The South African Police Service has spent a stunning R131m on paid sick leave in the last financial year, most of it for longer than six months.
This is according to police minister Senzo Mchunu, who lifted the lid on the shocking expenditure for police officers this week in response to a written parliamentary question from the DA.
Mchunu told the National Assembly this week that the SAPS had spent R131,585,808 on more than 600 police officers’ paid sick leave during the 2023/24 financial year.
“The total number of SAPS employees who were on paid sick leave for a period exceeding six months, during the 2023/24 financial year, is 618,” said Mchunu is response to DA MP Lisa Schickerling’s question.
SAPS expenditure on paid sick leave has been red-flagged from as long ago as 2012 as an area of concern by the portfolio committee on police, which at the time heard that police officers were prone to calling in sick “after weekends or their four days’ off”.
The DA now wants the police portfolio committee to request the Public Service Commission to probe “instances of abuse of sick leave” in the SAPS.
Schickerling on Friday told the Sunday Times that during the police committee’s oversight visits to police stations, absenteeism and “burnout” of the men and women in blue were often cited as headaches by station commanders.
Schickerling said while some cases of long sick leave were justifiable due to “traumatic and stressful” working conditions, there were instances of abuse, including in the top management of the police service.
There’s a lot of good police in the SAPS that are trying very hard but it’s not fair to them to every day put their lives at risk while many are getting away with this abuse of sick leave.
— Lisa Schickerling, DA MP
“What we also found out is that there were police officers that were taking advantage of sick leave. There’s a major-general who, very recently, had been let go by the SAPS for abuse of sick leave. And he actually used the excuse of being sick several times not to attend hearings held against him. That’s very senior — and what example is that to lower-ranking police officers?” she asked.
“There are definitely police officers that are hardworking that are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, that are suffering from burnout due to the long hours they work and we really do feel for them and we feel that they should be looked after properly by the SAPS to ensure that their health and their mental health is really up to standard. But we only found out, unfortunately, that there were police officers that were taking advantage of sick leave.”
The DA MP argued that the SAPS was lax in its management of paid sick leave.
“I don’t think the management of SAPS is managing this effectively, I don’t think they have the will to effectively deal with the abuse. We keep having workshops but there’s no tangible action plan. There’s a lot of good police in the SAPS that are trying very hard but it’s not fair to them to every day put their lives at risk while many are getting away with this abuse of sick leave.
“Surely if you are off for longer than six months, something must be done, and you must go have a look at perhaps boarding these police officers or look at what the issues are.”
Mchunu’s office had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication, despite acknowledging receipt of the questions late on Thursday.
The South African Policing Union (Sapu) flatly rejected suggestions that its members were abusing sick leave. Sapu spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale said those making such claims had no idea what their members were subjected to in the line of duty.
“Do they know that when you wake up and put on your boots, you might not come back to your family? Do you know how difficult that is? You find that the building where you go report for duty is dilapidated. You get shot at, you get attacked and people say the health of the police does not matter, they must not get sick? Come on,” said Thobakgale.
There were gaps in how the SAPS was providing “employee wellness support” to police officers, he said.
“Members don’t get the necessary debriefings after attending to traumatic scenes so what does [that] then lead to? Automatically, it will lead to all of those issues where they have to go and get sick from time to time, consulting doctors because there’s just a lot of issues regarding mental health and physical health as well.
“We’ve been on a journey with SAPS. There was a workshop that was held earlier this year to try to deal with issues that revolve around employee wellness and health. It’s still work in progress but so far, the reality is that they don’t have capacity. There’s not enough personnel who can give that debriefing to our members, they go home with that traumatic experience, tomorrow they come back to attend to another one. And then they start to pile up.
“Sometimes people talk from their vantage positions, not understanding the reality on the ground.”
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