Budget constraints have left Tshwane cops short of cars Budget constraints have left Tshwane cops short of cars
THE City of Tshwane says the use of utility vehicles by the metro police department is a temporary measure brought about by a shortfall in car acquisitions.
This follows a Sunday Indepen- dent report that exposed how officers in the city were using electricity vehicles at roadblocks.
Motorists in the city had complained about the action.
Spokesperson Selby Bokaba has maintained that the decision was not because the city was cash-strapped but rather because of a shortfall from the fleet management suppliers. Bokaba said when the municipality acquired new vehicles, the metro police department indicated that they had not received enough cars.
“We then realised more vehicles were purchased for the utility/ electricity department and decided to utilise them where they were needed the most. We allocated 15 cars to the metro police but they had already been branded,” he said.
In a bid not to incur any further costs, a decision was taken not to rebrand them as they would only be using the cars for a short period until the new financial year in June.
“Rebranding costs R10 000 so it did not make sense to do that as we would have to repeat the steps again when they go back. One car would cost R30 000 in total to brand and when you multiply that by 15 it would amount to R450 000,” he said.
Bokaba admitted that the vehicles were not meant for road policing but were supposed to serve other aspects of their operations which don’t involve regular interactions with motorists.
However, officers have been manning roadblocks with them.
Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee said many people had complained to him. When he raised the matter, he was told the officers were only using the cars to attend to electricity cables, he said.
“It came to my attention that they were using the city of Tshwane electricity vehicles to do policing. I had a lot of complaints from members of the public who were concerned about bogus police. I phoned the deputy metro police chief and she indicated they had a shortfall of vehicles. When I raised it last year they told me the officers were checking on cables, which is a lie,” he said.
“It’s a serious problem and its a disgrace for them to use vehicles from the electricity department to do policing. How do you know it's a real officer? It appears they haven’t stopped,” he added.
Chairperson of Justice Project South Africa Howard Dembovsky said there was nothing wrong with them using the vehicles but it posed a danger.
“They can use any vehicle belonging to the city.
"Tshwane metro police department is a structure of the Tshwane Municipality. If the municipality wishes to assign them vehicles purchased for the power utility or roads agency, they can do that. Whether they can engage in pursuit is a different story,” he said.
Bokaba said in the next financial year, R400 million had been budgeted and the metro police department would get vehicles from this budget.