Port Elizabeth – The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape on Friday alleged that the South African Police Service had “blown R40 million on a music festival” which took place Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last year, this despite police stations in the city’s northern areas being “disastrously under resourced”.
DA Provincial leader Athol Trollip said upper management of SAPS who were involved in organising the annual 23rd Police Music and Cultural Unity Festival “dodged questions about the exact amount of taxpayers’ money that was spent.”
Trollip further alleges that budgets were squeezed to cover transport for members from across South Africa, accommodation, food and presents.
“Insiders slammed the festival as a waste of public money that could be better spent on overtime, new bullet proof vests, vehicles and additional firearms, all essential in the daily fight against crime,”said Trollip.
The DA’s Shadow Minister of Police, Zakhele Mbhele, and the party’s Eastern Cape Provincial Leader, Athol Trollip, on Friday conducted an oversight visit to police stations in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas where Trollip said efforts made by dedicated officers were overshadowed by surging levels of ongoing violent gang wars and crime.
“The SAPS here are disastrously under-resourced, as we discovered today [Friday]. They are not being provided the tools necessary to fight increasing crime. However, just over six months ago, in an act of negligent spending, SAPS is alleged to have blown R40 million on a music festival in the Nelson Mandela Bay,” said Trollip.
The DA in the province called for well-resourced stations, functional vehicle fleets and more officers on the beat, as well as a Metro Police service to be established in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“We saw stations today [Friday] without enough vehicles, or officers. With only two police stations, and often less than 50% of police vehicles operational, for the entire Northern Areas community of almost 200,000 people, the SAPS is hamstrung in the face of increasing crime here,” said Trollip.
Trollip said that both station commanders from the Gelvandale and Bethelsdorp police stations agreed on Friday that a Metro Police Service would assist with the enforcement of municipal by-laws.
Trollip told ANA that the police system in Nelson Mandela Bay was prejudiced.
“I asked both station commanders about having a metro police service, and they both agreed that it would be extremely helpful. At the moment police officers spend time enforcing municipal by-laws which serves as a distraction from them doing police work,” he said.
Trollip added that with the introduction of a metro police service in Cape Town, arrests had increased to 1,000 known gangsters and criminals every month.
“Incidences of violent crime and gangsterism are being driven downwards by the DA’s Cape Town efforts, as slowly but surely these law enforcement agencies begin to win this war,” he added.
Trollip said that both station commanders said that they were looking forward to having TETRA (terrestrial trunked radio) installed at their respective police stations.
“This confirms that these stations have not yet been put onto the system. Communication is fundamental, our SAPS should be equipped with the very best of technology and this is not happening, crime prevention is becoming more difficult.”
Earlier this week Police Minister Nathi Nhleko launched a 10111 command centre in Port Elizabeth. The centre, equipped with TETRA, is aimed at improving response times and has the ability to monitor the deployment of resources near to a particular scene that has been reported.
National police were not in a position to respond to the allegations at the time of going to press.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.