More than R121-million was spent on private security guards to keep the country's police stations safe in 2008, and these contracts are set to continue.
This is because private guards are cheaper and the government does not have to worry about dealing with employment issues when contracting private firms, Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa said in answer to a parliamentary question by DA MP Ryno King.
Fifteen firms are employed on a contractual basis to provide security at the country's 1 000-odd police stations.
Protea Security Services, which costs the state more than R2-million a month, and Khulani Fidelity Group Services, at R1,9-million a month, were the two biggest security service providers to the police last year.
Mthethwa said the use of private security guards offered many advantages.
"A comparative analysis showed that it is more cost effective to outsource this type of service than to use trained police officials," he said.
Using private security guards also freed up police officers to do their work.
Private security guards were contractually obliged to replace their employees when they are sick or on holiday, so there were never any staff shortages, Mthethwa said.
When any losses occurred, the private security company was held responsible, he noted.
Over 8000 SAPS Firearms Missing
Mthethwa also revealed that 8 295 police pistols, rifles, shotguns and revolvers were either lost or stolen in the past three years. Of these, only 892 were recovered. See related post on I Luv SA - Link: We are just so screwed!
KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of stolen police firearms, with more than 90 reported stolen, most of them from headquarters.
Mthethwa also revealed that 15 311 firearms were owned by municipalities across the country and more than 1 300 of these were voluntarily handed in for destruction after the new firearms control legislation came into effect.
Police inspections had also revealed that some municipalities were irresponsible with their firearms.
In the King Sabata Dalindyebo (Mthatha) local municipality in the Eastern Cape, no inventory was kept for firearms and only two out of the 163 employees had the relevant qualifications to handle firearms.
Managers in the Lesedi local municipality in Heidelberg, Gauteng, did not know that one of the municipality's guns was missing until a police inspection was done.
Alarmingly, many municipal employees who handled firearms were not certified to do so.
In an answer to another question by DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, Mthethwa revealed that the backlogs at forensic science laboratories totalled more than 11 750 samples by the end of January.
Most of the backlogs were in chemistry in the Western Cape, with 9 630 samples still waiting to be analysed.
Chemistry analyses are normally done in drug and arson cases.
The average waiting time for samples to be analysed was 68 days, with biology samples - involving bloodstains and DNA analysis - taking as long as 130 days, even though the total backlog was relatively small at 576 samples.
There are 354 staff members currently trained to deal with the analyses.
More than 1 000 documents were still waiting to be analysed.
Forensics expert Dr David Klatzow on Friday questioned Mthethwa's statistics, saying the backlog of chemistry samples in the Western Cape was "in excess of 18 000".
He said the province started falling behind with its samples two years ago at a rate of about 500 a month.
"I am well aware that Mthethwa is wedded to the truth, but I would like to know how long they have been living apart," he said.
Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange in 2008 announced steps to deal with backlogs such as these which hold up court cases and affect the administration of justice.
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