Taxpayers bear R1.2m cost for police presence during Malema’s sentencing

A whopping R1.2m — that is what taxpayers paid for policing in KuGompo City over the two daysJulius Malemawas sentenced to five years in prison for firing a rifle at an EFF rally. Police even brought in officers from other provinces. The figure was disclosed by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia in a written reply to a parliamentary question.

He was answering EFF MP and party treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe, who asked why so many officers were put outside the court in KuGompo City (formerly East London), on April 15 and 16. She also asked whether members had been called in from other provinces, what the operation cost, and how many people it led to arresting. The total came to R1,214,961.96, or just over R600,000 a day.

Cachalia said the police had a constitutional duty to keep the peace and protect the public. “The presence of a large contingent was necessitated by the need to mitigate potential risks, including possible clashes between opposing groups, and to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of court proceedings,” he said. He confirmed officers from other provinces had been brought in to support the operation.

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“The deployment was conducted in accordance with National Instruction 4 of 2014: Crowd Management, which prescribes the allocation of sufficient resources where there is a reasonable apprehension of unrest, violence, or public disruption,” he said. The reply did not say how many officers were deployed, which provinces they came from, or how the money was spent. Hundreds of red-clad EFF supporters gathered outside the KuGompo City Regional Court over the two days as Magistrate Twanet Olivier decided what sentence to hand Malema on five charges from a 2018 rally.

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