WeeklySA_AdminMORALE: Police union demands the immediate rollout of a two-stream promotion system, saying thousands of support and administrative employees have waited too long for meaningful career advancement…
By WSAM Reporter and Len Maseko
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) has demanded the immediate start of an agreed two-stream promotion system in the South African Police Service (SAPS), warning that years of career stagnation are damaging morale in an organisation already confronting a leadership crisis.
The demand follows an update by Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane at POPCRU’s Central Executive Committee meeting last week.
Dimpane told delegates that SAPS was reviewing its promotion policy in consultation with organised labour and expected to conclude the process by the end of the 2026/27 financial year.
POPCRU, however, says implementation should begin before the financial year closes and that members should not be made to wait for another policy process to run its course. The proposed two-stream system would allow support and administrative employees to advance within their professional fields instead of having to transfer into the operational SAPS Act structure simply to progress.
Our members cannot keep being told that their careers are still ‘under consideration’ while years pass and promotion opportunities remain blocked…
POPCRU president Thulani Ngwenya said the union wanted firm answers about the remaining steps, implementation dates and the structure that would determine its members’ careers.
“Our members cannot keep being told that their careers are still ‘under consideration’ while years pass and promotion opportunities remain blocked,” Ngwenya said.
“SAPS must implement the two-stream system as agreed and begin doing so before the end of this financial year, finally giving experienced non-operational staff a real route to move forward.”
Dimpane also confirmed that about 9,076 of the longest-serving qualifying Police Act employees, who have spent at least 10 years in rank, were being prioritised for progression in 2026/27, subject to available funding.
They are expected to progress from constable to sergeant, sergeant to warrant officer and Warrant Officer Band B1 to Band B2 from October 1 2026.
POPCRU welcomed the movement but said its scale exposed how deeply career stagnation had become entrenched. The union has repeatedly raised cases of members approaching retirement after decades of service while still holding the rank of warrant officer.
Ngwenya said the intervention should form part of a permanent overhaul, not become another once-off exercise that left structural blockages untouched.
CAREER CEILING
Support and administrative employees appointed under the Public Service Act are central to the dispute. POPCRU says many are effectively capped at salary level 7, while operational members can advance substantially further.
To move beyond that ceiling, employees have historically had to leave their professional streams and enter the SAPS Act structure. The union says this has trapped accountants, human resources practitioners, forensic analysts, administrators and other specialists below senior positions in fields in which they have built qualifications and experience.
The promotion battle is unfolding as SAPS grapples with upheaval in its senior leadership and growing concern about stability and morale.
National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola is on precautionary suspension after appearing in court on charges of contravening the Public Finance Management Act. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty. President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Dimpane acting commissioner in April, saying the case against the country’s top police officer should not destabilise SAPS or undermine the morale of its members.
The turmoil follows evidence before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into alleged criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system. Its interim report identified prima facie evidence requiring investigation against several SAPS officers, although the Presidency stressed that the referrals were not final findings of guilt.
Major-General Richard Shibiri, the former national head of organised crime, was subsequently dismissed following an internal disciplinary process. Other senior officers have been suspended or face disciplinary and criminal investigations arising from the commission, parliamentary inquiries and separate procurement investigations.
Five senior officers were suspended in June in connection with the Medicare24 Tshwane tender investigation. Parliament’s police committee warned that the suspensions had created a “significant leadership vacuum” and left SAPS operating in uncertainty.
Accountability is necessary to restore the institution’s credibility. But instability at the top has added to pressures on ordinary officers already contending with staff shortages, unsafe working conditions, inadequate resources, attacks on police and limited prospects of advancement.
LONG-STANDING DISPUTE
Founded on November 5 1989, amid resistance by black police and prison officers to the apartheid security system, POPCRU is an affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). It says it represents more than 150 000 police, correctional services and traffic officials across the three sectors.
Its grievances against SAPS extend beyond promotions. The union has campaigned over delayed collective agreements, unfilled posts, understaffing, stalled restructuring, inadequate danger and service allowances, unsafe police stations, vehicle and equipment shortages and insufficient protection for officers.
A 2022 memorandum demanded a promotion and grade-progression policy, more personnel, safer stations, better allowances and clear upward mobility for Public Service Act employees. The union carried those demands into 2023, when it told Parliament that SAPS restructuring approved in 2020 had stalled.
POPCRU argues that career stagnation, poor working conditions and the dangers confronting officers are driving dissatisfaction and weakening SAPS’s ability to fight crime.
“We must break the promotion deadlock in SAPS that is stunting our members’ careers,” Ngwenya said. “The agreed two-stream system must now be implemented, with clear opportunities and firm timelines. Our members have waited long enough”.
