Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Premier, Mr DD Mabuza,
Honourable Members of the Executive Council,
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature,
Executive Mayors, Speakers and Councillors from different Municipalities,
House of Traditional Leaders Chairperson, Kgoshi ML Mokoena and other members of the House,
Director General Dr. Nonhlanhla Mkhize,
Head of Department of Community Safety, Security & Liaison, Thulani Sibuyi and Heads of other Departments,
SAPS Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Thulani Ntobela,
All MMCs for Public safety from different Municipalities,
Representatives from the Joint Crime Prevention Security Cluster,
Chairperson of the Provincial Community Police Forums board Mr. Kevin Pillay,
All Representatives of Chapter 9 institutions,
Leadership of the Alliance and other political parties,
Representatives of Labour, Business, Religious, Civil Society and the Media,
Distinguished guests
Beloved citizens of Mpumalanga province,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Honourable Speaker allow me to remind our people and this august house that fighting crime and corruption is one of the priorities of the ANC. Government then translated this priority and escalated it to be part of the five major priorities that directs its day to day operations, towards the enhancement of service delivery.
One of the major perennial challenges facing our society are issues of women and children abuse. These issues are part of the ANC led government and are aimed at curbing domestic violence and contact crime. While we appreciate that there are achievements in this mandate, it is important to note that the war against crime is still far from over and it cannot be won unless we all join hands in making our efforts work.
Honourable Speaker, the on-going protests against service delivery in various localities in the province pose a very serious crisis of political instability. Some residents went on rampage to loot foreign owned shops, torching and burning down clinics, houses of Local Councilors and libraries.
As Mpumalanga government, we condemn such immoral practices and we will continue to fight such criminals and instil discipline to those culprits by donating them to jail and charge them of public violence and malicious damage to property.
I am making a clarion to all our ordinary people including community leaders from all angles to take full responsibility in avoiding such immoral acts and these actions are elements of criminality. Again, we are making a plea to all leaders of political organisations who are emerging and also part of these communities to take full responsibility of such situations as leaders of our communities.
We cannot leave such responsibility to the hands of the ruling organisation or the current government, we are all part of the problem and together we can, and we will fight the scourge of crime in our province.
Honourable speaker, the recent brutal killings and abuse displayed by various communities compels us to work harder. In his State of the Nation Address, President Jacob Zuma has reflected on the abuse of women and children. At the time the President was speaking against a backdrop of the brutal rape and murder of Anene Booysen of the Western Cape.
The President’s message is clear that we must all stand up and intensify our efforts to bring an end to the scourge of women and child abuse. He has also called on law enforcement agencies to treat such cases with utmost urgency and importance. Therefore our department will continue to strengthen its gender based violence campaigns even in the new financial year in order to enhance awareness in our communities.
The President of the Republic of South Africa Honourable Jacob Zuma further said that masibambane sisebenze sonke, “silwe nalenkinga esibhekene nayo yabantu abadlwengula omame nezingane, ngisho nezalukazi imbala. Ihlazo nobunswelaboya obesabekayo lokhu abakwenzayo. Izigilamkhuba kufanele zibikwe emaphoyiseni ziboshwe”.
The implementation of the provisions of Domestic Violence Act by SAPS will continue to be prioritized by the department in order to ensure elimination of perpetual abuse of partners by the other and that victims do not become subjected to any secondary victimisation.
The President further said that, I quote “The brutality and cruelty meted out to defenceless women is unacceptable and has no place in our country.” Close quote.
Some of the petitions I received recently are mainly requesting our interventions on issues pertaining to abuse of women and children. We must act swiftly on all matters of sexual offences including investigations of cases relating to such offences and ultimately there should be harsher sentences meted out to perpetrators so that messages could be sent out that government wants to eradicate the scourge of abuse of women and children.
Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza in his 2013 State of the Province Address identified the following priorities for the JCPS for implementation in the 2013/14 financial year:
- Expanding the Integrated social crime prevention initiatives
- Reducing contact crimes by 4 - 7%, with major focus on all hot spots in the Province
- Revamping of Border Management.
In order to address the above-mentioned priorities the department will be implementing crime awareness campaigns and integrated social crime prevention initiatives such as school safety, vulnerable groups, contact crimes initiatives, support victim friendly facilities and implementation of rural safety initiatives and programmes on no violence against women and children.
In order to ensure effective integrated border management the department will continue to raise border security issues in the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster meetings where all the stakeholders in the port of entries sit in order to ensure an efficient border control system.
Honourable Speaker, it would be judicious for me to mention to the house some of the strides made by the current ANC led government since 2009 to date as we are almost completing the five-year term. In the commencement of the 2009/2010-2014/15 Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) period, government has declared its intention to ensure that all South Africans are and feel safe by developing the following goals for the sector to which the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison is responsible for: Address overall levels of crime and reduce the levels of contact and trio crimes.
To achieve this goal the department has among others implemented the following programmes from 2009 to 2012:
Successes during Afcon games
Honourable Speaker we are also proud to have hosted an incidence free Orange Africa Cup of Nations Games at Mbombela Stadium earlier this year. The successful hosting of the games would not have been possible without the involvement and co-operation among all members of Justice Crime, Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS).
South African Police Service had deployed one thousand four hundred and eighteen (1418) officers, which brought about the total number of security forces deployed to three thousand eight hundred and fourteen (3814).
The success that came with hosting the games at the Mbombela stadium displays that the province is ready to host events of any magnitude. The work of our security agencies during the AFCON Games at Mbombela showed that our province can host high profile events and it also showed that when we work together as members of JCPS Cluster we can achieve a lot.
Programme 2: Civilian Oversight
Honourable Speaker, one of the strategic areas of work for this department is a Constitutional Mandate which provides for oversight work on police in order to improve policing in the province. As we proceed with our work, it is encouraging to report that the department monitored all 86 police stations in compliance to the Constitution.
We do this being mindful that with enhanced service delivery within SAPS, our people will feel safe and this will restore and cement the relationship between the community and the police.
Honourable Speaker, it remains my goal to make Mpumalanga a leading province in the fight against crime and road carnage. I therefore continue to believe that we are on track to achieve that goal.
It is therefore pleasing for me to announce to this house that in terms South Africa Police Service 2012/2013 statistics, the detective work and SAPS overall performance was rated amongst the best out of the nine provinces. This is very encouraging, Honourable Speaker.
The measurement is in terms of all the functions taking place at police station level such as crime reporting, investigations, reaction time to attend to complaints and the performance of the support components to assist the operational environment in the fight against crime.
Programme 3: Crime Prevention and Community Police Relations
The department has developed eight Municipal Safety Plans, conducted three hundred and fifty three (353) educational awareness campaigns, conducted community outreach programmes (Izimbizo), implemented five (5) integrated crime prevention initiatives which include campaigns on contact crime, vulnerable groups, school safety, victim friendly facilities and rural safety. The department also recruited five hundred and thirty eight (538) Tourism Safety Monitors (TSMs) to enhance tourist’s safety.
As part of addressing service delivery related violence, a Service Delivery Summit was held where various stakeholders came together to discuss ways in which government can deal with violence that usually characterizes these protests. Although good resolutions were taken during the summit, violent protests seem to be on the increase.
In the last financial year, a Safety and Security Summit was also held to among others assist with evaluating crime prevention strategies and the killing of SAPS members. The summit also adopted the ten-point plan announced by the Minister of Police at a National Summit, which will form an integral part of the Mpumalanga Crime Prevention Strategy. Currently the strategy is on its final stage of approval and ultimately an implementation plan will be developed.
We therefore developed a slogan which says “Wabul’ iphoyisa, Wabulal’ umphakathi” which was eventually acknowledged by the South African Police Service. We believe this emphasizes the fact that police remains an integral part of combating crime.
That is why is vital for communities to assist government to fight those who want to kill our police officers. The tavern and shebeen indaba was also hosted to partner with the liquor traders in order to mitigate crimes that are usually linked to alcohol abuse. We must however acknowledge that the department and its partners are not doing very well in implementing the resolutions of the Indaba and we wish to indicate that the resolutions will be reviewed to deal with the challenges.
The Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism is a major partner in this process. A school safety Indaba was also held with all the stakeholders in the education sector to improve the culture of teaching and learning thus making schools safer places for our youth to learn and grow. Subsequent to the Indaba, an integrated school safety programme was developed and is being implemented by all the affected stakeholders.
Programme 4: Transport Regulation
Various road safety education projects were implemented for both learners and the community at large to improve road safety and reduce the level of road carnage.
South Africa is part of the United Nations declarations; therefore the country adopted the Decade of Action as its programme that seeks to half accidents by 50 percent by the year 2020.
Traffic law enforcement programmes were implemented with more emphasis in the problematic routes that are contributors to the high road accidents. The routes include among others the N4, R573, R40, R555 and R23.
The Traffic enforcement unit has been able to register a resounding success in dealing with reckless drivers, unroadworthy vehicles and drunken driving. This acted as a deterrent for potential transgressors.
We have successfully dealt with corruption in the various Driver and Licensing Centres throughout the province leading to prosecution of fraudsters and those currently alleged to have committed fraud. We have also installed the Computerized Learners Testing System in Emalahleni, KwaMhlanga, Mbombela, Mhala and Standerton in Lekwa.
An automated queuing system, which enhances service delivery, has also been installed in KwaMhlanga, Emalahleni, Mapulaneng, Nelspruit, White River and Standerton. This created fair opportunities for potential drivers to get licenses and for roadworthy vehicles to be on our roads. It should be noted thou that applicants prefers the stations where the systems are not in place, hence the department is consideration rolling them out to all the stations.
The department was able to increase traffic policing visibility by the procurement of thirty eight (38) patrol vehicles and four (04) motorcycles for the financial year 2011/2012.
Plans for 2013/2014 financial year
Administration
Honourable Speaker, the department is currently standing at 40% on women representation in senior management and in terms of our employment equity plan; we are convinced that the target of 50% gender representation is within reach. We are pleased to announce to the house that we have managed to move from 0,96% to reach 1.33% of employment of people with disabilities at all levels.
The department is committed to address structural unemployment by affording the unemployed youth an opportunity to increase their employability, thus, at the beginning of 2013 the department has recruited hundred and nine (109) new learner traffic officers and currently are undergoing basic traffic officers’ training which will be completed in December 2013.
Furthermore, seventeen (17) unemployed graduates were enrolled on the department’s internship programme and we will also enroll another twenty (20) interns in the current financial year.
Program 2: Civilian Oversight
The department has over the years held MEC’s Excellence Awards, which are meant to identify and acknowledge police stations that are doing well in order to improve service delivery at police stations.
The Awards Ceremony has been a source of encouragement to performing stations, while other stations worked hard to receive the acknowledgement of the MEC during these awards. Performance of the police has been recorded in the recent few years and the moral of the police has been enhanced.
In the previous year, the performing programmes and Directorates in the department have been acknowledged for the first time during the MEC Excellence Ceremony. The department was expected through this programme to monitor and evaluate fifty-six (56) police stations on policy compliance in the previous year, and for that it can be safely said that the target has been met.
We will enhance oversight functions during this year by continuing monitoring and evaluating the police to ensure that there is improvement in the delivery of services to our community.
Honourable speaker, we will continue to conduct oversight functions by assessing the performance of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster in line with the delivery agreement signed between the Honourable Premier Mr DD Mabuza and the MEC, which among others primarily focus on overall reduction of crime levels and border management.
The department has developed and implemented a complaints management system. All complaints against the police are recorded on the electronic database and progress regarding all cases registered with the department are now available at the click of a button.
The department has conducted two research studies and one community survey in the previous year. The outcome of the research on assessing the impact of community policing was that the Community Police Forums (CPFs) are effective, however in some areas they are not visible and there is not enough support of the structure.
The department will ensure that necessary support is provided to the CPFs so that the purpose of the establishment of the structure can be fully realized in the province. The other research was about assessing the prevalence of Domestic Violence. The findings were that the focus is mostly on the victim and the perpetrator, and the children of the victim are mostly overlooked while the violence that takes place in the family also affects them.
In collaboration with the Department of Social Development, focus will also be given to children affected by domestic violence. Three research products are expected to be produced this year and one of the subjects to focus on is the establishment of the extent of violence, including killings in the broader rural areas.
Crime Prevention and Community Police Relations
The department has over the past years successfully coordinated activities relating to ‘16 Days of Activism on No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign’. The partnership that the department had with other sister departments as well as private sector like Standard Bank, South African Breweries is much appreciated.
The implementation of the Domestic Violence Act will also be monitored to the fullest during this year. There have been legacy projects that were held under this programme, which amongst others included the building of houses for victims of violence at Pienaar, Acornhoek and Dullstroom.
Food parcels have been distributed to needy families during this campaign over the years at places like Bushbuckridge, Katjibane, Mattafin, Chrissiesmeer, Sundra and Vosman.
Honourable Speaker, as directed by the Executive Council led by the Honourable Premier, Mr DD Mabuza, we have developed an integrated plan that will direct us in implementing the campaign for 365 days a year.
This project is led by the department and implemented in partnership with SAPS, Correctional Service, Health, Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation, Social Development and the Office of the Premier. The progress of this initiative will be assessed every quarter. Through MUNIMEC, we will assist municipalities to develop their own plans to be integrated into the provincial implementation plan.
One of the policy imperatives of the department is to support the victims of crime. To this end Honourable Speaker, the department has continuously supported the victims of crime in the form of purchasing and distribution of furniture, Television Sets, cutlery, bedding, beds, as well as the painting of the victim support Centres.
The department has an undertaking to ensure that in all police stations victim support centers are functional and that they serve the interest of the community as intended. Gender based violence campaigns have been held throughout these years.
The department has identified a need to foster and enhance intergovernmental relations with all spheres of government, in particular with municipalities. It is for this reason that the department has seen a need to assist municipalities by developing Municipal Safety Plans, which are considered for incorporating into the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of all the 18 municipalities in the province.
To this effect, the department has developed eight (8) Municipal Safety Plans in Dipaleseng, Mkhondo, Dr JS Moroka, Thembisile Hani, Emalahleni, Nkomazi, Bushbuckridge, as well as Mbombela.
It is the intention of the department to cover all the outstanding municipalities. It is important to note that the focus of the department for the current financial year is to monitor the extent to which the plans will be implemented.
The department has a constitutional mandate to improve the relations between the community and the police. However, the ongoing clashes between the police and communities during service delivery protests may ruin the relationship between the two parties.
The relevance of the department in this violence prone policing space makes it a necessity for the department to act as a catalyst between the community and the police. Community Police Forums established in all the eighty-six (86) police stations, which mainly focuses on the interest of the community in crime related matters. Provision is made by the department to support the functionality of these structures and to ensure that they are efficient and effective in the execution of their duties on behalf of the communities.
Outreach Programmes have been planned as a way to afford communities an opportunity to express their needs and aspirations regarding service delivery in the Criminal Justice Environment. By so doing the department seeks to assess the work that it undertakes from time to time in communities.
This has been regarded as one of the best programmes of the department where service delivery challenges are raised with the department as well as other departments operating within the JCPS Cluster.
The National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) has called for the establishment of integrated coherent and cohesive structures to deal with both the causes and effect of crime.
It is for this reason Honourable Speaker that the department established Multi Agency Mechanisms structures in the local municipalities in the province with the purpose of advancing the objective of the National Crime Prevention Strategy.
The department is in the process of transforming the Multi Agency Mechanisms structures into Community Safety Forum (CSF) to align them with the National Policy of Community Safety Forum. Community Safety Forums have been established already in 10 municipalities and the remaining structures will be established in the current financial year. The structures are expected to come up with well consolidated and inclusive interventions to address safety and security challenges at local level.
A successful Provincial Crime Prevention Summit was held in Secunda in 2012. The Summit has attracted role players and stakeholders from both the private and public sectors. It has culminated in the development of a draft Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy.
The strategy will help to combat and prevent crime in the province and ultimately create a fertile environment for investment in line with the Provincial Growth Path and currently we are waiting for the Executive Council approval and the draft strategy takes into consideration the National Development Plan.
During the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period the department has recruited, trained and deployed five hundred and thirty eight (538) young men and women to serve as Tourism Safety Monitors in the province. This is done in collaboration with the Mpumalanga Tourism Parks Agency (MTPA) to enhance tourist safety.
The recruitment of the Tourism Safety Monitors also contributes in creating job opportunities for the unemployed youth. This exercise is in support of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and serves the purpose of preventing crime by engaging the youth constructively and taking them off the streets.
Honourable speaker and august house at large, I’m making a clarion to all our people including the authorities from neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Swaziland to help us to curb the on-going rhino poaching in our province.
As a department we will ensure that integrated border security is intensified, random visits and inspections will be conducted around the park and visible air patrols are also embarked upon.
The Criminal Justice Cluster (JCPS) will intensify efforts to curb rhino poaching by prioritising its cases and ensuring that those who are involved are heavily punished. We are further calling for increased co-operation between South Africa and European countries where the rhino horns are reportedly having a market.
We are urging all our people at large to assist government by coming forward with information that may lead to the arrests and successful conviction of rhino poachers. We would like to thank all our people who are against rhino poaching and those who put rhino horn replicates on their cars to promote awareness on rhino conservation.
Program 4: Transport Regulation
Traffic Management: Safety Engineering
From 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 the department has recorded increases in accidents, fatalities, serious injuries and slight injuries as compared with the same period the previous financial year.
Honourable Speaker this clearly indicates there is still lot of work that needs to be done to enhance road safety. It is however pleasing to note that the recent Easter Holiday period accidents were reduced by 31.4 percent as compared to the same period in the previous year. We need to build on these successes going forward.
Overloading control
The department is currently operating six static weighbridges and eleven lay – byes that are jointly operated with the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) along the Maputo Corridor. We also operate three static provincial weighbridges.
The purpose of the weighbridges is to protect and preserve the provincial road infrastructure network. In an effort to cover the other routes that have high volumes of trucks due to coal haulage, the operation of the Bethal Weighbridge is expected to commence during the third quarter of the 2013/2014 financial year.
The province has also noted a significant increase of freight vehicles on the N4 to and from Mozambique. During 2011/12 six hundred and sixty one thousand, seven hundred and twenty eight (661 728) vehicles were weighed whilst 2012/13 eight hundred and twenty three thousand nine hundred and four (823 904) vehicles were weighed. This is a 24, 5 percent increase.
Of the eight hundred and twenty three thousand nine hundred and four (823 904) vehicles weighed, one hundred and seventy seven thousand six hundred and ninety two (177 692) were found to be overloaded. Fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty five heavy vehicles (14 565) were fined and impounded whilst hundred and sixty three thousand one hundred and twenty seven (163 127) were warned for loading within the grace limit of 2%.
Over and above the primary function of the weighing of vehicles, officials are also involved in the testing of vehicle and driver fitness at these weighbridges on a 24-hour basis.
Establishment of a Traffic college
The establishment of a Traffic Training College of has begun, of which designs and plans have been completed and the Contractor has taken site from 27 March 2013 for the provision of infrastructure of bulk services. The provision of infrastructure of bulk of services is allocated only twenty five million rands for the 2013/14 financial year.
Transport Administration & licensing
Two computerised learners license testing systems have been implemented at Emalahleni (Witbank) and Lekwa Local Municipalities (Standerton) to deal with fraud and corruption. The queue management system has been implemented at Emalahleni (Witbank), Lekwa Local Municipalities (Standerton), Thembisile Hani (KwaMhlanga) and Bushbuckridge (Mapulaneng) to deal with management of queues and efficiency and effectiveness at these centres. We were able to cancel thirty-nine (39) irregularly issued learners’ licenses at Mhala Licensing Centre.
Road Safety Education
The successful International Driver of the Year Competition involving drivers of heavy vehicles was hosted by South Africa in the North West Province in Rustenburg had five drivers from Mpumalanga forming part of the South African team. Mpumalanga produced two winners and they are Simon Motsepe from KwaMhlanga who is working for PUTCO Bus Company and Solomon Ntuli from Hendrina who is working ESKOM.
National Number One Taxi Driver Competition that was held in Johannesburg gave away five mini-busses as prizes, Honourable Speaker we are proud to announce to this august house that one of those drivers was from our own province and the winner hails from Bushbuckridge Mr. Shane Mashaba.
The province is still experiencing a high number of pedestrian fatalities; one such area identified is along the Moloto road (R573) in Thembisile Hani Municipality (Phola Park) and the R40 in Ehlanzeni and Bohlabela respectively.
In partnership with Eqstra a fleet management company, a pedestrian safety campaign was successfully launched to deal with issues such as pedestrian fatalities, signage and law enforcement.
The department, in conjunction with Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) and Red Cross is currently implementing a pilot programme on alcohol and youth at KaNyamazane (Ehlanzeni Region).
This partnership includes among other activities, visit to schools, dialogues at community centres and presentations at youth centres. Currently there is a research undertaken by the University of Stellenbosch on the effect of alcohol and youth regarding road accidents.
Honourable Speaker, the week from the 6th to the 12th May 2013 was declared by the United Nations as the Global Pedestrian Safety Week. During that week the department implemented various activities at identified hazardous areas such as Standerton, Vosman (Emalahleni), KaNyamazane and Acornhoek.
The department in its endeavour to be in line with the Decade of Action for Road Safety is planning to hold a Provincial Road Safety Summit in July 2013. The summit will involve various stakeholders to address road safety related issues in the province, and to discuss the draft Provincial road safety strategy.
The summit will be used as a symposium of new thinking regarding road safety initiatives in the province, which will ultimately lead to the endorsement of the draft Provincial Road Safety Strategy.
To complement the strategy, the following road safety activities are planned for the current financial year:
- Driver of the Year Competition
- Road Safety Debate Competition (in partnership with Anglo American)
- Scholar Patrol
- Child in Traffic
- Junior Traffic Training Centers (JTTC)
- Rest Stops
- Road shows
- Road Safety Prayer day
The department has also appointed one hundred and four (104) Community Road Safety Council (CRSC) members from all the municipalities. These members assist in increasing road safety awareness throughout the province.
Programme 5: Security Management
The budget and management of security services has been centralized to the department and the department is coordinating the provision, monitoring and evaluation of seven hundred and seven (707) government sites in the Province.
Overall Friday Programme
Honourable Speaker we have all seen how effective visible law enforcement operations have contributed to reduction in certain categories of crime. It is therefore against this background that the department, with all its stakeholders is continuing with Overall Friday Programmes. Overall Friday is an initiative by the province which involves stakeholders such as SAPS, provincial and local traffic officers, SARS and Department of Home Affairs to deal with all sorts of crime in identified problematic areas.
The programme is meant to assist with serious problems of alcohol abuse which accounts for most of causes of accidents on our roads, affecting drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Various liquor trading outlets are raided to among others to ensure their compliance with their trading licenses and that has an impact on contact crimes and house robberies.
During this financial year, I will, as part of the programme personally participates in various activities that will include among others road-blocks, raiding of liquor outlets, cordon and search and tracing of wanted suspects around the province. The programme, Honourable Speaker does not exist in isolation as many might be tempted to believe but is part of the department’s strategy to combat road carnages and prevent some of the contact crimes that includes assaults, robbery and abuse of women and children through law enforcement visibility in targeted problematic areas.
Conclusion
We are being creative with our limited resources to benefit society as much as possible and on a localized level. We are very mindful that there is no one size fits all approach to safety and that each community, each safety problem has its unique causes and also its unique solutions. Local context can and should never be underestimated and this is why partnerships are so important. Partners help us with local understandings and solutions so that our responses are ones that actually work.
I would like to thank the Premier of the Province Honorable DD Mabuza for his tremendous support and sterling leadership. Let me extend my sincere gratitude to the Executive Council members for their support and fellowship.
I would like to thank the members of the Public Works, Roads and Transport, Community Safety, Security and Liaison Portfolio Committee and under the leadership of the chairperson, Mr. JL Mahlangu as they always keep us on our toes and exercise oversight over the department.
I wish to thank the Head of Department, Mr. Thulani Sibuyi and the Senior Management team and the entire staff of the department. The contributions you make to this department and your leadership in guiding this department to a more efficient, innovative and results-driven entity is remarkable. Much work is yet to be done.
Thanks to the South African Police Service, under the guidance of Lieutenant General TR Ntobela and to those outstanding performing police officers who put their lives on the line to protect and serve us all. I can safely say that everyone in this house is grateful.
I would like to thank all JCPS team and also the Chairperson of the CPF Board Mr. Kevin Pillay and his team for the great service they are providing to our communities.
Special thanks to all Tourist Safety Monitors and the Road Safety Councils for the support on our mission to enhance safety of all our people.
Similarly I must say a word of thanks to the members of the media that hold us accountable and keep the public informed about what our Department is doing. Great thanks are also due to each member of the public that volunteers their time to participate in neighbourhood watch, in CPFs and in numerous other community safety initiatives. You are the true champions in society.
I wish to thank again my family especially my wife and my children for their continued support and understanding. This position requires sacrifice on their part and I am not always afforded enough time with them, as my work requires me to be with the people of the province which have become my other family.
Many thanks to my mother in law Mama Thandi Nkosi for her endless support and warm welcoming. Let the sun shine through your life.
My two brothers who came to embrace and grace this occasion, Wandile and Dr. Kim Shongwe all the way from Swaziland, ngiyabonga bafethu.
I’m grateful that we have in our presence a future focused, motivated and inspired young woman, our Miss Mpumalanga Ntandokayise Kunene who hails from Gert Sibande Region, Mkhondo Local Municipality who also came to grace this occasion. I would like to congratulate her on her new role as an ambassador for the prevention of teenage pregnancy and HIV/Aids in the province.
Lastly, I wish again to extend my greatest appreciation for the tireless support displayed by Breyten Community which is my hometown including my fellow comrades and friends who are always there for me especially in times of jubilation and adversity.
Honourable Speaker, It is an honour to introduce the Budget Vote for the 2013/14 financial year to this august house today. I as MEC responsible for Community Safety, Security and Liaison in Mpumalanga table the budget for the 2013/2014 financial year for adoption and approval as follows.
Programme 1: Administration
The programme will be allocated the total amount of One hundred and eight million three hundred and twenty nine thousand rand (R 108 329 000).
Programme 2: Civilian Oversight
The programme will be allocated the total amount of Ten million seven hundred and five thousand rand (R 10 705 000).
Programme 3: Crime Prevention and Community Police Relations
The programme will be allocated the total amount of forty one million three hundred and sixty thousand rand (R 41 360 000).
Programme 4: Transport Regulation
The programme will be allocated the total amount of Three hundred and twenty three million six hundred and thirty three thousand rand (R 323 633 000).
Programme 5: Security Management
The programme will be allocated the total amount of three hundred and fifty seven million and seven hundred and twenty one thousand rand (R 357 721 000).
The total budget for the vote is eight Hundred and forty one million and seven hundred and forty eight thousand rand for the year 2013/2014 (R 841 748 000).
The struggle continues for a safer and crime free Mpumalanga, Wabul’ iphoyisa, Wabulal’ umphakathi, Sekwanele, Bopha
I thank you all!
