Pretoria: Since 2009, 1 338 crime intelligence posts have been filled, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Tuesday.

Replying to a Parliamentary Question in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Minister Mthethwa said that 665 of these posts were promotional posts, 268 posts were security intelligence, analysts or vetting posts.

In addition, the minister said 405 posts were Public Service posts related to clerks and other support services within the Crime Intelligence.

All the above posts, with the exception of the post that related to support service personnel falling under the Public Service Act, were advertised between the period 2009 and December 2012.

While the minister is happy with some of the progress made in the filling of posts within Crime Intelligence, he noted that more work is still required to ensure that crime intelligence fills all vacant posts.

“Crime intelligence plays a critical role in ensuring proper profiling of perpetrators and verification of case information and has proven very effective in many countries around the world.

“The South African context is not different and requires a serious focus on employing crime intelligence to improving the quality of cases to ensure convictions. In addition crime intelligence must assist police by providing information that will allow SAPS to develop effective strategies aimed at reducing and combating crime and that are guided by the proactive analysis of crime information,” Mthethwa said.

Following recently identified gaps in personnel, the minister emphasised that all critical post must be filled as a matter of urgency.

He has tasked the National Commissioner of Police, Riah Phiyega, to ensure that all correct processes were followed in the filling of the posts since 2009, and that going forward, the filling of crime intelligence posts follow correct procedures and SAPS ensures that no irregularities occur in the filling of posts.

Source: South African Official News