Municipality paying R100m a year for private security

IT costs Nelson Mandela Bay ratepayers more than R100million a year for private security to guard municipal buildings and protect councillors who are under threat.

This excludes the cost of safety and security officers employed by the municipality.

The cost of protecting buildings and councillors was revealed at last week’s budget and treasury portfolio committee meeting by the city’s safety and security head, Shane Brown.

Brown said security officers were deployed to 222 municipal sites across the metro, ranging from one officer per site to about 10 per building.

The total cost of security per month was R8.7-million.

“Mostly the provision [of security] ranges from a five-day week, 12-hour shift to a seven-day week, 24-hour shift.

“This is besides the ad hoc requirements that occur from time to time [for] the provision of security at a councillor’s residence, at IDP (Integrated Development Plan) meetings and a break-in, to name a few.

“The decision to place private security at buildings that were previously manned by LEOs [law enforcement officers] has resulted in an additional monthly cost of R357 433, or just over 4% of the total security cost,” Brown reported.

He said the cost of the pri- vate security had “been like this for a long time. But something’s got to change”.

On Thursday, he urged councillors to approve a proposal to reduce the “escalating cost of security” that would include the installation of alarm systems.

“At night, we can put in an alarm system that would need monitoring and response.

“It would cost a lot initially for alarms, but it would be cost-effective in the long run.”

His other proposals for cut- ting down costs include improved access-control facilities, monitoring of CCTV cameras and security response units.

“It must be noted that [the proposals] will require further investigation and funding in the short term, including the funding to maintain and provide the services.

“It should substantially reduce the cost of security.

“It is important that any changes do not compromise security and that councillors, staff and visitors to our premises feel safe.”

The report was not discussed but deferred until the next portfolio committee meeting.

Meanwhile, the municipality is nowhere near implementing the metro police force due to massive budget challenges within Brown’s department.

In a report to the committee, metro police chief Pinkie Mathabathe wrote that funding challenges meant that no new staff could be appointed or trained.

Also, uniforms for the metro police could not be purchased, nor could branding for cars.

“There is no furniture for the chief due to insufficient budget in the current financial year.

“There were several consultation sessions held with the labour unions on [the issue]

“The last . . . was the workshop held on June 3 last year.

“There have been opposing views from labour in relation to the implementation process.

“They have submitted to management their concerns in relation to the process, which are not yet responded to by the executive directors of corporate [services] and safety and security,” Mathabathe reported.

“The successful implementation of the metro police service will be realised when corporate services [led by Mod Ndoyana] as the main role player, demonstrate commitment and dedication in their role of human resource management to assist with the processes.”