President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to all workers in the police and prison sectors to fight crime and corruption with diligence. He spoke at a meeting of union, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) in Irene, Pretoria.
Ramaphosa has dismissed talk of public sector retrenchments. He says efforts to create better working conditions for public sector workers are well underway and that there should be no fear as government will address pressing issues.
Popcru’s Central Executive Committee meeting was aimed at seeking ways to empower workers. Popcru President, Zizamele Cebekhulu says more still needs to be done in the form of intervention from government to improve working conditions of their members within the security cluster.
“We went to court to demand a policy, and the court granted us, three years now it’s not there because there is a shortage of members at the correctional services department. But you overwork these workers and they get butchered in the prisons because they are exposed. Those are the things we want to discuss with your Mr President.”
Ramaphosa has challenged Popcru members to be in the fore-front of fighting corruption in society saying that due to the way the sector was weakened, corruption and crime was drastically increasing and that should be a thing of the past.
“Your sector was one of those sectors that were deliberately weakened, your sector is one of those that was targeted to be weak, to be dysfunctional and to be powerless and that is why president is saying, yes you looking at your prisons and you finding that , yes it weakened and yes something drastic needs to be done.”
Ramaphosa has urged Popcru members to adopt a strong “anti-crime” and “anti-corruption” stance.
He says crime-combating efforts will improve with the imminent appointment of a new National Prosecuting Authority head. Click below for more on the story:
