This is an increase of 763 out-of-service vehicles compared to last year November, where 1407 police vehicles were unavailable. The following Gauteng police stations have the highest number of out-of-service vehicles: Vereeniging Police Station: 100 Benoni Police Station: 82 Springs police station: 65 Protea Glen Police station: 58 Silverton Police Station: 54 Midrand Police Station: 53 Johannesburg Central Police Station: 50 In total, there are 5967 police vehicles that are operational in the province. Michael Shackleton, DA MPL and Shadow MEC for Community Safety says, “Cele states that his department has increase command and control in terms of fleet management, and has deployed artisans from other garages to the problematic garages, to adequately address the high number of out-of-service vehicles. Further to this, the department is also using a Global Financial Authority to purchase bulk stock.
“A situational analysis has been conducted in terms of mechanical transport to compile an operational risk and mitigation strategy in order to increase the number of operational vehicles. “The lack of an adequate number of vehicles hampers police service delivery and puts the safety of the residents of Gauteng at risk, leaving SAPS officers with less vehicles for visibility patrol” According to Shackleton the DA will continue to monitor the progress of the current interventions to ensure that our police stations each have a sufficient number of operational vehicles. The party says it is calling on Minister Cele to ensure that the current mitigation strategy that has been implemented, is reviewed on a regular basis to assess whether it is yielding any positive results.