Honourable deputy minister of police, Mr Fikile Mbalula
Provincial commissioner Landu and South Africa Police Service management
Reservists
Government officials
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is indeed a great honour for me to host all of you today in this important summit, which seeks to deal with the challenges faced by police reservists in our province and to map the way forward.
Reservists in the Eastern Cape and the country in general provide a voluntary service to assist the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the fight against crime and to enhance service delivery to our communities. On many occasions, these reservists have saved the image of the SAPS in many ways due to their commitment and dedication.
We continue to receive reports about police stations that are manned by reservists and sometimes reservists who have acted in a bravery manner to save lives and to protect property. We know of many stations, especially in rural areas, that heavily rely on the reservists in order to serve our communities.
Hence we have recently introduced a special award in this province for the best performing police reservist.
Despite all this good work, we have equally received a number of delegations of reservists, who came to the Department of Safety and Liaison offices to complain about:
* lack of recognition of their work by SAPS
* poor coordination of their work
* lack of understanding regarding national instruction relating to reservists
* enlistment of reservists as permanent members of the SAPS.
This summit is expected to mark a turning point in the manner in which we have been handling matters of police reservists in this province. When we leave this venue, we must all understand our roles and ensure that we work together to:
* strengthen the role of reservists in the SAPS
* improve coordination of reservists
* capacitate reservists to understand policing
* move towards establishing a uniform reservists structure in the Eastern Cape
* mobilise the communities to become reservists.
I must also bring to the attention of this summit that progress is being made with regard to the enlistment of reservists and I would like to commend the good work done by the national and provincial task team last week when they visited Port Elizabeth, Mthatha, Queenstown and East London.
A total of 4 389 Eastern Cape reservists participated in the process, which entailed relaxed selection criteria, which was biased towards the reservists as we ensured that candidates should at least be:
* permanent residents in South Africa
* aged between 18 and 40
* having a minimum of three years as a reservist
* having completed reservist training
* without previous criminal convictions
* NOT necessary in possession of a drivers’ licence
* prepared to undergo prescribed fitness assessment.
This clearly demonstrates our commitment as government to the resolutions of the National Reservists Summit as we gave reservists an opportunity to prove themselves that they are ready to join the SAPS permanently.
We hope that more people, especially the youth will now be encouraged to join the SAPS as reservists in order to contribute in the fight against crime.
This means that we need to develop a clear programme of reaching out to all corners of the Eastern Cape to inform our youth about this opportunity. We can further integrate such an initiative in our national youth service programme to encourage young people to dedicate their time in serving and protecting their communities.
In conclusion, I would like to once more express my sincere gratitude to the deputy minister for accepting our invitation and all reservists of our province for attending this important session. It is when we work together that we can be able to defeat crime in South Africa and the Eastern Cape, in particular.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Safety and Liaison, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
28 July 2009
