Report: 26% of SAPS vehicles not operational

CAPE TOWN - Over a quarter of all police vehicles in the country are not working.

The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are worst affected.

It takes around 100 days or over three months to get them back on the road.

The DA blames this on centralised procurement policies.

"I think that it would be acceptable to have the lowest number of vehicles that require maintenance or repairs," said the DA's Andrew Whitfield.

"It is poor management from a station level where police officers often treat vehicles recklessly but also a centralised procurement supply chain system which requires station commanders to get levels of authority in order to have the vehicles to be repaired.

"More than a quarter of police vehicles for visible policing are inoperable in the workshop, broken down or require urgent repairs and this is completely unacceptable," he said.