Mary Goby, DA Shadow MMC for Community Safety, said this is a serious
problem in light of the shortage of patrol vehicles in the municipality.
“The DA has obtained a video which shows around 10 or more EMPD vehicles parked in a stockyard in the municipality,” said Goby, who said the shortage has resulted in poor response times by the EMPD to calls for assistance from residents.
She explained that it is critical that the needs of communities are prioritised and “the fact that emergency services in the Ekurhuleni Municipality have fallen into disarray, largely due to poor management, is of great concern to the DA”.
“It is also unacceptable that Metro Police officers, who put their lives on the line to protect citizens, do not have the resources they need to respond to emergencies,” she added.
But, EPMD spokesman Wilfred Kgasago disputed this, saying there were approximately 30 vehicles at the Kempton Park VW dealership at the time the video was taken.
“These vehicles were not stored in a stockyard but had been sent to the Kempton Park VW dealership for scheduled maintenance, breakdowns and repairs,” he added.
Kgasago said the vehicles, which were standing at the dealership for more than a month, had been assessed and the cost of repairs was deemed to excessive and they were, therefore, recommended for decommissioning (scrapping).
“These cars were waiting to be removed to our disposal yard,” he added.
“There were also instances of delays in processing orders by the Kempton Park management and disciplinary measures are being taken against the individuals who were found to be delaying the maintenance and repairs process.”
Kgasago denied that the EMPD officers are battling to do their jobs without vehicles.
“In the 2014/2015 financial year, the metro budgeted approximately R330-million to replace vehicles which had reached their economic life cycle,” he said.
“In excess of 30 per cent of this budget was allocated and spent on replacing aged vehicles.
“In the current financial year, 15 per cent of the total vehicle budget is again allocated to EMPD.”
He said this is to ensure that EMPD officers have the adequate number of vehicles.
“The Fleet Department continuously engages with the EMPD to ensure their need are met,” he added.
