Remarks by the Deputy Minister of Police Maggie Sotyu at the national launch of the Community Outreach Plan
Programme Director,
All MECs present,
Deputy Mayor of Mangaung, Cllr Rampai,
All Councillors present,
National Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega,
All Deputy National Commissioners present,
Provincial Commissioner of the Free State, Lt Gen Mpembe,
All Provincial Commissioners present,
All Police Officers present,
All Junior Commissioners present,
All CPF representatives present,
All Community Leaders present,
Civil Society,
Pupils and youth,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Good morning everyone. I am so happy to be here today to launch the South African Police Service Community Outreach Master Plan, and its first roll-out outreach project, the school safety programme. This outreach programme is organised by the Police in partnership with the Provincial Government of the Free State and its departments.
We chose Free State as a befitting province to benefit from our first roll-out of School Outreach Project, simply because we want to congratulate and rejoice with the Free State for being the top performing Province in the 2013 Matric results.
And, we must add a fact that the national top achiever for 2013 Matric Results is a pupil from a no-fees school, and not from a former model c or private school. This achievement is a true indication that this Government led by the African National Congress is indeed on track to develop and better the lives of our people.
As we celebrate 20 years of freedom and democracy, the South African Police Service has come up with a variety of methods to celebrate its own annual Police Day. No more are we going to celebrate police day through a large gathering of police officers in a stadium with speech after another.
By launching the Community Outreach Master Plan, and rolling out the School Outreach Project on our Police Day celebration, we will be enabling communities and law enforcement to work together to create safe environments, especially for children and youth. We all know that parents and teachers alike want to ensure that every school environment provides the necessary support and safety for our children.
Today, we are here to re-establish a close working relationship between you communities and police, so that our young people can get educated on how to stay safe and also engaging with our children in making their schools safer.
By rolling out the school outreach project, we are striving to maintain a close working partnership with police, schools, pupils, parents, and to revive the support initiatives from other Government Departments by also bringing public service closer to the people. Building, maintaining, and improving working relationships is the key to success. Everyone must come together and address the issues occurring in each school community.
No one person can do it alone. No one organization can do it alone. No one school can do it alone. We need partners in Government, Business, Religion, and Communities to render services to our people. Hence today we have different Government Departments to provide public services such as applying for IDs, grants, and provision of counselling and referrals to those victims of sexual abuse and violent crime.
As ANC-led Government, we believe that by bringing these services closer to where people live, will also increase safety and build a more respectful, caring society climate both in our communities and in our schools.
Together, we are all here to join forces in order to identify issues such as violence, bullying, vandalism, drug abuse and gangsterism that threaten safety in our schools. We are all gathered here to plot a course of action to address these issues, and to implement our school safety plans and activities.
We have a huge hope that the Community Outreach Programme will have a positive effect on how the communities perceive our police officers. Police assigned to the Adopt-a-Cop and Adopt-a-School programmes, will surely have a unique access to pupils, teachers, parents, and to serve and protect them and the school environment.
By launching this outreach programmes, we are endorsing a fact that, the police’s primary mission is to be the nation’s leader in helping the community keep itself safe from crime. We are making school security a priority, building strong relationships between people and police, and encouraging pupils and parents to take proactive approach to school safety. We thus emphasize that the “adopt-a-cop” and “adopt-a-school” are but two outreach projects of an overall community outreach master plan that is rooted in the community.
Let me conclude by thanking the National Commissioner of Police and her team for initiating this community outreach programme, and to also thank all the other stakeholders for putting together this successful event. I further wish everyone present here, the pupils, a fun-filled and enriching day. Please, make optimal use of the services present here; these government departments are here to deliver services to you.
I thank you all.
Contact:
Nomsa Hani
Head of Office & Acting Spokesperson: Deputy Minister of Police
Cell: 082 772 2053
Tel: 012 393 4469
Fax: 012 393 4614
E-mail: HaniNomsa@saps.gov.za
