The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK) have slammed police minister Senzo Mchunu’s budget vote, arguing that it lacks essential strategies to prevent and combat the scourge of crime.
Police minister Senzo Mchunu presented his budget proposal and outlined plans for his department during a medium-term budget session held at parliament, on Tuesday.
The police have been allocated R113 billion for the 2024/2025 financial year, while the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service received a budget of R155 million, and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) was allocated R370 million for the same period.
He said that the priorities for the upcoming financial year will involve recruiting 10,000 police officers to bolster police ranks.
Mchunu emphasised that a key priority is to decrease violent crimes, gender-based violence, and femicide by implementing enhanced plans for crime prevention and combat.
“We aim to reduce the percentage of contact crime reported by 14,5% over the medium term. Additionally, We expect the detection rate for contact crimes against women to improve over 71%, and the detection rate for contact crimes against children to exceed 65%,” he said.
He said that these efforts will be carried out through the detective services programme, which has been allocated R71.3 billion.
“The visible policing programme, which weighs at least 52% of the total allocation of the budget will receive an allocation of R189.7 billion over the medium term.”
Mchunu said they will modernise police stations, including upgrading the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, improving connectivity and deploying mobile technologies.
“An amount of R2.84 billion has been set aside for the 2024/25 financial year for this purpose within the administration programme.”
He said the Detective Services programme and the Crime Intelligence programme have budgets of R71.3 billion and R15.1 billion respectively over the medium term, aimed at addressing issues such as illegal mining, crimes related to infrastructure, and extortion across all sectors, especially the construction industry.
Mchunu said that departmental spending in the medium term will prioritise key programmes, including Visible Policing, which account to over 52%, the Detective Services programme, which makes up more than 20%, and personnel-related costs, contributing to over 80% of the financial year's budget.
EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi criticised Mchunu's budget vote, expressing that his strategy lacks a focus on crime prevention.
“In the last financial year alone about 27,500 people were killed under the so-called peace conditions. While in Gaza, where there’s war and genocide, 38,000 people were killed. You have lost the war against crime,” he said.
“Of the top 30 police stations, if you look at them over the last 20 years, they repeat themselves. You know where the murder is taking place, so it means you need a preventative strategy.”
Ndlozi said over 42,000 rape cases were reported in the last financial year. Additionally, he alleged that police are aware of the identities of gangsters and drug dealers but choose to turn a blind eye.
“The gangsters are embedded with the police. In fact, some of the drugs nowadays are transported with police vehicles, as they don’t get to be searched and that’s another key problem of the failure of police in this country,” he said.
Furthermore, David Skosana, MK Party MP, opposed Mchunu's budget, arguing that it fails to address critical issues such as capacity challenges within the Detectives Services and Crime Intelligence Division.
He expressed concern over the insufficient regulation of firearms and the lack of progress in implementing community-oriented policing.
“The persistent and under performance of the police in reducing contact crime and crime against women and children and escalating human trafficking has to stop,” he said.
IOL