieutenant and Major which will, according to Cele, create additional career opportunities for members of the SAPS.
No members have been promoted or translated to these ranks and the criteria for filling these ranks are yet to be finalised by the SAPS human resources policy.
