Blue lights burn fuel while SAPS runs on fumes

You’d think our police ministry was singlehandedly trying to save the Road Accident Fund. This after it was revealed that the South African Police Service (SAPS) has spent just shy of R1m on petrol and other fuel for official travel for the police minister and two deputy ministers in this here seventh administration.

In answer to a parliamentary question from Mmusi Maimane, acting police minister Firoz Cachalia noted that the SAPS has coughed up R332,982.78 for the minister and R566,871.66 for two deputy ministers since the new administration took office in late June last year.

Indicatively, for all three executive members, that’s 535,000km covered – or 33,400km a month – assuming our good ministers were to travel in something like the snappy BMW X3. It’s about 360 one-way trips between Joburg and Cape Town (if they opted not to take the free flights they’re entitled to). Or 267,000 trips between ministerial estate Bryntirion and their HQ at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. That’s some diligence; give them a slow clap.

It’s 54 trips between Cape Town and Cairo. Just so you know.

If we had to extrapolate that R300,000-odd per dignitary to each of 75 ministers and deputies in our bloated cabinet, you’d be looking at a cool R22.5m for 16 months, just in fuel costs.

Now, it’s not that ministers shouldn’t travel. We’re all for getting them out from behind their perk-swaddled existence to experience the reality of the humble everyman. But there’s no way the minister and deputies racked up these eye-watering numbers alone. Enter the blue-light brigades.

Cachalia wouldn’t say how big the minister and deputies’ protection details are – “the information on the number of vehicles deployed cannot be provided, as the divulging of this information may pose a risk to the security of the individuals concerned” – but given the travel figures above, one must surmise that these are no smallanyana entourages.

(Just as an aside, the cash-strapped police – or taxpayers, rather – already stumped up R215m for in-transit protection for cabinet ministers and their deputies between just April and December last year. That’s excluding salaries and benefits – and the vehicles each department provides.)

Running on empty

It’s particularly irksome given the malaise in the police, and vanishingly scarce resources.

Take the detective services. There’s a shortfall of more than 5,000 detectives, according to a GroundUp report last month. And police portfolio committee chair Ian Cameron has previously put the number of dockets each detective is carrying at about 300.

Amid this dire shortage of those who, you know, catch the bad guys, the SAPS is offering a bonus – a Detective Critical Skills Allowance – of a measly R1,000 a month to retain talent. Don’t put yourself out or anything …

And there’s the Forensics Services Lab – responsible for ballistics, DNA, scientific and document analysis and other important crime-fighting functions. It has met precisely none of its targets for the 2024/25 year, News24 reports. In part, that’s due to structural damage to labs and an increased evidence burden to sift through – but it’s also the result of austerity measures that have meant “none of these directorates have what they are supposed to have”, police commissioner Fannie Masemola said.

And there are the dilapidated police stations. And boots on the ground. And, and, and … And yet there’s always cash to be found for the blue light menace.

Sure, cutting back on a R900,000 fuel bill isn’t miraculously going to fix the police – it’s but a drop in a R120bn-budget ocean. But greasing the blue light brigades’ wheels when the service is crumbling says a lot about the state’s spending priorities.

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