About 1,407 police vehicles out of service in Gauteng

About 1,407 police vehicles were out of service in Gauteng province, 261 of them in Tshwane, according to Police Minister Bheki Cele’s written reply to a question tabled by the DA in parliament.

Cele revealed that 95 support service vehicles were non-functional, 802 visible policing vehicles and 510 detective service vehicles were out of service.

A backlog in repairs was mainly due to inability to facilitate urgent repairing and servicing of cars during the lockdown period, according to police provincial spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo.

“The most contributing factor was the unavailability of vehicle parts as most dealerships operated on minimal staff during the lockdown. The management of the police is currently dealing with the situation as more dealerships started to operate normally under level 1,” he said.

Masondo, however, said that while the department was working on clearing the backlog they were working with other state security departments to deliver services.

“The SAPS in Gauteng enhanced collaboration with other law enforcement agencies to supplement the shortage of vehicles and to ensure that service delivery is not interrupted.”

The lack of adequate police vehicles was worrisome, said DA Gauteng shadow community safety MEC Michael Shackleton.

“This hampers police service delivery and puts the safety of residents at risk as police officers will not have enough vehicles to ensure police visibility and prevent crime.”

The DA called on both the police minister and Gauteng community safety MEC Faith Mazibuko to ensure that all out-of-service vehicles be brought back to police stations to render services.

According to the latest crime stats released by police in August, the province had the second highest number of murders as the overall number of murders in Gauteng increased by 1.3%.

This article was republished from Rekord East with permission

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