Sapu is the second-biggest police union in the country and was one of the founding members of Saftu five years ago. 

The SABC reports that under Saftu, the union’s dream of a "new, independent, militant and campaigning federation" could not be realised as the organisation failed to grow in provinces and to champion workers’ issues.

The police union also says it is withdrawing the deployment of Thabo Matsose as the newly elected first deputy president of Saftu.

Sapu was founded in 1993 as an independent union with around 60 000 members but joined forces to form Saftu in 2017.

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The union is currently holding its congress in Polokwane and says it will return to being independent, to better represent its members.

"The delegates of the congress have decided that we must part ways with Saftu as a federation. We are taking stock. We had been independent for 30 years and the reason we joined Saftu was to grow the union and federation, but so far, none has been achieved.

"The federation has not grown and there is no movement, it has not added value to Sapu, hence we decided to part ways. 

"There is an issue with the formation of a political party, we are against that. We are not represented at Nedlac and since its inception, we have struggled to be part of that, so what role is Saftu really playing in this organisation?" says Sapu secretary-general, Tumelo Mogodiseng.

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