More money in budget for cops welcomed, now let’s hope they actually spend it

The allocation of an additional R8.7 billion to the police budget and the increasing the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development by R1.1 billion has been welcomed as a positive step in the fight against crime and corruption.

Also Read: Godongwana’s budget speech marred by a balloon of debt

The justice cluster is facing the mammoth task of pursuing those implicated in State Capture, Personal protective equipment (PPE) corruption, and clamping down on crime and lawlessness.

Now finance minister Enoch Godongwana has given the police another R1 billion to implement personnel reforms, and a further R800 million may be available for the police in the following year, subject to satisfactory progress.

Police have lamented that their failure to respond to the last July unrest was mainly as a result of lack of resources and capacity.

This comes against the backdrop of revelations that last year SA Police Service (Saps) underspent their budget by R4 billion, the total annual budget allocated to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Entire Justice cluster’s budgets boosted

In his budget delivered on Wednesday, Godongwana said the additional R1.1 billion allocated to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development was for the strengthening of the resourcing of the justice system and the courts.

The budgets of NPA and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) will increase by R426-million over the next three years to ensure capacity to investigate and prosecutions as per the state capture commission report.

The Office of the Chief Justice receives an additional R39.9 million.

Godongwana said corruption was a major blight on SA, and “has lowered our economic growth potential, made us fiscally more vulnerable, and severely weakened the capability of the state. Accounting officers need to ensure that their procurement processes have integrity, provide value for money, and are free from interference from politically connected persons and bidders. We also need to be clear on what we are fighting”

In the State of the Nation address last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa made bold commitments to pursue state capture and corruption scoundrels, with plans to create special courts for this purpose.

Implementation and proper allocation needed

Independent socio-economic analyst Solly Masilela said the country’s economy was in dire straits, with a decade in decline and ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, but he believes the finance minister was able to strike a balance.

He said there were many competing issues such as poverty, inequality and joblessness, crime and corruption.

“The minister had to walk a tight rope but I believe it was a balanced budget. Now it remains to be seen how the justice cluster will utilise what they have been allocated to tackle crime and corruption,” Masilela said.

He said lack of implementation was SA biggest deficit, and that it was now up to the responsible departments to use the money.

“If it was not the fact that he had to allocate R44-billion for the extension of the R350 social relief of distress (SRD), probably the minister would have allocated this to the justice cluster. So we have to understand that he must strike that balance,” Masilela added.

siphom@citizen.co.za