SAPS’ service delivery may be hampered by vehicle shortage

According to a statement from the DA spokesperson on community safety, Michele Clarke, only 30 per cent of the Actonville Police Station’s vehicles are operational.

“This is understandably having a huge impact on the level of service which this station is able to provide to the community,” said Clark, who is a member of the provincial legislature.

She said the shortage of operational police vehicles is a national problem, arising from a tender which was awarded to a company to service the vehicles.

According to Clark, the national tender to service the vehicles was awarded to a company who could not meet the requirements.

She said work was sub-contracted to other companies by the company to whom the tender was awarded, to service the vehicles, but these sub-contractors were not paid, in turn withholding the vehicles.

The Member of the Provincial Legislature told the City Times that 3 300 vehicles, of a fleet of 10 000 vehicles in Gauteng, are operational.

Clarke said she will submit questions to the Gauteng MEC of Community Safety to establish the current operational shortfalls of police vehicles across the province and how these will be addressed through the new tender.

“The department needs to provide an extensive assessment of vehicle availability in the province and ensure that any gaps are dealt with immediately,” she said.

Clarke was not able to provide a figure on the number of police vehicles short at other stations in the cluster.

At the time of going to print, the SAPS’s provincial office had not responded to questions about the shortage of operational vehicles in Benoni.