Durban - Ethekwini metro police officers compromised the safety of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa when they refused to escort him, citing a dispute over overtime pay.
The drama unfolded at the Albert Park police station last Thursday after a shift team scheduled to escort Ramaphosa was denied overtime by senior metro police officials who allegedly cited the city’s austerity measures. (The officials’ names are known to The Mercury.)
Thursday afternoon was the team’s last shift before they were due to take their rest days from Friday, but they were scheduled to transport Ramaphosa on Friday.
Ramaphosa was in Durban on Friday to deliver a keynote address at the National Sanitation Indaba hosted by the Department of Water and Sanitation at the International Convention Centre.
Ramaphosa’s security detail is ranked on the same level as that of President Jacob Zuma and King Goodwill Zwelithini. It is led by the metro police and SAPS protection services.
City spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa, while not confirming the incident, said the matter was being “investigated internally”.
A metro police officer, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Friday morning shift also refused to escort Ramaphosa because they had not done the “dry run”, a practice convoy run along the route.
Explaining how the escort operations worked, the source said the metro police received requests from the Presidency and a lengthy vetting and accreditation process would then be undertaken.
“You go down to the presidential office and they explain when the president is coming and the route, as to where and when the president will be.
“You drive on the route, see where the nearest hospital is - even if it’s the same route over and over, week after week. You have to do it to see if anything has changed.”
Leading up to Ramaphosa’s arrival, he said, everything had been organised and confirmed for the Thursday shift to escort him.
“They finished work at 6pm, but the senior officials refused to grant the team overtime. They wanted the the team that was coming in the next day to escort the deputy president, but that team had not done the dry run, so they refused,” he said.
“They refused to escort the deputy president because they didn’t want to break the protocol,” he said, adding that it was also in solidarity with the first team.
Another source said the officials and metro police head Eugene Nzama had been summoned to the city hall on Tuesday by municipal manager S’bu Sithole and mayor James Nxumalo to explain.
“Sithole and Nxumalo were p*****. Angry is not the word. Had they been able to fire someone, they would have. It was an embarrassment to them,” he said.
Mthethwa said the incident had been rectified on the day, and “Ramaphosa was duly escorted by metro police”.
But the metro police source was adamant they had not escorted the deputy president.
The municipality “does not discuss details pertaining to internal investigations against any member of staff with a third party as these matters are confidential between the employer and employee concerned”, said Mthethwa.
She refused to divulge what was discussed in the hastily-called meeting, and would only say Nxumalo and Sithole did not meet the metro police management to “specifically discuss the matter”.
Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Johan Burger said the unavailability of the metro police during such VIP escorts “just adds to the burden” of the presidential protection services, but did not have an impact on the operation.
“VIP protection services members are police - it is part of their training. They are competent to take over the traffic responsibility.”
He said the metro police’s primary function was traffic control.
“It’s a problem if a member of the protection unit is not available for that purpose. The SAPS has a strong protection services unit. I think they should be competent enough to protect the deputy president on their own.”
The Mercury