The South African Police Service (SAPS) has admitted being found wanting in dealing with security matters at Parliament despite it being a national key point.
The SAPS bosses are appearing before the Joint Portfolio Committees of the National Assembly on Police and Public Works. This after an incident in which a former employee Lennox Garane entered Parliament with a gun inside a bag which was not scanned, before killing himself two weeks ago.
The SAPS bosses say this has highlighted serious security breaches by both the police and the Parliament’s protection services operating in the premises.
Major General Leon Rabie appealed to members of the committee to take a comprehensive and holistic approach in dealing with the issue.
“Sometimes these unfortunate incidents do happen. And we realised that we have been neglecting certain processes. And its difficult to understand why such things have to happen before we need to improve things. So this emphasised the need to have an integrated strategy to improve security in parliament. It is one of the key matters that we would like to raise honourable chair that protecting parliament is not only the responsibility of the South African Police Service.”
