{"id":438245,"date":"2020-10-06T08:14:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T06:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=438245"},"modified":"2020-10-06T08:14:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T06:14:31","slug":"the-new-requirements-to-become-a-police-officer-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/438245\/the-new-requirements-to-become-a-police-officer-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The new requirements to become a police officer in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police minister Bheki Cele has published the South African Police Service Amendment Bill for public <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/436821\/new-laws-planned-for-south-africa-including-changes-to-police-banks-and-when-you-can-use-a-gun\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">comment<\/a><\/strong>, with the legislation set to introduce a number of additional requirements before a person is allowed to become a police officer in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>While the SAPS already has <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/343708\/saps-is-on-a-new-recruitment-drive-these-are-the-requirements-and-how-much-they-will-earn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">requirements<\/a> <\/strong>in place for physical fitness, mental fitness and education, the draft bill proposes a number of additional considerations which focus on the applicant&#8217;s background.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Integrity test\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Under the proposed changes, every person that is newly recruited or considered for appointment to the SAPS as a police officer shall be subjected to an integrity test before appointment.<\/p>\n<p>The draft bill defines an integrity test as a personality test designed to verify whether a candidate is honest and dependable. This test may entail:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The taking of fingerprints;<\/li>\n<li>Taking a buccal sample (cheek swab) to be analysed for a DNA profile;<\/li>\n<li>A polygraph test (a lie detector test);<\/li>\n<li>Financial disclosures;<\/li>\n<li>Disclosure of income and expenses;<\/li>\n<li>Membership of entities such as boards, directorships and institutions;<\/li>\n<li>Determination of contracts with the state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The draft bill states that no person under consideration can be appointed in the SAPS unless an integrity test has been successfully completed.<\/p>\n<p>The integrity test must be performed by the SAPS division responsible for Human Resources.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Lifestyle audit\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The bill also proposes that a lifestyle audit be performed on any member where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they are living above their income.<\/p>\n<p>The bill defines a &#8220;lifestyle audit&#8221; as a comparison of known income of a person with his or her standard of living.<\/p>\n<p>This would be to determine whether:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are gaps and indicators that a person is living above his or her means; or<\/li>\n<li>The person is abusing power or influence for personal gain at that time or a later stage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This lifestyle audit would entail the disclosure of income and expenses, membership of entities such as boards, directorships and institutions, and determination of contracts with the state.<\/p>\n<p>The audit must be performed by the SAPS&#8217; intelligence division. Any member of the SAPS may also be subjected to drug testing.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the above, the bill states that a comparative search may be made into any official database in the SAPS in respect of the person whose integrity test or lifestyle audit is being performed.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/437979\/new-driving-rules-for-south-africa-in-2021-what-you-need-to-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New driving rules for South Africa in 2021 \u2013 what you need to know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police minister Bheki Cele has published the South African Police Service Amendment Bill for public comment, with the legislation set to introduce a number of additional requirements before a person is allowed to become a police officer in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":385081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-438245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438245"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438291,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438245\/revisions\/438291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}