Why is it so hard for public servants to employ a bit of logic and reason?
Sometimes I feel that they are out of touch with the reality of what’s happening around them.
Which is why it is so hard for a police officer to believe that a job interview can in fact happen early on a Sunday morning.
And all she had to do was make a simple phone call. Or go to the location and make a few very simple inquiries and last week’s whole Sea Point selfie debacle would have been avoided.
If you don’t know the story yet, here’s a quick recap.
Esethu Mcinjana, 23, spent a night in the Sea Point police cells after she was arrested while sitting on a promenade bench taking selfies.
She was early for a job interview at a local hotel, so she decided to wait on the bench.
The cops came, searched her, found a remote control in her bag and arrested her for having “car break-in implements”.
She recorded some of what was happening on her phone, before the officer confiscated it.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am a huge fan of our police officers and I think they don’t get nearly enough recognition for the work they do.
I also understand the pressure we put them under to solve and prevent crime.
But here was an incident that could’ve been easily solved on the spot, saving everyone involved a lot of time and effort.
All they had to do was call or visit the hotel to verify Mcinjana’s story, instead of locking her up and frustrating her family’s access to her.
Plus of course now she has lost the job, which is a whole other story for another day.
But this does remind me of some clinic staff who demand that you return at 7am on a weekday, seemingly unconcerned by the possibility that you may actually have a job that would make it impossible.
I have heard patients being reprimanded for saying they are not able to make it at a certain time, because of work commitments.
In the private sector, staff who work on Saturdays take a day or two off in the week.
Government should consider this for its own staff.
I know they might not appreciate it very much, but for those of us holding down jobs that ultimately pays their salaries, it would mean the world.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind if Home Affairs and Sars staff had Mondays and Tuesdays off, but open all day on Saturday and maybe late one weekday night.
And if they also learned that some jobs prefer to have interviews early on a Sunday morning.