Phiyega must explain R40 million spent on music bash

23 March 2015

The National Police Commissioner must be summoned to the Police Portfolio Committee (PPC) to explain exactly why it is that R40 million of taxpayers money is paying for a music bash. It is the SAPS job to keep South Africans safe, not to use taxpayers' money to hold provincial and national music festivals. Commissioner Phiyega must immediately clarify the reasons for such frivolous expenditure. 

I will be writing today to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, François Beukman, requesting that the National Police Commissioner is called before us to explain to Parliament why this project was both considered, and kept so quiet that not a single member of the Committee or any of the Committee Researchers knew anything about it.

According to reports in yesterday's edition of The Herald, the SAPS are spending up to R40 million of taxpayers' money on an extravaganza that will include a gala dinner, ballroom dancing, a cocktail party, cooking competitions and which will culminate in the competition for the police's leading music groups and choirs (see here).

The budgeted amount for the annual event is R4 million but insiders allege that the figure is ten times that.

I personally asked the full Police Portfolio Committee and the Committee Research Team if they are aware of such an event, and the answer was a resounding: NO. Never, in the eight years I have spent on this Committee, has there been reference to such an event. Nor has it ever been declared as a line item in the SAPS Annual Report. Yet is is billed as the 23rd such event: The 23rd Police Music and Cultural Unity Festival (POLMUSCA). 

This is the latest example of frivolous spending of a budget that should be ring-fenced for the fight against crime and capacitation of the SAPS. Just earlier this year the National Police Commissioner spent in excess of R20 million rand to hire image consultants while the SAPS already has communications personal paid for by the taxpayer.

I have therefore submitted parliamentary questions to seek clarity on the exact nature of this event, what its purpose is and where it is disclosed in the SAPS budget. If indeed this expenditure is proven to be fruitless, wasteful and irregular the DA will request that Commissioner Phiyega cancel this event, redirect the money to the much need resourcing of the SAPS, and put the 600 SAPS members attending this event back to work.

To add insult to injury, the event is being held in Port Elizabeth where SAPS stations have reached critical mass in terms of vehicles, and where there are even reports that citizens are asked to drive criminals to local police stations because there are no vehicles available to attend crime scenes.

With crime once again on the increase the SAPS is being extremely irresponsible in spending such a large sum of money on an extravagant music bash. SAPS should rather prioritise spending on the following:

Recruiting and training more SAPS members;

Renovating crumbling police stations;

Reintroducing and strengthening the specialised units including the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units, Anti-Hijacking units, the Narcotics Bureau and anti-Gang units;

Supplying more vehicles and equipment to police officers; and

Ensuring that every single police station in this country was provided with water, sanitation facilities and electricity.

That the SAPS could spend this amount of money and take members away from their duties to rehearse for this three day event is despicable given the critical personnel and resource shortages that face our police service. 

Phiyega must account to Parliament for this expenditure.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minster of Police, March 23 2015

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