"Targets met and clear direction in addressing challenges going forward"
The South African Police Service (SAPS) Management led by the National Commissioner General Bheki Cele appeared before the Parliament Portfolio Committee in two consecutive days on hearings of the annual report of the Department of Police, presenting programme three, Detectives on Thursday, 14 October 2010 and programme two, Visible Policing on Friday, 15 October 2010 respectively.
During day one of the annual report hearing with the Parliament oversight committee, the deliberations were centered on the Detective environment including that of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation. The department’s achievements were commended by the portfolio committee on targets met and further acknowledged new initiatives and systems introduced to address challenges.
The point worth mentioning is the environment of the Forensic Science Laboratory and Criminal Record Centre where significant progress is being made to address past imbalances and challenges that affect service delivery. The successes of the Hawks and targets were noted with appreciation by the portfolio committee, particularly in the crackdown on serious organised crime syndicates including capacitating the unit with relevant personnel.
There are however areas of concern particularly in the training of detectives that were vehemently raised by the oversight body. To this end, plans and systems are in place to train over 800 members in the detective learning programme in the next financial year.
The department was further applauded on an ongoing outstanding exercise of rotation top management forums meetings to provinces and visiting police stations which are at a critical point of service delivery. To date about 40 police stations and three borderlines were visited in three provinces in the past three months.
On day two of the annual report hearings, the focus was on Visible Policing which includes borderline security strategy, sector policing and crime prevention strategies and plans. The department’s targets were significantly met in a number of areas thus impacting positively in service delivery outputs and indicators.
Sector policing however came under fire, when the portfolio committee members raised issues on challenges regarding the implementation of sector policing within the broader National Crime Combating Strategy. Borderline security is currently a joint responsibility between the SAPS and South African Defence Force (SANDF) in carrying out security and cross border crime operations in all spheres land, sea and air borderlines.
The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Bheki Cele remains enthusiastic and confident that the SAPS is equal to the task and committed to fight crime and its remnants.
“The SAPS remains committed to improving the standards of policing in the country in ensuring that we respond to the call of ensuring that the people of South Africa are and feel safe. We have responded to the call by the President of the Republic of South Africa of changing the way government works, SAPS management are on the ground visiting police stations every month over and above their prescribed duties. The training and wellbeing of our human personnel remains our priority and therefore we will continue to capacitate and develop our members with relevant skills and knowledge thus improving our overall policing. Strengthening the criminal justice chain within Justice, Crime Prevention and Security(JCPS) cluster will forever yield positive results”, said Cele.
“SAPS members, my family – Together Pushing Back the Frontiers of Evil”.
Media contact:
Major General Nonkululeko Mbatha
Tel: 012 400 6579
Cell: 083 645 6252
E-mail: mediacentre@saps.org.za
Source: South African Police Service
