The Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Cllr Cilliers Brink, officially handed over newly procured City-owned fleet vehicles. During the handover ceremony, which was held on Tuesday, 28 May 2024, at the Fleet Management Offices in Bosman Street, Pretoria, the Executive Mayor was accompanied by the MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Cllr Kingsley Wakelin, the MMC for Community Safety, Ald Grandi Theunissen, and senior City management.
The City officially handed over 161 new vehicles, of which 80 were allocated to the Tshwane Metro Police Department’s regional policing units to boost by-law enforcement operations and community safety. Another 15 vehicles were allocated to Tshwane Ya Tima operations to support revenue collection. The City’s Roads and Transport Department received five vehicles for repairs and maintenance of traffic lights. Other departments that received new vehicles were service delivery departments, such as the Water and Sanitation Department and the Energy and Electricity Department.
This initiative has been part of the City’s Fleet Strategy since 2018, which has focused on buying our own vehicles to reduce expensive leases and enhance our fleet management operations. With the launch of the current 161 vehicles at a cost of R60 million, the City has now exited all vehicle leases, thus eliminating the annual R400 million cost of leasing vehicles. Purchasing our vehicles instead of leasing them will minimise our dependency on service providers. According to the Executive Mayor, our aim is to stabilise City finances and cut down on expenditure, so that we can plough this money back to providing core services to our communities.
The newly procured vehicles comprise double- and single-cab bakkies and sedans. According Cllr Kingsley Wakelin, all new vehicles are fitted with the latest in-vehicle tracking technology, so we can see where our vehicles are at all times and monitor driver behaviour, fuel consumption as well as time spent on the job.