POLICE have spent over R1.3 billion on protecting politicians and their visitors since 2020, and this excludes the salaries and benefits of the officers who serve as bodyguards.
This was revealed by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu in a parliamentary reply to ActionSA MP Dereleen James.
According to the information provided to James, R1.1bn was spent on in-transit protection services and another R220 million for static protection services.
Mchunu informed James that the budget and expenditure for the rendering of protection and security services by the SA Police Service (SAPS) for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s executive are managed as a national budget and not per member of the executive.
In the 2020/21 financial year, in-transit protection services cost taxpayers almost R169m, R237.3m in 2021/22, and about R251m in 2022/23.
The figure stood at R221.3m in 2023/24 and is currently R215.6m in 2024/25, which ends on March 31.
For static protection services, the SAPS has already spent R40.3m in 2024/25 while the expenditure stood at just over R50m in 2023/24.
The costs of static protection services have risen from R17.3m in 2020/21 and R22.2m in 2021/22.
In the 2022/23 financial year, nearly R90.7m was spent on static protection services, according to Mchunu.
The SAPS provides protection and security services to all identified dignitaries and government interests.
Its objectives are to minimise security violations by protecting foreign and local prominent people and securing strategic interests.
The police’s protection and security services programme includes VIP protection services and static and mobile security.
The VIP protection services provide for Ramaphosa’s protection, his deputy Paul Mashatile, former heads of state and other identified VIPs while in transit.
Static and mobile security operations protect installations and government buildings as well as presidential and national ministerial residences.
James said ActionSA is currently verifying the figures to determine whether the amounts accurately reflect the true cost of VIP protection, which the party believes to be significantly higher than reported.
”It is unconscionable that, while the political elite travel in bullet-proof luxury blue-light SUVs chauffeured by multiple armed guards, ordinary South Africans face escalating violence with little to no protection from SAPS, and police stations lack even basic resources such as reliable vehicles,” she explained.