SAPS must clean up its recruitment system: Mkhwanazi

KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says the South African Police Service (SAPS) must clean up its recruitment system.

Addressing Parliament’s Police Committee Summit on gang violence on Wednesday, he questioned whether some officers, including senior police officials, may have had links to gangs before joining the service.

Mkhwanazi says stronger security measures were needed to prevent compromised individuals from rising through the ranks.

He says, “We need to look at the officer that we employ in these law enforcement agencies that we have, are we employing or recruiting a gangster? We have generals, perhaps, that are currently in the police that grew up as members of the gangs until they joined the police and they finished the college, and they got promoted throughout, and then you trust that the generals are going to come with a solution and yet they are members of the gangs themselves.

So what are the security measures are put in place to make sure that we prevent such from happening?” VIDEO | Police Committee seeks solutions to gang violence: Reporting by Mkhokheli Bandla.