PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is constantly surrounded by 22 police bodyguards, says the SA Policing Union.The bodyguards are drawn from a team of 88 members of the presidential close-protection unit.This is in stark contrast to the protection from criminal violence available to the ordinary citizen. The ratio of police officers to citizens is one police officer for every 346 citizens.Last year The Times revealed that the police had 1998 VIP bodyguards and 230 Presidential Protection Services members to provide security to cabinet ministers, provincial premiers and MECs.But, said the union, the 88 Zuma bodyguards are not among this number. Questions have been raised about the size of Zuma‘s security detail — and the reason for it. The police unit that manages presidential close-protection would not say why Zuma needs such a large security detail.The Treasury reports that the 2016-2017 budget for the police protection and security services programme was R2.6-billion for 6445 personnel, with ...
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