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The so-called “white shirts”, who were appointed last year to provide muscle against unruly members of Parliament, have cost taxpayers more than R10 million since August.
Parliament’s financial statements for October 2015 show a projected overspending of more than R15 million of its corporate support services budget. This is mainly due to the 37 additional protection services staff members (the white shirts).
In the report on the financial statements, Parliament confirms the salaries of additional staff for protection services were not budgeted for. It has thus far kept mum over the costs of the appointments.
The new appointments cost R10.2 million for the salaries of 37 additional security service personnel from August 1 to the end of the current financial year.
Stembiso Temba, chairperson of the trade union Nehawu at Parliament, said the union was not aware of these costs and that it came as a shock.
He didn’t want to comment until he had seen the financial statements.
In 2015 Nehawu members went on strike for better conditions of service including performance bonuses. Parliament amid a standoff with the union, insisted their back was against the wall with a limited budget.
Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, earlier confirmed that the “white shirts” had been recruited from the South African Police Service amid questions on when they quit their previous jobs; whether they had to work a notice period; how it was possible to finalise the appointment processes in such a short period and how much was budgeted for the positions.
Parliament’s head of security services, Zelda Holtzman, was suspended after she, among others, expressed concerns about the recruitment of the SAPS members for Parliament’s protection services. Her disciplinary hearing is still under way.
In 2015, police in white shirts removed the EFF MPs when they disrupted the state of the nation address.
Parliament’s rules have since been amended to allow for the white shirts to remove, with force if necessary, unruly MPs who refuse an order of the speaker to leave the chamber of the National Assembly.
