The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) is set to hold a five-day central executive committee meeting in Boksburg from Monday.
Popcru represents 160,000 police, prisons and traffic officers. More than 800 officials and guests are expected to attend the gathering at the Birchwood Hotel.
The meeting of Popcru’s highest decision-making body in between its national congresses is set to give direction to the union on organisational, political, policy and socioeconomic issues, among other items.
Popcru president Thulani Ngwenya said one of the most pressing issues would be whether SA’s crime-fighting efforts had been set up for failure by a dire lack of resources.
According to finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget policy statement last week, the Treasury’s adjusted estimates of national expenditure reveals that the 2024/2025 police budgets have been slashed from R125bn allocated in February’s national budget to only R113.6bn — a 9% decrease.
Correctional services, meanwhile, has received a 2.18% hike from its R27.2bn budget in 2023/2024, totalling R27.8bn in 2024/2025, an increase of almost half the rate of inflation.
“The proposed budget cut is not aligned with SA’s crime-fighting strategy. Furthermore, it raises concerns about the political willingness to ensure the state’s constitutional obligation to secure and protect its citizens. We urge the government to allocate sufficient funds for more police, traffic and correctional officials, as well as justice personnel, to handle cases, deliver sentences and provide adequate prisoner care,” Ngwenya said.
National police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila and Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi are expected to address the gathering.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to lead the district development model presidential imbizo in KwaZulu-Natal this week, with the gathering scheduled to be held in Umgababa from Tuesday to Friday.
The model is aimed at improving service delivery in the local government sector. It is designed to address service deliver problems by allowing all spheres of government, from local municipalities to national government, to co-ordinate their work more effectively.
The model helps municipalities to better plan, budget and implement projects and programmes, while ensuring that municipal work is managed and monitored to achieve positive outcomes.
On Monday, DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga and shadow health MEC Jack Bloom and provincial legislature DA whip Nico de Jager are set to hold a press briefing to “expose Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s contravention of the Executive Members Ethics Act”.
The DA, which is not part of the government of provincial unity, said it had already written to public protector Kholeka Gcaleka to investigate the matter. Lesufi was allegedly part of a meeting on October 11 2023 that discussed, among other things, the “breakdown of the relationship between the [provincial government] and the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union, which has led to a toxic work environment”.
“The premier, as an executive member, had no right to sit in a meeting that discusses the internal affairs of the legislature. That role should have been reserved for the speaker of the legislature at the time, Ntombi Mekgwe. But, never one to miss an opportunity to showcase his influence, Lesufi was present and likely swayed the discussions,” the DA said.
DA leader John Steenhuisen is expected to receive a memorandum from civil society groups Solidarity and AfriForum at a march against the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, at the Voortrekker Monument in Tshwane on Tuesday.
The DA previously said it had instructed its lawyers to keep preparing for a court challenge on both the process leading up to the signing of the bill and its substance on constitutional grounds.
Ramaphosa signed the bill into law in September but delayed the implementation of controversial clauses for three months to allow for further engagement.
The DA said on Sunday: “The DA is standing against the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act because it takes away the right of school governing bodies to make important decisions about language and admissions. Instead of destroying education in indigenous languages, we should be working to extend mother tongue education for all South Africans.”
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