Durban — The eThekwini Municipality has allocated R25 million to the procurement of vehicles for security and protection services. This was revealed during council on Tuesday.
The ANC in the City submitted its support for the proposed procurement, citing the importance of securing an adequate and reliable fleet.
Reference was made to a number of councillors and officials who have lost their lives, in particular, during the elections period, thus the need to ensure adequacy of safety resources.
While acknowledging service delivery challenges, attention was drawn to the fact that each cluster or unit has its own operational mandate and specific activities arising, and therefore being prioritised and incorporated into business plans, and specific budget allocated for such. Therefore, dragging the service delivery challenges into this item was considered irrelevant.
It was said that the fleet of the Security and Protection Services has exceeded its lifespan. Following various points, 167 voted for the above, 32 against and zero abstained. Therefore, the item was approved.
The executive committee approved and recommended to the council the procurement of a fleet under the Security and Protection Services at an estimated value of R25 million.
DA caucus deputy chairperson Warren Burne said that they supported the approval of this item.
“The issue of expenditure of R25m on security vehicles was a contentious issue. The matter first arose in a committee meeting in April as it was the issue of vehicles being required for the 2024 elections. It was looking like an extreme wastage of expenditure.”
He said that questions were asked of Fleet Management, and in light of the written explanation by Malcolm Joshua, the head of City Fleet, the DA caucus took the view to support the R25m allocation to replace ageing vehicles.
“The written explanation from Joshua indicated they need R50m instead of R25m, but R25m is a good start. The DA is happy to support the capitalisation of the security management unit by the allocation of funds to buy replacement vehicles,” he concluded.
Secretary of the IFP’s eThekwini caucus, Dr Jonathan Annipen, said the IFP supported this matter.
“We believe that it is necessary for us as a council to increase our support to the security cluster – not just for the protection of public representatives, but for the protection of council infrastructure and ensuring the safe transition of resources such as water tankers, etc. Furthermore, we believe that the city will remain vulnerable without it, and it will compromise the service delivery implementation that residents deserve.”
Annipen said the IFP noted the views of other political parties who have been grandstanding in the guise of protecting the interest of ratepayers and said it was tantamount to political posturing.
“We cannot play politics with the safety of the people of this city,” Annipen said.
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