An astounding 10.7-million has been forked out by the government, over a period of three years, to fix almost 1000 state-owned vehicles involved in carelessly car crashes.
Out of the 993 vehicles involved in crashes, 228 were complete write offs, with some of the costs covered by insurance companies and the remaining 765 repaired at an average cost of R14 000 each.
The Justice and Correctional Services Department racked up the highest number of vehicles damaged with a total 518 taken in for repairs during the three year period.
The Home Affairs and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department came close to this with 196 and 136 cars damaged during the same period.
State Security Agency drivers crashed 41 vehicles, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation crashed 43 and Environmental Affairs came in last with 22 vehicles damaged.
Of the 228 cars that were complete write offs, the Agricultural department led with 136 and then Home Affairs with 42, followed by the Justice and Correctional Services who destroyed 31 vehicles.
This information came in response to a queries issued by the Democratic Alliance (DA).
DA spokesman, Manny de Freitas said the parliamentary responses told a story of clear disregard for vehicles by those who did not own them.
Responses received from these queries revealed that in addition more than half of the national departments do not install tracking devices in their state-owned vehicles in an effort to save money.
De Freitas told IOL, “I am going to send follow-up questions to establish how they maintain control over the vehicles.”
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