Programme Director,
His Excellency, Kgoshi Kgabo III,
The Executive Mayor of Capricorn District Municipality, Cllr Makgabo Mapoulo,
The Executive Mayor of the Polokwane Municipality, Cllr Freddy Greaver,
Chairperson of the Provincial CPF Board, Mr Mafune,
The Acting Head of Department, Me. Nchabeng Tsebe,
The Provincial Commissioner of SAPS in Limpopo, Lt-Gen TS Mpembe,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Comrades and Friends.
Good Morning,
We gather today during a month that holds a lot of our history. June is Youth Month – the month best remembered and honoured for the brave acts young people who took on a heavily armed apartheid government.
These young people were not armed; the enemy was armed to the teeth. Their only weapon was their hatred of Bantu Education and their undying love for freedom and democracy.
This brave and selfless detachment of young people injected new life and energy into the otherwise moribund liberation movement. As a result of their energy and selflessness the liberation movement underwent renewal and developed a new sense of urgency in the fight for freedom and democracy.
We owe our liberation and democracy largely to the Class of June 1976. They have left behind a legacy that will live years and years after they shall have departed this world.
The Month of June is dedicated to these brave and selfless young men and women. An array of activities and events are organised to celebrate and honour our Young Lions so that they never lose the Voice to roar like their ancestors did in 1976 and during other milestones of our struggle for freedom and democracy.
The struggle for freedom and democracy didn’t end when Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa. With the dawn of freedom and democracy, new challenges confronted the new democratic government. Among these challenges are poverty, disease, illiteracy, unemployment and crime.
As the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison our constitutional mandate is to deal with crime and corruption. Our success in dealing with crime and corruption will make the people of Limpopo to be safe and feel safe. When we released the 2010/2011 Financial Year Crime Statistics they revealed a remarkable drop in crime categories across the board – a clear sign that the strategies of the past year were eventually beginning to bear fruit.
Our province scored the lowest crime statics compared to other provinces. As we celebrated this achievement on 14 September 2011 we made a commitment to the people of Limpopo that we will do even much more to bring the provincial crime statistics even lower down. It is still our commitment and will remain our commitment and our resolve until we have rooted out crime and corruption from our communities.
Whether we succeed in our commitment to render Limpopo crime free cannot be left to government and the police. To leave the fight against crime and corruption to government and the police is a sure recipe for failure. It is informed by this reality that we have issued a clarion call that – the fight against crime and corruption starts with me.
The choice of Moletji in general and Makgofe Village in particular is not an accident or routine exercise. The choice is informed by the sustained escalation of criminal incidents, individual and organised, which happen across the area of Moletji.
If these incidents of crime are not brought under control the picture of the 2011/2012 Financial Year Crime statistics will give a different picture of the crime situation in the province. We shall have moved from low to high in a period of just under two years.
The crime statistics are not very much our concern – what is worrisome to us as government through the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison is the safety and security of the people of Limpopo and visitors to our province.
Data sourced from our Capricorn office and the Seshego police station paints an ugly picture of the crime situation in the Moletji area – hence our taking this Crime Awareness Campaign here today.
We are aware of the challenges confronting the Seshego police station in policing the area of more than 200 Villages with one satellite police station at Ga-Mashashane. Challenges like these continue to receive attention by government so that we eventually turn things around.
In the interim we need to make do with the resources at our disposal.
The most potent weapon at our disposal is us – as individuals and in our organised formations. Crime and corruption can only hold sway in our communities if we allow it to. The day we all say no to crime and corruption will be the last we will see of the twin evils.
Let us today here make a pledge as individuals and as organisations that we will not be silent about crime and corruption. Let us pledge that we will speak out against crime and corruption.
I am encouraged by initiatives by individuals in our communities who are doing their bit in the fight against crime and corruption. One such initiative is Tshokologo Community Development founded by ex-offenders so that they stay away from doing crime and encouraging others from doing crime.
Their message is very clear – don’t do crime, crime doesn’t pay. Let us heed this simple but profound message and bring the twin monsters of crime and corruption to their knees.
We did it with apartheid; we can do it with crime and corruption.
In conclusion, let me join the rest of the country in welcoming the appointment of the new National Police Commissioner Mme. Victoria Mangwashi Phiyega. We look forward to a much more improved delivery of policing services so that South Africans can be safe and feel safe.
The fight against crime starts with me.
Thanks!
