WATCH | Some police still waiting for election day overtime payments

While about 66% of police officers who worked overtime during the elections have been paid, some are still waiting for their payments. 

SAPS spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe, in an interview with Newzroom Afrika on Thursday, said concerns raised by police officers demanding payments for overtime worked during the May 29 elections were being attended to.

“I can confirm the special allowance is being paid. We are standing at 66% nationally of special allowances that have been paid to members.

“We know some members are still deployed in KwaZulu-Natal and they haven't received their special allowance. Once they're back at their stations and units, their payments will be processed and they will then get their special allowance,” Mathe said.

“We had more than 55,000 members deployed going into the election. For us to be able to follow the normal 12-hour shift it would have required maybe double the number of police officers, which is more than 100,000.

“Our budget would have had to run into billions for this election and that is money we don't have.

“We were working with a limited budget that had been allocated to the police for the elections and we were only able to pay the special allowances for voting day.” 

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union had raised concerns about the special allowance not being enough, Mathe conceded.

“When we went to the elections we met the unions to discuss what we could afford. We agreed the money is not enough. The special allowance rate has been in place for a number of years.”

She assured police officers and the union that the situation was being resolved.