Jacob Zuma’s legacy includes a 6‚600-strong private army that costs R2.6-billion a year and is accountable to no one‚ according to new research.

In a report entitled “South Africa’s Secret Police”‚ researcher Gareth van Onselen says spending on VIP protection “exploded” during Zuma’s presidency.

In nine years under his predecessor‚ Thabo Mbeki‚ it cost R4.3-billion. Over the next decade‚ that rose to R18.2-billion.

“If Cyril Ramaphosa is elected president in 2019‚ just the first two years of his new administration ... will cost R5.8-billion in VIP protection‚” Van Onselen says in the new South African Institute of Race Relations report.

The document bristles with statistics‚ yet Van Onselen says the budget for VIP protection is “shrouded in bureaucratic obfuscation”.

Some of the figures the report reveals include:

- 6‚585 people work for VIP protection;

- 4.4 guards are allocated to each of the 450 South African and foreign dignitaries they protect (2012/13 figure);

- 24.6 protectors guard each of the 137 residences and locations they are assigned to (2012/13);

- 47 guards are assigned to each of the 18 dignitaries covered by presidential protection services (2012/13); and

- 88 protectors are assigned to the president.

Van Onselen points out that these figures are in sharp contrast to the one police officer for every 346 citizens revealed in a parliamentary reply in 2014. In other words‚ the president’s level of protection is 30‚448 times what is available to each ordinary South African.