Cape Town – The recent Brics summit in South Africa incurred a security cost of R75 million, according to Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Over 5 000 police officers and 700 vehicles were deployed for the two-day event.
This revelation came in response to a parliamentary question from DA MP Delmaine Christians, who criticised the substantial expenditure on the summit, highlighting the challenges faced by ordinary South Africans due to underfunded police services.
Christians argued that such spending, intended to support the ANC’s agenda, would provide little economic benefit and might exacerbate security concerns.
“It is unacceptable that scarce police resources had to be splurged on a controversial event that is used to drive the agenda of the ANC and not address the best interests of South Africans.
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“Expenditure of the country’s policing budget on the summit will not only have little economic benefit for the country but will more likely worsen instability and security issues, given the further expansion of BRICS into authoritarian states with a tendency to operate outside the internationally established rule of law.
“Cele and the ANC government’s willingness to so easily forego the protection of ordinary citizens and instead transform the incapacitated and under-resourced police service into a VIP protection service for delegates from countries that include amongst them mafia-states, is a direct indication of the absolute disregard that the ANC has for the safety and protection of South Africans,” he said.
South Africa’s ranking as seventh in the world for organised crime further raised concerns about allocating resources to the summit instead of addressing domestic security issues, Christians said.
“The Democratic Alliance (DA) is outraged that the South African Police Service (SAPS) spent R75 million protecting delegates of the three-day BRICS summit while ordinary South Africans are left to be murdered, raped, robbed, kidnapped and trafficked 365 days of the year,” he said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
