Over and above their overtime, Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) officers used to be paid for callouts to emergencies but the introduction of a new rule on overtime has put a stop to that resulting in minimal to no staff available to attend serious incidents.
This was revealed in a report by The Witness in which RTI is alleged to have known about the imminent violent attacks on trucks at the weekend, but did not put enough officers on the roads because of the clampdown on overtime pay.
The recently-introduced rule says that officers cannot exceed 520 hours of overtime a year. Previously, officers would get paid for callouts to emergencies over and above their overtime payments.
But now there are concerns that there will not be enough officers available for emergencies — especially on weekends.
40 RTI Officers dropped
The report claims that more than 40 officers at the Pietermaritzburg RTI office alone were dropped from the roster for the
Continue reading…
