SAPS had no intelligence budget to deal with the insurrection

The Crime Intelligence (CI) division of the SAPS had its budget slashed recently and did not have the funding necessary to conduct the covert ops necessary ahead of the unrest that grip KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng that lead to rioting and looting with over 330 people dead and more than R50 billion in damage and losses, reports News24.

On June 8, a letter was sent out with a warning that there was a cash flow issue in the CI after police minister Bheki Cele failed to approve the necessary budget.

Sources inside the CI told News24 that they did not have the funding to get their informants to pass along information which would have better prepared them for the insurrection a month later. The operations “grinded to a halt” said the sources, who spoke with the news organisation on condition of anonymity.

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