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The Right2Know Campaign has demanded answers about the extent and cost of heavy security around Parliament during the president’s state of the nation address.
The organisation has submitted applications to the South African Police Service and City of Cape Town to provide a breakdown of the costs of security – which included barbed wire, riot control vehicles and the deployment of officers from various units around the country. The applications are lodged under the Public Access to Information Act.
The organisation has also requested the total budget for the previous four years.
“While Parliament and the government talk about austerity measures and tightening belts, we see more spending on security around parliament than ever before,” said Right2Know spokesperson Murray Hunter.
“Parliament might be cutting costs on catering, but the country is splurging on security and bodyguards ... they are putting up a wall between the people and the president,” he said.
The heavy security presence raised a number of other questions, he said.
“For instance, Cape Town is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. If police resources are deployed to Parliament, one wonders who is doing the work in areas of need, such as Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.”
In the build-up to the state of the nation address, questions were raised about the increase in security around the precinct but Parliament referred the media to the police and City of Cape Town, saying that security arrangements outside Parliament were beyond their control. At the time, SAPS did not reveal specific plans, citing security concerns.
Murray said that questions had been too easily “fobbed off”, and that hopefully through the information act applications there would be some accountability.
He said there had been increased securitisation at Parliament over the past 18 months, including the permanent deployment of former riot police into the Parliamentary Protection Services and a controversial staff vetting process that involved the State Security Agency.
“At the heart of this, we have to ask – when did it become normal for barbed wire to be used to go up around the people’s Parliament?”
The DA’s John Steenhuisen said this week it would submit parliamentary questions to various ministers to determine security costs. It has also sought an urgent Parliamentary Oversight Authority briefing on the matter.
This followed the ring of barbed wire that was set up around Parliament on Thursday for Zuma’s reply to the debate on his address.
Responding yesterday, police spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said if a Public Access to Information Act application had been lodged, the legal team would look at it.
“We don’t reveal arrangements for security measures. There are certain categories that we disclose. This will need to be determined.”
Of the 436 officers, 120 were from the metro police, 175 from the traffic service and 137 from law enforcement.
In addition, two members were deployed from disaster risk management and another two from fire and rescue service to command facilities.
This figure excluded the deployment of officers from various units from the South African Police Service.
