Pretoria - Tshwane Metro Police’s ceremonial and bicycle units members will change the colour of their shoes, belts and accessories from brown to black – much to the annoyance of the DA.
This could cost the City of Tshwane more than R9 million, which the council heard was available in the current budget.
The change is in accordance with the amendment to the uniform of the city by-law’s enforcement unit approved by council on Thursday.
It was based on recommendations of the chiefs of metro police and South African Police Service forum taken last August to standardise the uniform.
The proposed designs are based on the specifications of the South African National Defence Force and will apply for both men and women officers.
The current approved colour for footwear, belts and accessories is brown. To ensure uniformity, it was recommended that nationally, all metro police departments should in future wear black footwear, belts and accessories.
These will be worn with the current navy blue jackets and red trousers and only during official ceremonies by members of the ceremonial unit.
The cycling unit officers will wear their new accessories with their existing gear.
The approval was despite an objection from the DA, which likened the decision to an April Fool’s joke.
This followed the ANC half of the council chamber welcoming the decision.
The supply chain management performance report for the second quarter of the current financial year listed a tender for the supply, delivery and off-loading of ceremonial unit uniform to the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department as and when required at a cost of R9.5m.
The establishment of the metro police was approved by council 2001. The formation of a ceremonial unit, consisting of a band and choir and a division of officers deployed on bicycles, was approved by the executive mayor in January.
The DA’s Karen Meyer said she “had to check the date as I was convinced it must be April 1, as it could not be anything other than a joke”.
“How is it that a metro police department of the capital city of South Africa decided that changes in colour and new uniforms are priorities, wasting millions of rand?
“I will tell you why, because for the ANC in this city, only one thing matters: to look good, literally,” Meyer told the council.
She said it didn’t matter to the ANC that residents of the city generally regarded metro police as corrupt.
Instead of taking the funds and addressing this serious problem with proper training and re-addressing the evaluation process within the department, the ruling party decided that colours and uniform were more important.
“It does not matter that with the approximately 700 vehicles the department uses, only 219 are in different regions for the ward-based strategy,” Meyer said.
“Neither does it matter to the ANC that the regions need 270 additional cars to do their work properly for the community at a cost of R66m.”
Meyer added that of the 1 142 operational members in regions, only 227 had hand-held radios. To make up the shortfall will cost R60m.
“The tender was seemingly approved in October 2014. We cannot vote against this item as the ANC is just informing council what it has already done,” Meyer objected.
The report will be presented to the office of the MEC for safety and security for final approval.
Pretoria News