The ANC has acknowledged there is a “problem” with the SA Police Service’s (SAPS) VIP protection unit.
“Blue lights are a problem; there is a problem with the behaviour [of the police],” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Mbalula comments come after a video on Monday of deputy president Paul Mashatile’s personal protection officers assaulting two people on the side of the road in Johannesburg. The VIP protection unit has also been called into question for its handling and alleged cover-up of the theft of millions of dollars at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm in 2020.
Mbalula said if not addressed properly it could lead to a public revolt as South Africans are already pessimistic about the behaviour of the so-called blue-light brigade on the roads.
Mbalula said the officers should be suspended while investigations are under way. Should they be found to be in the wrong, they should face appropriate consequences. The investigation should uncover whether there was a threat that called for such brutality and action because such behaviour could lead to a public revolt, he added.
“Honestly, it’s the kind of thing that makes people to march and take down a government — it angers you. I saw a lot of people on social media frowning upon that. It’s the kind of thing that can get people into the street,” Mbalula said.
Neither Ramaphosa nor Mashatile were on the scene of either incidents.
Opposition parties have long called for the protection unit to be defunded, noting that in the 2000s — mostly during former president Jacob Zuma’s term in office — the budget for the protection services programme grew more than tenfold.
“In the year 2000 the VIP protection budget was R138m. Over the next 10 years as the cabinet grew, alongside its sense of self-importance, the VIP protection budget grew to R530m by 2010 and 11 years later in 2021 it is now sitting at a staggering R1.7bn,” the DA said in a statement in 2021. “This means that over the past 21 years the budget designed to protect only the elite and nobody else has increased by nearly 1,150%.”
The SAPS VIP protection unit — which includes the police protection services programme and static protection — received a budget of R1.9bn in 2023. The Hawks, which investigates high-profile cases, received an allocation of R2.2bn.
Ramaphosa, when elected in 2019, promised reform in response to years of state capture under Zuma. Security experts say the police’s VIP protection unit is over-resourced and has long been a law unto itself.
“Normally your protection level is determined by your threat levels. We cannot see that a vulnerability assessment has happened by State Security,” security expert Willem Els said. “The SAPS security machine has become a status symbol and nothing more, and that has been done at the expense of us. It is a state symbol for politicians [and] that is the reality.”
He added that in many other countries national, provincial and local political leaders use public transport, or their drivers are their only personal protection. In some cases — in the Netherlands, for instance — the prime minister has been seen use using his bicycle when going to the dentist.
“Ministers around the world prefer to keep their blue lights in the boot. Here the police have become an extension of their political bosses who get away with all sorts of things, from taking drugs to having extramarital affairs,” Els said. “So it is a management problem. Accountability should not be delegated in that regard; the political principal should take responsibly as the buck should stop with them.”
Mbalula defended Mashatile, saying it is easy to blame the deputy president, but he does not choose or hire his police personal protection officers.
Another security analyst, Gareth Newham, said that for the most part what is spent on the SAPS VIP protection unit is a “complete waste of money”.
“They have elevated status because they have direct access to powerful politicians. They witness the best and worst of our politicians and see themselves as their personal protectors,” Newham said. “Too much of what is expected is just status symbol or they act as gate keepers for public representatives. It is a complete waste of money. It is too much about ego and not enough about a threat assessment done on our politicians,” he added.
With Kgothatso Madisa
Update: July 5 2023
This story contains additional comment from Fikile Mbalula
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