By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has denied that the cars purchased by the SA Police Service’s (SAPS) crime intelligence unit for nearly R100 million remain unused.
The City Press reported that millions were spent on high-end cars, including Audi A3s, Golf 8 GTIs, and VW Amaroks, that had all been parked at the unit’s Silverton headquarters.
But the police minister said the cars were part of the police’s efforts to boost the introduction of technology in the fight against crime. This included working on Parliament’s approval to allow the use of tech intercepting devices in kidnapping and cash-in-transit cases.
“Among those cars, there are 20 cars with very high-tech, which were part of the request from Parliament. We are beginning to unleash some of these high-tech cars out there.”
Cele implied the sources who spoke to the publication were disgruntled for not being allocated the cars for their own use.
“Those cars go where they are supposed to go. Maybe those that were used to drive those cars for whatever luxury and pleasure are feeling the pinch, hence they run to your [media] colleagues and write stories that don’t exist.”
At the same time, Cele said the police have made inroads in dismantling criminal syndicates involved in serious and violent crimes.
Cele told the media briefing in Tshwane on Tuesday that intelligence-led operations and weekly high-density operations resulted in the arrest of thousands of criminals and the seizure of assets worth millions of rand.
He highlighted some of the recent successes, including the arrest of seven suspects for the kidnapping of a Wits student in Johannesburg last week.
The minister said he had noted with concern media reports and commentary by some academics that seek to discredit the positive work of the crime intelligence unit. He said it was a “low blow to recycle old and fabricated stories” in order to try and shift the focus of the good work achieved by this unit.
“We view such as mere attempts to try and derail the work of the police and we want to be clear that such experiments, for whatever reasons, will not deter us. As the SAPS, we know where we are going and we also know that if criminals are dealt a blow, there will always be resistance.”