Programme Director
Minister of Police, Mr Mthethwa
Deputy Minister of Police, Ms Sotyu
Secretary of Police, Ms Irish-Qhobosheane
Deputy National Commissioners
Divisional Commissioners
Provincial Commissioners
Station Commanders and Cluster Commanders
On behalf of the Department of Police, let me extend a most warm and sincere welcome to all present. This is a critical gathering of some of the most important and powerful people in law enforcement in this country. You may question that statement, especially those of you who are not in parliament or who hold a rank below brigadier or general. But, as a group, the onerous burden of the protection and safety of all people in South Africa rests on our shoulders. This is a huge responsibility, one that each individual in this room has to take very seriously and treat as if it is the tiniest, most fragile teacup resting in the palm of your hand.
Today 1500 of us are gathered in this room, we constitute close to 1% of the SAPS workforce. We are the team that leads this mighty and very crucial organisation of the state. You are not ordinary; you have a very significant and monstrous role to play. Perhaps it is fitting at this moment to encourage us to acknowledge to ourselves that it is not easy at the top, for that reason we need to be loaded with what I shall call “a loaded leadership muscle” over and above our natural given attributes, we need to enhance our leadership capacities by learning and or acquiring new skills. I thought as we start the conversations that are to follow in the next two days, we can take lessons by observing some lessons from the matchless bird, the eagle:
The eagle shows four major characteristics:
- Vision- all leaders must understand and embrace some vision. The eagle’s eye can see far and can also look into the sun directly without being blinded. Understand the SAPS vision, share it with your team and lead your team towards the vision
- Eagles never eat dead meat – eagles are not scavengers they hunt and prefer their meat warm and alive. They display therefore a hard working ethic
- As storms approach, lesser birds run for cover, the eagle uses the storm to lift themselves, leaders use storms/challenges, they don’t run from them, challenges are tools for the development of leaders
- Eagles, though known for their ferocity, are gentle and attentive to their young
We must wake up as leaders and make the difference; we must brighten the corner where we are.
As leaders we can increase our effectiveness by changing elements of our behavior. To us here today, I wish to remind the entire leadership that no one can whistle a symphony, it takes an orchestra to play it.
The New Year brings with it new beginnings. It is a time to reach out to our colleagues and express our good wishes for the year ahead. Let this year bring about the achievement of goals and the realisation of dreams, as well health, peace and prosperity for each of us. You may have noticed that I left out the word “wealth”, because as public servants we have an inherent desire to serve and monetary wealth is not our motivator.
From the bottom of my heart, and here I speak on behalf of the entire department, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to each and every member of the SAPS for their extraordinary efforts in ensuring that the festive season was safe and peaceful for South Africans and visitors to our country. On Tuesday the Minister and Deputy Minister announced the phenomenal successes achieved by members of the SAPS which resulted in one of the safest holiday periods experienced in living memory, with over 67 000 arrests having been effected. Even Hillbrow, which is notorious for disorderly and chaotic conduct on New Years Eve, was quiet and peaceful. We are very grateful for the many sacrifices made by the men and women in blue and their families in order to make this possible. You are all heroes and we applaud you.
It is fitting, as we start our interactions and deliberations over the next two days set aside for this workshop, to pause and give thanks to those colleagues who made the ultimate sacrifice the men and women who were killed in the line of duty. I am still coming to terms with the fact that the lives of vibrant, fit, healthy and dedicated young men and women are snuffed out in the blink of an eye by callous and hardened criminals in our midst. This is one issue on which we must develop and maintain a zero-tolerance stance.
We have made many significant inroads in the fight against crime over a period of eight to ten years. We must build on these successes, examine the strategies that have worked for us and develop and expand those strategies to address other threats. As the Minister likes to say, we must work “tougher and smarter”, and keep pace with developing technologies to ensure that we get (and stay) a step ahead of the criminal element.
One thing that I have prioritised for 2013, besides fighting crime, is to ensure that the reputation of this organisation, which has been severely but not irreparably tarnished over the past several years, is greatly improved. Never underestimate the importance of reputation. There are a host of benefits which come with having a good reputation, including being respected by the community, by opinion leaders, by the media and by all our stakeholders. It is not only the top brass which can earn the organisation a good reputation, not only the people in this room but also in fact especially the men and women in the blue uniform who come into contact with our clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We, as leaders, have to ensure that discipline is maintained, that we carry the SAPS brand high with pride and dignity, that we carry out the principles of the Constitution and that we live and breathe the SAPS Code of Conduct.
This workshop is very important as it brings us together to discuss robustly and critically matters that will help us steer this ship that is the SAPS on the correct route. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on the past and align our goals and strategy forward. We can shape our plans to prevent and detect crime, restore stability and therefore influence economic growth, protect the vulnerable, improve frontline service delivery and repair our reputation. There are many aspects of policing which must be analyzed during this workshop, including how to curb corruption as we are perceived as one of the most corrupt organisations in the country. How can this be? That is a terrible indictment on our recruiting, training and maintenance of discipline, not to mention our communication abilities.
As you leave this workshop tomorrow, we will be just in time to get into the spirit of the 29th Africa Cup of Nations and, hopefully, many of us will be able to support Bafana Bafana in their opening match against Cape Verde. Security operations are in full swing in five provinces and I have no doubt that our members and their counterparts in various government departments, will ensure that the games take place in a safe and peaceful environment.
Once again, thank you for the hard work, for your presence here and, in advance, for your attentiveness and contributions to this workshop.
As I conclude, let me share with you what I call “Our Leadership Credo”
Accountability for execution of strategies remain with each individual
Our common agreed objectives reign supreme in all our actions
We will at all times work as a single team/unit
We are collectively responsible, yet individually accountable
Obstacles will not become defeat – pursuit will be relentless
All inputs will be heard, the decision will be owned by all
Allow me to close with a most appropriate quotation from Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford motor empire: “Coming together is the beginning, keeping together is progress; working together is success”.
It sincerely does not matter where you come just keep walking.
Thank you and God speed with the deliberations.
