Cape Town - A day after the police released shocking statistics on the spiralling crime rate in South Africa, the police annual report shows that more than half of the SAPS’s R72.5 billion budget was spent on their salaries.
This is at a time when the police are battling to take back the streets from criminals, with murder increasing by 4.6 percent, attempted murder by 3.2 percent, aggravated robbery by 8.5 percent and truck hijackings by 29.1 percent.
During the previous financial year, murders increased from 17 068 to 17 805.
The police report, which was tabled in Parliament yesterday, showed that most of the money went to the salaries of the officers.
“Spending on compensation of employees remained the most significant expense in the department’s vote,” the police said in the report.
They had received a budget of R72.5bn from Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene during 2014/15.
But the bulk of it did not go into crime-fighting operations. Out of the budget of R72.5bn given to the police, R54.3bn went to their salaries, while R18.1bn went to operational costs.
The police said this translated into 75 percent of their budget being spent on salaries. It was the biggest spend in their allocation for the year under review.
The skewed allocation of the budget had raised the ire of MPs a few months ago when they argued that the police would need to reprioritise their spending.
They had said it was unacceptable to spend most of the money on salaries for officers when the bigger challenge was to get criminals off the streets. They called for better strategies in redistributing the funds into crime-fighting operations.
The SAPS currently employs nearly 200 000 members.
The police could face a similar grilling from MPs when they return to Parliament in the next few months to present the report.
The police budget is the most dissected budget in Parliament out of all 35 government departments.
Failure to raise the bar in reallocating funds into crime- fighting operations would raise questions from the House.
In the report, the police say they used up their entire allocation of R72.5bn for the year under review. This is better than some departments that failed to spend their budgets by the end of the financial year.
In the wake of the release of the crime statistics, the portfolio committee on police would raise questions on the amount of money budgeted for operations.
The police have said in the past that a better-resourced SAPS would help to drive down crime.
Political Bureau