5700 cops can't drive

This is just great. We have coppers with no driver's licenses, many barely literate, many on the take - and these people form the frontline against crime?

Of these people, 687 are detectives and crime intelligence! Pray tell how a detective is to investigate a crime scene if he can't get around without a chaffeur?

See also; Cop stations fail health test - Of 469 police stations around the country that were inspected for compliance with the health and safety regulations, only 21 were found to be fully compliant.

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Nathi Mthethwa, the new Safety and Security Minister, has told Parliament that 5 733 police officers do not have valid driving licences.

These include 3 338 inspectors, 1 712 sergeants, and as many as 280 captains. (read it again "captains!")

Giving these figures in a written answer to a parliamentary question from James Masango of the Democratic Alliance circulated, Mthethwa said the current figures were arrived at after a verification process which followed a similar question put last year.

He also admitted that the non-drivers included 620 members of the detective service and 67 from crime intelligence. Altogether 4 984 members of the visible policing units could not drive. Seventeen superintendents cannot either.

The provincial breakdown of non-drivers shows that Gauteng and the Eastern Cape account fomore than half the cops unfamiliar with the steering wheel.