Twenty flying squad members, 10 high-powered flying squad cars, as many as 40 members of the police counter-assault team and VIP protection unit and several armoured and specialised surveillance vehicles.
This is what taxpayers coughed up to protect more than 200 guests, labelled as "royalty", who are attending the wedding of Vega Gupta, niece of the politically connected Gupta brothers, to Aakash Jahajgarhia, from India, at Sun City in North West.
There is already controversy about the arrival at Waterkloof Air Force base of a passenger jet carrying wedding guests.
It has prompted a multi-pronged investigation by the South African Revenue Service and the Department of Defence.
The civilian guests, who arrived at the air force base without being screened by customs officials, were whisked away in a convoy of white Range Rovers, protected by the large police detail, who clocked in at 5am.
A police officer who was involved in the operation and its planning said yesterday the security detail had been finalised last week already.
They had had to clock in for work at 5am on Tuesday and had knocked off at 2pm.
"The flying squad members [from across Gauteng] were all off duty and will receive additional overtime payments for answering the call to duty," he said.
02/05/13 Graeme Hosken & Schalk Mouton/Times Live, South Africa
