Thieves swiping city police tyres

Durban - eThekwini’s metro police are investigating the swopping of new tyres for old on their vehicles, a problem they say is widespread in their fleet.

Officers had reported that new tyres on their vehicles had been replaced with old, worn ones.

Metro police spokesman Senior Superintendent Eugene Msomi confirmed the investigation and said complaints about tyres being stolen first emerged about three months ago.

“We would have members complaining at different times about this happening to their vehicles while they were off (duty). Seeing that it was starting to be a problem, we decided to look into it further,” Msomi said.

“This is apparently happening to all our vehicles around the city. As metro police we have a fleet of about 800 vehicles, so we are going to be investigating this at length,” Msomi said. He said he was not in a position to comment on the financial impact this would have on the police’s budget.

“All those details will form part of the investigation,” he said.

Municipal spokesman, Thabo Mofokeng, said tyre theft was not a first for the city.

“There was a time when we had tyres being stolen from buses, which was a big problem. An employee was arrested for one of the cases,” he said.

Mofokeng said the city would not tolerate any theft of municipal assets and those found to be stealing would be dealt with.

Daily News