Durban - KwaZulu-Natal municipalities budgeted nearly R400 million within a six-month period to provide VIP security to councillors across the province.
In a report recently presented to the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) portfolio committee, it emerged that R379m was budgeted for security from July 1 to December 31, 2022. For the 2022/23 financial year, the top three municipalities according to their budgets for security included eThekwini with R21.7m, followed by Amajuba District with R10.3m, and King Cetshwayo, budgeting R7.6m.
According to the report, 36 municipalities approved the provision of personal security to council figures without a threat and risk analysis. Personal security was provided to 21 mayors, 31 deputy mayors, 10 speakers and 18 ordinary councillors, the report said.
KZN violence monitor Mary de Haas questioned the rationale behind spending so much on councillors whose municipalities were performing badly, suggesting that they should foot the bill for their own security, when they were failing in their municipal duties.
“Municipalities should be properly run and not getting into debt and then there could be some justification for the provision of security. The fact is there will be no threat to one’s life if one is performing one’s duties,” she said.
De Haas noted how becoming a councillor was fraught with challenges where members from the same party could be competing against each other along factional lines before contesting against figures from other political parties.
She added that the system had created individuals that saw public office as a way of enriching themselves.
De Haas expressed concern that some of the bodyguards had not been properly screened for criminal records, with some of them coming from unregistered companies.
EThekwini mayoral spokesperson Mluleki Mntungwa noted that the report had been presented to the committee. “We can only comment once we have seen the report,” he said.
SA Local Government Association KZN chairperson Thami Ntuli said while they wanted to see every cent channelled towards service delivery, KZN was not safe and this warranted safety and security measures to be taken seriously for public representatives.
“We have seen instances where councillors who had exposed corruption in their respective municipalities were getting killed, which illustrate the kind of environment that they work under,” said Ntuli, who is also the mayor of King Cetshwayo Municipality.
While noting that some councils had approved the budget on personal security without a threat and risk analysis, he contended that in many instances the SAPS took a long time to conclude these.
DA Cogta committee member Martin Meyer said: “Unfortunately, political killings are real in KwaZulu-Natal, and so there should be a mechanism in which every matter is assessed on individual merit, so that the system does not get abused.”
Committee chairperson Zinhle Cele said it was alarming that in some instances councils were spending more than the allocated budget on security.
“We do not have a problem when a security analysis has been conducted by the SAPS.
“What we take exception to is when taxpayers’ money gets spent without following due process.”