2170 out-of-service police vehicles in Gauteng

12 April 2021

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele and the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko to ensure that the 2170 police vehicles in Gauteng that are out-of-service, are immediately attended to and brought back to their respective police stations to render services to the residents.

The information was provided by Cele in a reply to a DA written question in the National Assembly.

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.

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.

We will continue to monitor the progress of the current interventions to ensure that our police stations each have a sufficient number of operational vehicles.

We lastly call 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.

Issued by Michael Shackleton, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Community Safety, 112 April 2021