The South African Police Service (SAPS) has always considered applications of former officers to re-enlist, a spokesperson said on Sunday.

"The re-enlistment of former officers has been an on-going matter," said Nonkululeko Mbatha.

The SAPS on Sunday placed advertisements in Rapport and City Press newspapers for former officers to rejoin the force.

"We know for a fact that there are members time and again requesting to come back," said Mbatha. "Instead of one (individual application) and then the next and then the other, the best option was to deal with the matter once and for all to facilitate the process."

She denied that the advertisement campaign was an initiative of National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele.

However, Mbatha refused to comment on the matter of lifting a rumoured moratorium on hiring reservists.

"There are a range of issues which we are discussing with legitimate representatives of the reservists," she said.

Issues include the alleged moratorium on the hiring of new reservists and allowing reservists to join become SAPS officers.

"This is more of a policy issue and will be handled at ministerial level," Mbatha said.

The Democratic Alliance on Sunday said the SAPS previously had a policy of preventing former officers to re-enlist and moratorium on the hiring of reservists. "These were two daft policing policies which the DA stringently opposed, and which have blatantly set South Africa back years in our combating of crime," DA spokesperson Diane Kohler-Barnard said in a statement.

Suspecting Cele to be behind the "new" move to re-enlist former officers, she said: "If this is the case, I believe he has made a really excellent decision for our police service. It will have significant, positive ramifications in terms of up-skilling the ranks of the service," she said.