National Commissioner, Bheki Cele
IBM Vice President, Harriet Pearson
Abomama
Alibongwe
Entering this venue now I was over-confident with the beautiful smiles of the beautiful women in uniform, gleefully decorating this venue, welcoming me to this august event. One wonders where Commissioner Bheki Cele has been hiding these beautiful women. I am happy today they are here, we were starting to wonder what kind of Police Service is this that does not have the beauty in the fight against crime.
We are celebrating Women's Month with a beautiful slogan; together eradicating poverty and empowering women. The enemy is patriarchy the saying goes. Sometimes these slogans are exclusively for other people. You'll never know.
I don't know after I have said this statement what will men, even women, look at me and say. The enemy is patriarchy abomama say that. Well, this statement is powerful by its nature and character and it is also befitting that we talk about this, in the light that we are celebrating Women's Month.
When we were growing up the understanding was that a man ke hlogo ya lelapa, we forgot that a head does not exist without a neck. If you see a head on someone's body go sena molala, you will just be attracting attention unnecessarily. Everybody will be looking at you; we will end up saying Modimo o etsa mehlolo how can he create a person without a neck?
This is just a clear indication that a head did not exist and it does not exist without the neck. Jointly the head and the neck work beautifully together. That is why, we always say, there are some of the things that even if our cultural heritage dictates us to do, it should not be a forced thing to the current conditions.
I am not suggesting that we should revisit our moral cultural being and go back to our communities and mobilise people who believe in a certain tradition. That would be wrong of me. We support progressive democratic culture in our country.
Seating here surrounded by the beauty of the South African Police Service, in the country. You get encouraged to be a champion in the fight against crime in the country. The beauty and bravery of women in the police services as displayed here is just but a motivating factor in the advancement of the eradication of poverty in the society.
The presence of women in the police services has shown that the fight against crime is not only limited to men, women in actual fact ba swara thipa ka bogaleng. We are marking women's advancement in the Police Services today. We are showcasing advancement of the qualities shown bravely by our women.
Some of you here have achieved a lot of things in your short period within the Police Services, you have gallantly shown that the jobs that were previously reserved to your male counterparts can be easily done and performed by all irrespective of creed, colour or sex.
You have excelled well in this opportunities brought to you. That is a picture we are celebrating today as the Police Service in the country. We have just completed the landmark 100 days in office under the stewardship of President Jacob Zuma, this week. We marked the 100th day, still trapped in the painful economic downturn. The negative economic growth that welcomed us into the political office of this country, has taken the centre stage globally.
Recession has its own way of affecting the lives and the quality of living for all South Africans and the world citizens. It is not about folding arms and say, we are waiting to be retrenched and I am still young what is going to happen to my kids. We can't when we are faced with a challenge decide to lose control of our lives.
We should be able to stand up for ourselves and do something to improve the quality of living with the little means that is there. When you start to despair the whole family that looks upon for you start doing things that they cannot even explain. Young girls start engaging in sugar daddy relationships exposing themselves to illnesses and even substance abuse.
All this because we have allowed our problems to be taking over the way we live our lives. School kids start withdrawing from school, because of the mood of their parents at home. This is not healthy for the family. Teachers are faced with tougher jobs because the academic performance of these kids has dropped drastically.
The start of domestic violence begins. Dad is moody, mom is moody, the environment is not the healthy one to raise a family. Dad keeps kicking mom in front of kids, mom physically abuses the kids. Family life is dead. Suicide cases increase.
Recession by its nature is a problem, when it was first showing its face we saw our people in debts, home owners losing their properties, banking staff mainly losing their jobs, others losing their vehicles. This showed with the stress level increasing and number of criminal activities not plummeting but increasing.
And this meant there are a number of new faces arrested by the police. Other people committed suicides, others committing homicides, taking the lives of innocent family members because they felt ashamed of the economic sharp downturn that took over their lives.
Our people enjoyed the fruits of freedom at the time when the world economics was dancing and smiling with us, when in actual fact the smile was about killing us softly. We need to appreciate and salute all those even under severe conditions believed and said, I am moving forward with or without what I used to own.
The end is near with regard to recession, economists are predicting that. And government is hopeful. The stress and anxiety research groups blame it all the negativity that exist in the hands of Recession. They say 66 percent of thoughts at this time of recession are negative.
We have been receiving reports that there are problem amongst us as the police, especially police women when it comes to the wearing of bulletproofs. Some citing the fact that they are heavy others saying they are hot, others just don't like them. This is in its own a negative thought.
We need beautiful and sexy protected bullet-proofed police personnel. If you don't wear your bullet-proofs, the criminals will wear them for you. Together with your union we should sit down and understand what seems to be the problem. If these bullet-proofs are not comfortable and heavy, we should device some means to have them comfortable for you.
Criminals wherever and whenever they are, they are planning an attack to kill you as the people who are on their way to achieve their desired goals of causing havoc in the society. The recent mall attacks mainly in Gauteng, according to the experts; it should be expected because of the economic conditions we find ourselves in today. Recession just hit us recently; there's been crime even before recession. In actual fact, when the economy of South Africa was booming, crime was also there. Crime should not be relegated to recession only, it should be broadly understood. It is a societal problem.
The fact of the matter here is that, criminals indeed are sophisticated. They are taking an amoeba shapeless form every time. The crime patterns showing are that, you cannot confirm criminals. The way things are; we should be careful because here we'll end up with a pandemic of a special kind.
A pandemic that is being deliberately designed by inhuman species to invade our peaceful space mercilessly, that's stealing, raping, murdering and corrupting our society with illegal substances. The oath you have taken is about saying "my country first". We salute you for that. You are defending the principles enshrined in our constitution. As police officers we are part and parcel of the community. We don't need a Police Service that is aloof. We want a community rooted, organic police service.
That is why we are currently working tirelessly to establish the community policing forums (CPFs). The community safety forums are local government level model to bridge the gaps that impacts negatively on service delivery and to co-ordinate various agencies to design and implement multi-agency crime prevention or community safety initiatives. They will comprise the representatives from government, community based organisations (CBOs), which includes the CPFs, business and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This is a strategic partnership at local government level.
In some cities and towns, there is a stronger and encouraging engagement between government departments, business and CPFs, and this partnership has shown a beautiful success, with criminals getting arrested in a wink of an eye. We value these partnerships.
When we first alluded to the establishment of the community safety forums, someone argued that the structure is about creating a bureaucracy in the fight against crime at local government level. Where on earth have you seen people who strategise and design mechanisms that will help the police in effectively convicting criminals be reduced to bureaucracy. The structure is not about signing affidavits, taking finger prints or even giving permission to the police to arrest.
It is a collective effort in assisting our own mothers, children, elderly and people with disabilities to live their lives freely without any fear of rape, physical and emotional abuse that they are faced with on a day to day basis. The community safety forums will have minimum standards, legal framework, location and structure.
We have been making a clarion call since we took office, to design ways and means of ensuring the crime rate is reduced to a certain level in our country. The fact of the matter is, the current existing limitations in terms of Laws, has been making lives of Police Officers difficult. When you look at the issue of Section 49, it is problematic by its nature for the crime prevention process. It exposes the police officer to death and make criminals defeat the course for a free and safer environment.
This is a collective approach to promote a safe and healthy environment and encourage the involvement of the communities in the fight against crime. We have said it before; we are saying it again, the days of criminals to see their own coffins and graves has arrived. It's a clarion call, washa, wafa tsotsi. We are not going back. We are not retreating, we are not surrendering.
Together we are going to win.
If people can wake up and think of torching someone else's house burn to kill a family in their sleep, it's a provocation. If a person can wake up and enter his own night club and throw R200 notes to the patrons at his club without a clear and full understanding on where and how does he makes this cash he is throwing around, it's a provocation.
If a person continues selling drugs in our streets and turns our kids into junkies, it's a provocation. If a person continues to invade our malls endangering the lives of poor shoppers and kill security guards, it's a provocation. If people continue raping, murdering, abusing and acting inhumanly it's a provocation to communities to act against these senseless people.
Some of these people ungathi abazalwa abantu, it is like they were not born of a man and a woman. Their actions are unspeakable. wafa! washa! tsotsi is our commitment to taking the war to the criminals that is why we need people who sit down and design ways and means to fight crime at all levels of government. Sithembele kini abomama! If ignore our safety precautions in the fight against crime and forget the oath we took. We are endangering our lives and becoming candidate for statistics on the number of police officers who died in the line of duty. We'll even end up also catching R200 notes in the night clubs owned by criminals.
We are a nation together working to do more in the fight against crime. The SAPS should be home for us in our different fields of work we chose. We salute the women of the South African Police Services.
Malibongwe!
Enquiries:
Paena Galane
Cell: 072 069 4500
Issued by: South African Police Service
19 August 2009
Source: SAPA
