Cape Town - National police commissioner Riah Phiyega and other police top brass were grilled by members of Parliament’s watchdog on policing who wanted answers about the police’s relationship with IT company Waymark Infotech.
The issue came up as the committee questioned the police’s management on its 2013/14 annual report.
Waymark had proposed a “dot mark IT system” to enable the police to track firearms and identify the owners, among others.
Waymark’s tender estimated that the firearms would cost about R42 million.
Freedom Front Plus MP and the committee’s member, Pieter Groenewald, asked the police for clarity on a number of firearms that had not been “dot marked”.
“All the old firearms were on quotation basis to be marked. The new firearms - we cannot afford to dot pin mark them due to the legal dispute with Waymark. Due to this, Waymark and its system is off at the moment,” Divisional Commissioner at SAPS supply-chain management Gary Kruser said.
“There is a dispute between us and Waymark. The contract should have long finished. There are criminal issues being investigated. They are not investigated by SAPS. They are (being) investigated by the Hawks,” Phiyega said.
Groenewald hit back at Phiyega, saying it was unacceptable to hear that an investigation was still ongoing and that no feedback had been provided.
“This criminal investigation started in 2012. Maybe we must tell the commissioner it’s 2014. Why does it take so long? It is quite clear, it seems that there was a lot of corruption. Why a criminal investigation? Can we please get answers. The investigation started in 2012,” he said.
“I don‘t understand why we cannot get facts about the investigation. I don’t understand, is somebody else doing the investigation?”
Phiyega said: “Chairperson, can I just request I provide a progress report.”
Police officials were also bombarded with questions around the shortage of bulletproof vests in five provinces.
DA MP and police spokeswoman Dianne Kohler Barnard, said she had received a number of complaints from wives who were worried about their policeman husbands having to go to work without wearing bulletproof vests. The provinces were KwaZulu-Natal, Lim-popo, Mpumalanga, the Free State and the Northern Cape. She said there were also shortages of bulletproof vests for female officers in Sunnyside and Mamelodi, Pretoria.
“Every operational member has a serialised bulletproof vest. Every member is issued with bulletproof (vests) when they come out of college. We are convinced we have sufficient bulletproof vests,” Kruser said.
Cape Times