Hon Chairperson, hon members, the committee undertook an unannounced oversight visit to the Philippi SAPS Basic Training College in the Western Cape province on 19 May 2010. We will focus on this report because we have reported on a number of occasions on visits to police stations. The visit was motivated by a decision taken by the committee, during its strategic planning workshop in January 2010, to focus on SAPS training.
The Philippi training college, situated in the Western Cape, provides basic training for new recruits to the SA Police Service from different provinces in the country. At the time of the visit, there were 660 trainees at the college who had been admitted to the course.
Of the 660 trainees, two had resigned and one's training had been terminated due to a medical condition. The college had 142 staff members and training was being offered in three areas: academic training, physical training and mass artillery, which is training in the use of firearms.
The committee interacted with top and middle management of the college and were taken on an inspection of the training college, including the general grounds, barracks, stores, gymnasium, kitchen, administration block and filing facilities. The visit was concluded by a meeting with the management team of the college for a team briefing session.
The kitchen was very clean, especially considering the fact the inspection preceded the end of the lunch shift. The response from recruits to whom members spoke was that the food provided was very good. The members inspected the armoury, the supply store and the stationery store. The armoury was neat and seemed to be relatively well kept and orderly.
However, there were many lapses and omissions that were identified with regard to the upkeep of the stores, such as a lack of weekly inspections. In fact, the stores were just disorderly. The college grounds were poorly maintained and in some cases piles of unused goods were lying around on the grounds.
The barracks inspected by the committee were in a very poor condition, in terms of both low levels of maintenance and the poor degree of cleanliness. There were broken and leaking toilets. The entrance landing areas and staircases were filthy and encrusted with dirt and dust. Clearly, the staff members responsible for checking the barracks were not doing their jobs properly and trainees were not being disciplined for not keeping their barracks clean.
The supply store was disorganised, dirty and in a general state of disarray. Members were disappointed that the vision and mission of the college were not clearly visible. Records of trainees were not properly filed and were packed on the floors.
Records of attendance, as contained in the attendance register, were not properly completed by trainers and not regularly checked by managers. In fact, the class attendance register revealed a number of days on which trainees sat in classes without any form of teaching or learning.
It should be noted that while the committee had some serious concerns with regard to the implementation of the training curriculum at the college, the basic training curriculum has since been reviewed. This should address these concerns, including, for example, a lack of correlation between practical and theoretical training.
The committee noted inaccuracies in record keeping and in the registers for the store. Changes made to the register were not accompanied by signatures.
All of these problems can be attributed to a lack of discipline within the college. Clearly, the problem resided with the management of the college, as it is through them that a sense of pride and professionalism would be passed on to the trainees.
There seemed to be no consequences for ill-disciplined staff. It became clear that the learning experience of recruits at the Philippi college was severely compromised.
For these very serious reasons, the committee recommended that the SAPS head office appoint senior members to assist or mentor the Philippi training college management and to attend to all matters identified in the report of committee; and that the SAPS submits a report on corrective measures that the head office planned to undertake to address the concerns raised in the portfolio committee report.
Responding to the portfolio committee recommendations, the report from head office, dated 3 February 2011, was received by the committee. One of the decisions of the head office was to remove the principal of the college, with which we, as the committee, fully agree. The portfolio committee intends visiting the college once more. Thank you. [Applause.]
There was no debate.
Chairperson, I move:
That the reports be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Reports accordingly adopted.