More than 9,000 police vehicles were booked in for repairs and service at workshops across the country during the Easter weekend.
MORE than 9,000 police vehicles were booked in for repairs and service at workshops across the country during the Easter weekend.
The number decreased slightly from the vehicles that were at the workshops two months ago.
So responded Police Minister Bheki Cele to EFF MP Andries Shembeni who wrote to Cele asking about the total number of vehicles that were out of service in each province after 1,168 were recorded in Gauteng.
In his written reply, Cele said there were 9,731 police vehicles that were booked in for repairs and servicing as at April 21.
Gauteng had a total of 2,187 vehicles at the workshops, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 1,777, SAPS head office 1,174 and Eastern Cape 1,009.
The Western Cape had a total of 868 vehicles taken for repairs and service, Free State 732, Limpopo 578, Northern Cape 524, Mpumalanga 453 and North West 429.
In March, there were a total of 10,117 vehicles at the workshops.
“Currently, a total number of 6,406 job cards/vehicles are assigned to contract RT46-2020 and the balance of 3,325 is currently assigned to either in-house or outsourced partners,” Cele said.
The minister stated that weekly management forums have been introduced with the operational management team from Wesbank to address challenges and shortcomings.
Cele noted that communication between the SAPS and the Wesbank Call Centre was a challenge as some e-mail addresses that were provided were invalid or have expired.
“The implementation of a new working procedure is due in the near future and it envisaged that by June 30, 2022 there will be an improvement in the number of available SAPS vehicles,” he said.
Responding to a separate set of questions from DA MP Andrew Whitfield, Cele said there were 855 operational vehicles and 371 others were not operational in the Public Order Policing unit.
Those not operational included trucks, Nyalas and water canon trucks that have mechanical and electrical faults, engine fault and require panel beating, among other things.
Cele also said 4,000 recruits, who will form part of training, will be allocated to the Public Order Policing unit.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his state of the nation address that 12,000 new recruits would be enlisted.
The SAPS was unable to train recruits in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic which placed restrictions on gatherings.
According to Cele, a total of 7,000 will be enlisted in the 2022/23 financial year and a further 5000 in the 2023/24 financial year.
“Three thousand posts were advertised during 2021/22 financial year and the SAPS recruits will undergo training in 2022/23 financial year, therefore, a total of 10,000 SAPS recruits will be trained in 2022.
“Posts for the re-enlistment of former experienced SAPS members were advertised in the national media on 13 March 2022 with a closing date of 28 March 2022. Successful former SAPS members will be placed at specialised units and police stations.”
Cele also said it was anticipated that the training of the recruits will be completed on December 15, 2022.
“The SAPS is continuously capacitating and re-skilling members to enhance their knowledge and skills in order to execute functions effectively and efficiently,” he said.
