Taxpayers in major South African city flip R100-million police escort bill

The City of Cape Town plans to spend approximately R100 million to recruit new police officers to protect municipal workers around the metro.

The recruitment drive is predicated on the city’s difficult operating environment, which is plagued by high crime rates affecting service delivery to multiple suburbs.

The metro has experienced a surge in criminal activities targeted at City of Cape Town staff while on duty within the last few years.

Cape Town management has therefore decided to allocate additional resources towards safety escorts to protect its staff and service providers as they attend to their tasks, reported News24.

Between September 2024 and March 2025, the Cape Town Law Enforcement Department assigned 1,925 escorts to various service departments – equating to an average of 275 escorts per month.

This is according to the city’s mayoral council member for safety and security, JP Smith.

Starting in May 2023, the city launched the Facility Protection Officers (FPO) Initiative to protect staff, facilities, and ongoing construction projects in crime hotspot areas.

“There is a direct correlation between the quality of service and areas considered red zone and it cuts across departments, from basic services to firefighting and even disaster assessments,” said Smith.

“While some of the threats are linked to the growing prevalence of extortion, others are purely acts of brazen opportunism.”

When it was first launched, the FPO included a deployment force of 81 officers, which the city now plans to expand to 222 officers in response to a “dramatic rise in requests for escorts.”

Smith stated that just over R100 million has been set aside for the expansion, which will be funded by various Directorates.

“It’s mind boggling, the amount of money that is being spent on safeguarding staff and projects, but this is our reality,” he said.

“The attacks on staff and City contractors are relentless, and include very serious crimes, including armed robbery, hijacking, and sadly even murder.”

Smith stressed that the problem places a heavy burden on the city’s law enforcement, drawing away time and resources needed to respond to other matters.

A huge problem for taxpayers

Cape Town is home to some of the worst crime hotspots in the country, according to the national police crime statistics published every quarter.

“Cape Town has some of the areas with the highest levels of crime,” said crime expert Guy Lamb.

“Consistently, over the last few years, we’ve seen problems with minucipal service providers’ safey and security and there are areas theat are becoming increasingly dangerous for city officials.”

Organised criminal groups are known to target staff wo provide municipal services, such as refuse removal or drain clearing.

They have also targeted persons repairing infrastructure such as streetlights, and emergency responders like paramedics.

“You can’t expect someone to put their life on the line to unblock a drain,” said Lamb.

“But the problem is costing the city, and ratepayers, a lot of money.”

The City of Cape Town is currently working on a cooperative agreement with provincial and national police services to address the problems in these hotspots.

However, this agreement has yet to be operationalized.

The Western Cape is not the only province struggling with this problem, either, as KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have had to put policies in place to deal with threats of violence to local councillors.

One issue that is becoming more prevalent countrywide is the rise of so-called “construction mafias.”

These groups attempt to extort the local municipality whenever a new construction project is announced, where they demand a cut of the funds in exchange for ‘protection.’

In response, the national government and stakeholders are currently working on a strategy to deal with mafia-style extortion groups.

“Government and industry stakeholders have agreed on an approach to end criminal disruption at sites.” said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during his annual Budget Speech today, 12 March 2025.

No further details were shared regarding these tactics, presumably to not give criminals a chance to respond to the strategy.