The South African Police Service (SAPS) was unable to accept 5500 new police candidates after the cancellation of a medical assessment contract worth 360 million rand. This was revealed during a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Police held on Wednesday.
This contract was between SAPS and the company Medicare24 Tshwane District, which is wholly owned by Wusimuzi 'Kat' Matlala. Matlala's company was appointed to provide health risk management services, including pre-employment medical assessments, medical assessments for external deployment, sick leave retirement assessments, health screenings, in-service injury medical assessments, and medical surveillance over a three-year period.
Lynn Phillips, Secretary of the Cape Flats Safety Forum, expressed regret that applicants went through the entire recruitment process while awaiting employment with SAPS. She noted that the recruitment was intended to help alleviate the current situation faced by ordinary people in Cape Flats and the wider Western Cape, particularly regarding gang violence, firearms, and high crime rates in local communities.
Phillips stated that this indicates a lack of a real national plan to assist communities already traumatized by serious and violent crimes. She emphasized that the police are already understaffed, primarily in terms of human resources, which directly affects local communities needing assistance, given that SAPS officers are overloaded, and considering those who have left the force due to natural attrition.
In Phillips' view, senior police management has handled the challenges in the Western Cape extremely poorly and must seriously consider how to salvage the situation. She insisted on the need for immediate action, pointing to numerous deaths in Cape Flats occurring unchecked, while the news of 5500 candidates not being accepted is being reported, even though these officers could change the situation in communities amid the current level of serious and violent crime.
DA Member of Parliament Nicholas Gotzell stated that for families in Cape Flats, these 5500 absent police candidates are not just statistics. He linked this to supply chain issues within SAPS that had been discussed for months, mentioning the inability to provide rape sample kits to various units in the Western Cape. According to him, this also explains the lack of personnel on the ground and the suffering of communities, especially in gang-related areas.
Gotzell noted that these individuals were supposed to protect children going to school, patrol gang-infested streets, and respond to desperate pleas for help. Instead, communities live in fear while SAPS fails to handle basic tasks. He reminded that in March, SAPS promised Parliament two police officers for every SANDF soldier deployed to combat gang violence, yet police stations are already severely understaffed.
A recent SAPS report showed that Matlala's tender for these services was allegedly questionable from the outset. The report claimed that Matlala was improperly awarded the tender through collusive bidding with SAPS employees. According to the report, Matlala was improperly paid 50,310,590.63 rand, which has not yet been recovered.
Furthermore, the report stated that seven police officers involved in the application evaluation committee failed to conduct proper vetting before the contract was awarded to Matlala. These officers were accused of failing to prevent the use of proxies during the competition, as they recommended Medicare24 Tshwane District even after it was discovered that Matlala lacked healthcare experience.