Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa revealed his department's extravagant spending in a written reply in Parliament.
He confirmed that his department had bought a Cessna Citation Sovereign private business jet in February last year to fly senior cops and Cabinet ministers around the country and abroad.
Mthethwa, his deputy, Fikile Mbalula, and a number of high-ranking police officials use the aircraft regularly.
In his reply to a question posed by the DA's police spokeswoman, Dianne Kohler Barnard, Mthethwa said he and Mbalula had used the luxury plane as transport to "the opening of new SAPS stations and official SAPS functions".
He said it has been used by national police commissioner Bheki Cele and other top police managers to attend parliamentary meetings in Cape Town.
The jet has also been used in the past 12 months to transport:
Kohler Barnard labelled the purchase a "disgraceful waste of public money".
"We have a national carrier and an air force. Given the array of serious resourcing problems facing the police, it is unthinkable that such an enormous amount of money would be frittered away on a private jet," she said.
Instead of using commercial flights, like other senior civil servants, police bosses use the jet to attend meetings.
Kohler Barnard said: "The money spent on acquiring this plane, and indeed on running costs, could have been much better served tackling any one of a number of serious problems in the cash-strapped SAPS.
"For instance, R150-million could pay for 46,627 new bullet proof vests. The police ministry's self-aggrandising, lavish hotel stays and new luxury vehicle have already made a mockery of any claims that they are serious about tackling the spiralling crime rate, but the purchase of a private jet is on another level of indulgence entirely."
In another parliamentary response, Mthethwa's ministry said it had spent R82-million in legal costs as a result of civil claims against the police.
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saksman