Abstract:
Over the years, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has been recording the highest
number of employee grievances in comparison to other government institutions in South
Africa. Some of the grievances reported by employees remain unresolved. For these
reasons, the primary aim of this study was to determine the causes of the high rate of
grievances in the Pretoria policing area of the SAPS. To achieve the primary aim of the
study, concurrent mixed methods were applied, in particular the survey questionnaire,
interviews and document study. On the one hand, the SPSS version 26 software was
used to analyse quantitative data collected through a survey questionnaire. On the other
hand, qualitative content analysis was used to analyse data collected through interviews.
The findings of this study illustrate that the common sources of grievances in the SAPS
are promotions, unpaid leave, unfair treatment and rejection of application for transfers.
The findings of this study confirmed that autocratic supervisory behaviour as a
management factor is among the major factors that account for the high rate of
grievances in the SAPS. The study has found that in the process of applying the
grievance procedure to address grievances, the SAPS complied with timelines linked to
each grievance phase only to a slight extent. In relation to the causes of unresolved
grievances, the study found that the involvement of legal representatives in grievances,
lack of impartiality of the part of grievance officers, the grievants’ failure to provide
testimony and failure to gather adequate evidence pertaining to grievances contributed
to the high rate of unresolved grievances. This study has, however, concluded that
despite the challenges experienced in grievance handling, the SAPS has the capacity
and resources to turn the situation around thereby ameliorating the current situation
pertaining to grievances.
