Ramaphosa and other VIPs each have 81 bodyguards on average

There were 81 officers from the police’s Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) for every one of the 17 politicians it protected full-time in 2017/18.

National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sithole revealed in a parliamentary reply on July 3 that there were 1‚382 officers in this unit‚ which cost taxpayers R693-million in 2017/18.

According to the police’s 2016/17 annual report‚ there was one police officer for every 369 South Africans.

In a parliamentary reply last year‚ former police minister Fikile Mbalula confirmed that in 2016/17 the PPU protected among others then president Jacob Zuma‚ his deputy at the time and now president‚ Cyril Ramaphosa‚ former presidents FW de Klerk‚ Thabo Mbeki‚ and Kgalema Motlanthe‚ Zuma’s four wives and Ramaphosa’s wife.