These examples of police bungling were revealed at the eThekwini Municipality Executive Committee meeting yesterday, during which city manager Sibusiso Sithole called for a full investigation into what had gone wrong and who was responsible.

He indicated that even Metro Police head Eugene Nzama might not be immune from disciplinary action.

At the meeting, the municipality’s audit committee told Exco councillors that all four of the police’s vehicle pounds were full, that thefts there are commonplace and that police management regularly flouted legislation at the pound.

Londiwe Mthembu, who presented the audit committee’s quarterly report for October to December yesterday, told councillors that the Metro Police problems were due to poor management, particularly when it came to stock.

“What we need to notice is that it’s not just stock being lost, but also a lack of proper record-keeping. It may seem as if it’s lost when it was actually not properly recorded,” said Mthembu.

A report presented to Exco said an inventory for uniform stores at Metro Police uncovered 363 items that “could not be verified when physical stock-taking was undertaken”.

The report stated: “Out of the R22.6-million value of stock, about R12.6-million could not be verified.”

Municipal treasurer Krish Kumar told The Times after the meeting that this did not necessarily mean the stock had been stolen, but rather that no proper record had been taken of who the uniforms had been assigned to.

DA councillor Heinz de Boer questioned this, saying: “There doesn’t seem too much oversight of Metro Police at all.”

The audit committee report also raised serious question marks over the state of the city’s four pounds, each of which can accommodate about 400 vehicles.

It found that many vehicles were kept beyond the legislated 12-month period without being auctioned. In fact, the last auction had taken place in April 2013.

The problems at the pounds include:

• Inadequate vehicle storage capacity;
• Theft of vehicle parts or damaged vehicles within the pounds’ grounds;
• Inadequate security; and
• Incomplete or non-updated vehicle listings, including 75 vehicles that are undocumented.

Said the audit committee: “Consequently, the reputation of the city as an entity managing the vehicle pound is adversely affected and impacts on its good standing in administering regulatory requirements.”

Deputy mayor Nomvuso Shabalala said she was getting frustrated with the police department, “their performance as a unit and how they do things”.

Sithole said he would investigate, but placed a focus on the issue of police uniforms.

“I’ve asked that we pay specific attention to this so that we can ascertain what causes this and also to begin to look at disciplinary action for culprits who are involved in the mismanagement of this – including the head, if, in fact, it has to go to that level.

“I think the amount is very significant, which is why we’re saying that this matter needs to be thoroughly investigated,” he said.