{"id":216997,"date":"2017-12-17T07:56:05","date_gmt":"2017-12-17T05:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=216997"},"modified":"2017-12-17T07:56:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-17T05:56:05","slug":"sa-police-service-forks-out-r33402-for-a-bulletproof-vest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/216997\/sa-police-service-forks-out-r33402-for-a-bulletproof-vest\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Police Service forks out R33,402 for a bulletproof vest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Police Service has purchased \u201cwhat could be the most expensive bulletproof vests in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This is according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2017-12-16-police-get-hi-tech-body--vests---at-r33k-a-pop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>report in the Sunday Times<\/strong><\/a>, which stated that\u00a0R6.7 million was spent on\u00a0200 hi-tech lightweight vests for ballistics testing.<\/p>\n<p>A further order for\u00a0R33 million from Indian manufacturer MKU is potentially in the works, stated the report.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Times said the SAPS paid\u00a0R33,402 per vest, of which \u201ca significant slice\u201d went to a Durban businessman who acted as a middleman.<\/p>\n<p>The contract was awarded without going out to tender, and the\u00a0price has been described as \u201cridiculous\u201d by Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies, stated the report.<\/p>\n<p>The bulletproof vests currently used by the SAPS cost up to R8,000 each, and weigh\u00a08.2kg. The new vests are as protective, and come in at 4.2kg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe auditor-general could deem the cost as irregular expenditure,\u201d stated the report.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes as the government is under severe pressure to cut public spending and has plans to provide free university education to low-income families.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/172511\/new-policies-to-make-saps-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with-mbalula\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New policies to make SAPS a force to be reckoned with \u2013 Mbalula<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Police Service has purchased \u201cwhat could be the most expensive bulletproof vests in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":93134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217007,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216997\/revisions\/217007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}