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Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene told Parliament in a written reply to questions that the amount of money spent on private security services by national government, provincial government and state-owned entities ballooned from R6.1bn in the 2015-16 financial year to R7.6bn in 2017-18.
Nene was responding to a question from Member of Parliament for the Economic Freedom Fighters Godrich Gardee.
While Nene did say that the growth of R6.1bn in 2015-16 rising to R7.65bn in 2017-18 accounts for 0.5% of total consolidated government spending, the figure in itself is considerable.
The figure also flies in the face of National Treasury’s efforts at getting the executive and parastatals to get a grip of their finances and spend tax money more responsibly.
Gardee asked: “What amount has the State spent on private security services in the past three financial years with regard to national level, provincial level and state-owned entities?”
Nene supplied members with a table which showed the distribution of spending on private security services for the national and provincial spheres.
“On average national departments spent R900m over the last three years, growing at an average of 9.6% per year, while provinces spent an average of R4.5bn, growing at 13% per year, and the public entities spent on average R1.4bn, growing at an average of 11.2% per year,” said Nene.
He said also included were state-owned entities, but that the table excluded the public corporations and other off-budget entities.
National departments’ spending on private security grew from R821m in 2015-16 to R986m in 2017-18. Provincial government’s spending on private security grew from R3.9bn to R5bn in 2017-18.
State-owned entities’ spending on private security services grew from R1.2bn in 2015-16 to R1.5bn in 2017-18.
