DA mayoral candidate Retief Odendaal and DA MP Yusuf Cassim accompanied Ian Cameron on his visit in November 2025 to Nelson Mandela Bay’s Flying Squad. (Photo: Riaan Marais)Last week, the police in the Eastern Cape announced the procurement of 135 new vehicles to help the fight against crime across the province.
For reasons unknown, the allocation of these vehicles is being kept under wraps, but it seems not one is destined for the garages of the Nelson Mandela Bay Flying Squad.
Instead, the metro’s elite rapid-response unit is understood to have borrowed a VW Polo from detectives as it remains without suitable high-performance vehicles to carry out its duties.
The vehicle shortage has also led to two Flying Squad members being subjected to an internal police probe after they used a private vehicle to act on information that led to the arrest of a suspect and the recovery of 11 stolen firearms last month.
/file/attachments/orphans/FlyingSquad2_669628.jpg "Members of the Flying Squad in Nelson Mandela Bay have tried to work with other policing units to assist with law enforcement operations, but have been told by their superiors to \"stay in their lane\" and not to act outside their mandate. (Photo: DA Eastern Cape)")
Resource challenges at the Nelson Mandela Bay Flying Squad have long been a concern, but this was once again thrust into the spotlight after a parliamentary oversight visit in November last year.
The visit revealed that the rapid response unit was not equipped with the correct vehicles to perform its duties, despite the willingness of the officials champing at the bit to assist with crime-fighting operations.
Members were forced to ride shotgun with other police units just to perform their duties, only to be reprimanded by their superiors for operating outside their mandate.
The situation has since deteriorated even further, to the point that members of the so-called “Dying Squad” have become demoralised and reluctant to do anything above and beyond their job description.
A prime example came on 31 August, when the Newton Park office of a private security firm was burgled. Safes containing firearms were stolen from the premises.
According to the official police statement, when employees arrived at the company’s premises around 7.30am on that Monday morning, they found the back door had been forced open and the safes, as well as the company’s Nissan NP200 bakkie, were missing.
In the hours that followed, the bakkie was found abandoned in Kwadwesi. The police report credited Mount Road detectives and members of the Flying Squad for following up on information that led them to a house in Gallant Street, Polar Park, where they arrested a 52-year-old man and recovered nine shotguns and two semi-automatic rifles.
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At the time, acting Nelson Mandela Bay district commissioner Brigadier Loyiso Ngalo “commended the members of the Flying Squad and other units involved for their swift response”.
What was not included in the official statement was that two members of the Flying Squad had received a tip-off while off duty. Knowing their colleagues were under-resourced, and rather than wait for another police unit to respond, they used one of their private vehicles to go to the address where the firearms were recovered.
They have since become the subject of an internal investigation to determine why the members used a private vehicle to respond to a crime scene, as this was outside protocols and standard SAPS policy.
Investigation into officers confirmed
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa confirmed that an internal investigation was under way.
“The internal investigation is a standard administrative procedure triggered whenever private vehicles are used for official duties. It is not disciplinary and does not question the officers’ bravery,” Mawisa said.
The police officers in question, who are known to Daily Maverick, declined to comment on the matter.
However, their colleagues have confirmed that these members, and several others, have been reprimanded on various occasions for using private vehicles for official operations, or for travelling with members of other police units so that they can perform their duties.
They were told, among other matters, that acting outside official protocols would leave them ineligible for medical claims if they were injured on duty.
/file/attachments/orphans/FlyingSquad1_602140.jpg "Since a parliamentary oversight visit to the Nelson Mandela Bay Flying Squad uncovered a lack of essential resources in November 2025, nothing has improved. The police rapid response unit has been without reliable vehicles for more than three months, and members' morale has hit rock bottom. (Photo : DA Eastern Cape)")
Incidents like these all go back to the same recurring issue – the Flying Squad in Nelson Mandela Bay lacks an operational fleet of high-performance vehicles.
Last month, when members of the unit voiced their increasing exasperation over the lack of vehicles, SAPS simply acknowledged these “concerns”.
“However, SAPS is unable to disclose specific details relating to vehicle availability as providing such information could compromise the safety of police members and negatively affect the effectiveness of policing operations,” Mawisa said in her official response.
Last week, when provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Vuyisile Ncata announced the Eastern Cape crime statistics for the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, he said the province would be receiving 135 new police vehicles.
He said 78 vehicles would be for “crime detection” while the remaining 57 would be “support vehicles”. The vehicles would “assist stations facing resource constraints and improve police visibility”.
When asked for a further breakdown of how the vehicles would be distributed among the various districts of the Eastern Cape, or if any vehicles would be allocated to specialised units, Mawisa’s response came with a sense of déjà vu.
“However, SAPS is unable to disclose specific details relating to vehicle breakdown as providing such information could compromise the safety of police members and negatively affect the effectiveness of policing operations.”
Dodgy vehicles
Members of the Flying Squad previously indicated that the unit had three allocated vehicles, which consisted of a single-cab bakkie, a double-cab bakkie and a Golf GTI. None of these vehicles is in proper working order or suited to the task required by the Flying Squad.
It is rumoured that a detective unit in Gqeberha has temporarily made one of their Polo TSI’s available to the Flying Squad for use in rapid response operations. However, this vehicle does not fit the specifications for vehicles needed for rapid response and high-speed pursuits.
Chairperson for Parliament’s police committee Ian Cameron has been in contact with the members of the Flying Squad since he visited Nelson Mandela Bay in November last year, and said he would escalate questions around the allocation of police vehicles to the relevant authority.
“There should be no reason for police management not to disclose how the Eastern Cape’s new vehicles are allocated.
“And with regard to the Flying Squad, I am in contact with the members on the ground, and what is happening in Nelson Mandela Bay needs to be addressed urgently.”
When it came to light that two members face investigation after using a private vehicle, Cameron took a keen interest in the matter, aware of the poor state of their unit.
“These officers are heroes. They deserve proper vehicles, equipment and support, not to carry the operational and financial risks created by management failures.
“We will keep fighting this fight. We will keep demanding answers about where the resources are going and why dedicated members are being forced to improvise simply to protect the public.
“South Africa still has exceptional police officers who want to work and make a difference. They deserve far better from the system they serve.” DM
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