Fleet to boost SAPS’ efforts
New vehicles will help address critical shortage
THE Eastern Cape SAPS has bought 27 flying squad vehicles to service 196 police stations across the province. Provincial Commissioner Major-General Liziwe Ntshinga will hand over the vehicles on Wednesday to the Flying Squad and Highway Patrol to bolster their crime fighting endeavours.
The vehicles include 14 Golf GTI’s, nine BMW 320d series, a 10-seater Hyundai minibus, two Ford Focus sedans and a Ford Ranger bakkie.
They will be distributed to police stations in Port Elizabeth, East London, Mdantsane, King William’s Town, Butterworth, Motherwell, Grahamstown, Mount Ayliff, Cradock, Humansdorp, Queenstown, Aliwal North, GraaffReinet and Mthatha.
Although provincial SAPS spokeswoman Colonel Sibongile Soci declined to disclose the total expenditure for the acquisition of the fleet, an online search on the combined market value of the vehicles is about R16-million.
The vehicles are currently undergoing a makeover at the SAPS new vehicle warehouse in King William’s Town, where they are being fitted with emergency systems including sirens, blue lights, radios and loud hailers.
The centre’s commander, Captain Jacques Booth, said the vehicles were a necessity.
“If we don’t have these types of cars to match the cars driven by criminals, then we would be on the losing side.
“We are reactive, we get a call and we run to the scene, so these cars are important to catch up during high-speed chases.”
In a statement to the Dispatch, Soci said: “Every police station is allocated vehicles to attend to the complaints in their respective precincts and the flying squad is there to support that capacity.”
Soci said four of the vehicles would be handed over to the Motherwell Trio Crimes Task Team in Port Elizabeth, to give them a much-needed boost in battling hijackings, business robberies, house robberies and other serious crimes.
There are 14 500 SAPS members working in 196 police stations across the Eastern Cape. Some of the police stations face a critical shortage of vehicles. — malibongwed@dispatch.co.za