News Police threaten to "go slow" BAME PIET Staff writer As the country enters the second day of a national strike by civil servants, some police officers are reported to be secretly taking part in the strike and planning to eventually become fully involved in it.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday that the men in blue are not happy that the management has withheld their promotions that were recommended in March. "We do not know what is holding back our promotions and officers are beginning to think that they are also subjected to the same sabotage as other civil servants. They are planning to go slow until these promotions are announced," he said. He accused the management of sitting on the promotions hence causing anxiety to the officers. The officer even attributed the delay to personal differences between the top three managers of the police force. "We hear that there are serious differences between the three top men and that could be the reason why we have not heard anything on promotions," he said. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kenny Kapinga confirmed that some officers were supposed to be promoted this month, but the Commissioner has been engaged in other issues and was unable to release the circular on time. He said that the ongoing strike was one of the reasons why the commissioner could not act on time, as the police had to make preparations for it. "They should be patient because the promotions will be backdated to April 1st and they stand to lose nothing. However, the promotions are very limited because they are determined by vacancies available," he said. Kapinga would not disclose the number of available vacancies. Kapinga however, cautioned that they would not tolerate any form of indiscipline, as the rules that bar officers from any industrial action are crystal clear. "Go slow or any form of strike is a very serious offence in the police force," he said. The Botswana Police Service Act does not allow police officers to unionise and the police management have dismissed any suggestions of that nature. In 2009 the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU), based in South Africa, convened a meeting in Gaborone to advocate for Botswana police officers to be allowed to unionise. However, they were met with a hostile response from Deputy Commissioner Ikwatlhaeng Bagopi who told them that it was impossible to allow Botswana Police officers to unionise. He even told them to go and toyi-toyi in their country and leave Botswana in peace. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
