Heads to roll over large bill
Tshwane looks into ballooning police budget
The City of Tshwane will take action against managers in its metro police department responsible for over-expenditure totalling more than R103-million.
The money was spent on watchmen services, CCTV and the prevention of illegal land invasions.
Tshwane metro police were allocated nearly R28.4-million to prevent illegal land invasions and demolish illegally erected structures in 2016/2017.
The allocation was insufficient, according to a report prepared by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and presented at last week’s council meeting.
However, metro police continued to deploy service providers to demolish illegally built structures and was left with only about R15.6-million worth of invoices still payable for demolishing services up to December 2017.
Scopa resolved that city manager Moeketsi Mosola “take necessary steps against managers responsible for this over-expenditure”.
The expenditure, the report said, could have been avoided, and illegal land invasions could have been properly managed.
The over-expenditure was also partly incurred by a contract to protect electrical infrastructure. “The … contract has been extended for a period of two years at the expenditure of R2-million average per month which was not budgeted for.”
Metro police have a dedicated unit to protect electrical infrastructure and this is duplication, the report said.
ANC Tshwane caucus spokesman Lesego Makhubela said the disciplinary action was a veiled attempt to replace metro police managers with apartheid-era officials.