| 2024/01/27 |
Media Statement
CAPE TOWN - The South African Police Service (SAPS) has observed this years’ National Police Day by raising funds for the children of police officers who died in the line of duty. On National Police Day, the SAPS remembers the sacrifices that our men and women in blue have made and continue to make as they provide safety for all who live in South Africa. Cabinet approved 27 January as National Police Day in 2005. The SAPS has sadly lost 140 police officers in the last four years. These are men and women in blue who died in the line of duty, serving and protecting all people living in South Africa. The majority of them were breadwinners in their families. On Thursday, 25 January 2024, more than 100 Golf players from various corporate companies across the country came together to pledge and raise funds for the South African Police Education Trust Fund (SAPSET). R6,6 million rand was raised and will go towards the educational needs of the children. SAPSET currently funds children from grade RR to tertiary level. To date, the fund has assisted 1078 children. Fifty-four (54) of them have graduated and 146 of them have completed and are in possession of a National Senior Certificate. The management of the SAPS, led by the Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele has paid gratitude to all sponsors and donors for ploughing back. “These funds go a long way in making a meaningful difference in the lives of these children left behind. The least we can do is to ensure these children dont carry an extra burden of stressing about school fees, books, school uniform knowing their educational needs have been taken care of. We hope more corporates and the overall business fraternity will in future come on board to support this cause”, concluded Cele. The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola has thanked all men and women in blue for risking their lives on a daily basis to keep all people in South Africa safe. “On this day, we pay gratitude to you, our men and women in blue who work tirelessly to hunt down dangerous criminals, remove illegal and unlicensed firearms, remove drugs off our streets and work hard to ensure successful convictions in court for perpetrators of crime. Let’s continue to work hard to rid our country off criminality. We urge communities to embrace our police officers and work together with them to stop the killing of our own. From January 2023 to date, 33 police officers were killed on duty and today we are laying a Constable to rest who was run over by a truck while assisting at an accident scene in KZN. These killings have to stop, and they can only stop if communities take a stand against them”, said Gen Masemola
SAPSSET is managed by a board of trustees whose responsibility is to ensure they source and raise funds to keep these children in school. The Chairperson of this board is Mr Vuyani Jarana.
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