Millions have been allocated to tackle crime, but Saps has spent only a fraction of the emergency funding.
South Africa’s crime crackdown risks losing momentum as most of the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) emergency funding remains unused. Picture: Saps
Perhaps the most urgent “challenge” confronting South Africa at present is crime. Everybody knows that.
So it is puzzling why the cops – more correctly the police department – has only managed to spend R15 million of an emergency crimefighting allocation of R1 billion, which it was given in March.
Saps and the South African National Defence Force have each been given R1 billion for a year-long crime crackdown.
That time limit expires in March next year.
It is true that the cops have – according to answers to a parliamentary question – got plans for how to spend the money.
According to them, R798.8 million had been allocated for operational deployments and organised crime interventions, with R246 million available for equipment, technology, administrative costs and broader national stabilisation efforts.
Still, in five months, just R15 million has left the emergency account.
While we are all only too aware that billions in taxpayers’ money get looted annually, our national, provincial and municipal administrations have often shown themselves to lack the competence to effectively spend the money they have been given and that, on many occasions, unspent funds are returned to Treasury.
If that is the case here, then our crimefighting campaigns will go nowhere.
