While the police spend billions every year protecting members of the executive — including the president and members of cabinet — answers from a parliamentary question revealed more is also spent on protection services for other VIPs.
An answer to a question by Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana revealed that police also spent R169m on the other categories of people who have received VIP protection in the past five years, including members of the judiciary and the legislature.
Police minister Senzo Mchunu revealed there are three categories of people who have received VIP protection, other than members of the executive and diplomats.
Category one covers members of the legislature including speakers and deputy speakers of the national and provincial legislatures, and chairs and deputy chairs of the National Council of Provinces. The parliamentary answer revealed that his department spent about R71m a year for 22 VIPs, excluding basic compensation of SAPS close-protection officers and travel expenditure.
Category two are identified members of the judiciary: chief justice, deputy chief justice, judge presidents, judge president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, deputy judge president of the Supreme Court of Appeal and judge president of the labour court. Fourteen VIPs cost the department about R45m a year, excluding basic compensation of the SAPS close protection officers and travel expenditure.
Category three are ad hoc VIPs, who are individuals of strategic importance to the country and are protected based on a positive threat against their physical security as confirmed by the intelligence community. The department spent about R53m on 82 VIPs over the past five years excluding basic compensation of SAPS close-protection officers and travel expenditure.
The fact that the figures provided by Mchunu do not include the salaries of the SAPS close protection officers and their travel expenditure shows that this is a conservative estimate of the actual cost of millions more being expended on these categories of VIPs.
The many people who require VIP protection shows that the country is not safe, and the scarce police resources have to be expended for their protection.
However, ordinary South Africans who face the brunt of criminality do not have this protection. They are forced to hire private security companies to protect their homes and communities, at considerable personal cost.
Some citizens cannot afford the private protection and the response they receive from the police is sometimes not adequate, and in some cases help doesn’t come because police cars are not available to attend to crime scenes.
Civil Society organisation Action Society noted last year that Mchunu tabled a R113.6bn police budget in parliament. It said the protection and security services programme was allocated R4.09bn, with VIP protection services taking a 53.1% portion of it — nearly 2% of the entire police budget.
With a country facing high rates of murder and rape and other crimes and with no relief in sight, it is about time the police service considered focusing more on the challenges facing those who cannot afford private security.
This could be done by having fully functional and resourced police stations and additional satellite police stations to enable the public to have access to the police in time of need.
Another solution could be for some of the departments whose officials require VIP protection to provide funds to the police service for the provision of these services.
That model would ensure that police finances are stretched to assist more of the population.
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