Minister of Police, Mr Nathi Mthethwa,
National Commissioner of Police, General Phiyega,
Secretary of Police, Ms Jenny Irish-Qhobosheane,
All Top SAPS Management present,
SAPS Members,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
During our Budget Vote in May 2012, I ended my speech with the following message: “This ANC-led Government’s approach against crime is to trust our police officers, and to put the community at the centre of that trust.” I went on to say: “A continuous effort to connect the public and the police is at the heart of our police agenda”.
Minister, in support of your leadership and your message today, I am advancing this cause: trusting all our police officers, and to put the community at the centre of this trust. But this trust, ladies and gentlemen, must be earned, and it must indeed be earned at the highest level of this organisation, the South African Police Service (SAPS) Top Management.
For, if we are going to succeed in our effort to connect public and police as our core police agenda, then we would need a Top Management that not only has a strong belief in the vision, principles and programmes of this Government; but a management that also manages this organisation, fearlessly, fairly and with focus.
Minister, I am emphasising on this because we need a Management that can make personal commitment of greater endurance and creativity to fulfil our Government’s priority outcome that all people in South Africa are and feel safe.
But, at the pace the SAPS Top Management is going in implementing the 10-Point Plan as prioritised by the Minister of Police, I am obligated to call on the SAPS Top Management to seek always to keep the vision all people in South Africa are and feel safe alive, by making sure that this Ten-Point Plan is prioritised and implemented in its entirety.
At this point in time, there are glaring challenges that may directly compromise the successful outcome No 3, as prioritised by Government. For instance, Points 1, 3, 7, and 9 have registered as “unsatisfactory” in the SAPS Performance Assessment report on the 10-Point Plan.
This surely must ring bells and must hang as red-flags, for these four priorities are the core areas that dictate the success or the failure of SAPS and its operations.
For example, Priority Point One: transformation, is not only about “straight blanket” equity and representivity, but it is about acquiring quality scarce skills to enhance a credible broad-based transformation within the South African Police Service. Managers must constantly be open to innovations to be able to effectively deal with changes brought about to improve the functioning of the SAPS.
Priority Point Three negative assessment indicates the lack of cohesion and coordination between SAPS and other stakeholders. Prevention of crime strictly requires an inter-governmental and inter-departmental approach. We might have our own national outcome 3, but we are inevitably always influenced by other national outcomes in order to make a meaningful and sustainable impact to our common goal 3.
To successfully build police stations, we need not only a coordinated strategy between SAPS, Public Works, and other stakeholders. We also need a Top Management which is diversity-tolerant, professional and humble in public service.
Perhaps, the greatest challenge that the Public Service faces is, to bring together, the divergent schools of thought and ideals, and people who have been recruited and appointed from differing backgrounds and beliefs in a testing and uncertain environment to jointly tackle the issues of change.
This brings us immediately to Priority Point Seven: the quality of recruitment in the SAPS. A key challenge in the recruitment of a credible work force is to uproot corruption within the recruitment process; and to improve police academies. We have all the policies and procedures of recruitment, but the implementation to recruit quality police students is not entirely honest and credible.
Favouritism, nepotism; allegiance and prejudice still besiege the recruitment process. This could be said the same with the police academies and related instructions. The SAPS Top Management must encourage everyone in the SAPS not to shy away from blowing the whistle when irregularities, mismanagement and theft of resources are seen.
Prejudiced but deserving potential police recruits that could have joined the Police Force to enhance a credible SAPS, will be lost to the SAPS through unprofessionalism, fraud and corruption.
Therefore, as Police Leadership, we now demand the improvement in professionalism, command and control in the whole of SAPS and its operations. If we do not improve on this Point Nine, we will be an organisation that only set objectives and plans, but, plans that are not necessarily addressing the urgent needs of the communities we serve, ultimately leading to a dysfunctional relationship between people and police.
We demand a Management that does proper planning of its plans, as many, if not all of our challenges which we have identified, derive from serious weaknesses in terms of efficient and effective planning based on good governance.
We must base our commitment to Government’s priority programmes on innovative management; transformation and unity; vision and strategy; proper planning and team work; and impactful and meaningful service delivery to the people of South Africa.
Yes, we will always be challenged by inevitable complexities and unpredictability’s of values, norms, structures and processes that always shape an organisation and human interaction within.
But, this organisation the SAPS, only needs a Management that is multi-skilled, emotional intelligent and enabled to deliver integrated services both internally and externally, and a Management who can move seamlessly between Departmental units/components as service delivery needs dictate.
I thank you all.
