Executive Council
Councillors
All protocol observed
Ladies and gentlemen
The Nelson Mandela Bay has a very strategic significance in the province and South Africa at large, not because of their rich status in the province, but, it is named after an iconic figure to ever grace the world, Nelson Mandela. The city's positioning, has to be characterised by love, peace and humility of uTata Madiba.
The people of this area must have an association with this gallant leader of the people, thus being humble and eager to help others, especially now that the world's eyes are glued in our direction as the people of the South, hosting one of the major sporting events in the world, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The people of this area owe that to uTata Madiba, South Africa and the world.
The iconic figure that walked and walks our streets is a symbol of honesty, love and reconciliation. It does not necessarily mean this iconic figure dwarfs us all but elevates us to greater heights of recognition to the global world. We are the children of Nelson Mandela. Today we are gathered here in this iconic Nelson Mandela Bay, and we need to ask ourselves, why are we gathered here? What prompts us to leave our lavish homes, offices and gather here?
The people of the Eastern Cape, especially within the Nelson Mandela Metro, recently shocked the country with a number of highly publicised violent crimes, including the murder of a young school boy in a park and six children and a grandmother in Zwide. We are asking ourselves, kutheni?
What has our society done to deserve these inhumane actions that we see? When I see a child, in my eyes I see my family, I see my daughter, I see my son, I see a bright future for my country. Why then do I act like this and take a life that is still pure, a life that is innocent? Kutheni Nelson Mandela Bay?
When I see an old man or old woman, I see my grandmother or grandfather. I see a pillar of knowledge for the younger generation? I see someone who has gone this world and accumulated knowledge to share with the younger generation. I see myself gaining wisdom and knowledge from this defenseless community resource. So why do I kill a knowledge? Eastern Cape kutheni?
Our actions are not only shaming us the people watching what is happening in the Nelson Mandela Bay on television, but, we are abusing and destroying the iconic name of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. What is happening and prompting us to be here is not like what Mandela thrived for. Why are we shaming the old man? Why can't we just be human beings and act humanly as in the principles that characterises uTata Madiba of humbleness, humility, peaceful and reconciliation?
Ladies and gentlemen
The constitution of the South Africa protects all its inhabitants. All of us have the right to live freely, that's what many of our leaders had to lose their lives during apartheid so that we can see peace and live freely.
Through the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa the roles and responsibilities of the South African Police Services were laid down for the sake of ensuring citizens are free wherever they want to be at home, malls, streets, workplaces, community parks etc.
As the constitution dictates, SAPS amongst others, is supposed to create a safe and secure environment for all the people of and in South Africa and again prevent anything that may threaten the safety or security of any community. As part of this, the South African Police Services need to ensure that the community is brought upon in the fight against crime. The establishment of the Community Safety Forums is but, part and parcel of bringing all the stakeholders together to ensure that there is a broader participation by the community to tackle crime.
Many instances, it has been reported that, many crimes are committed by people who know the victims. That is why when the investigations take place, the first people to be arrested are people who are related to the victims. This is a societal problem we are faced with.
On Tuesday this week, south of Gauteng in a public place, Lenasia Mall, guards were shot by armed robbers while delivering money to the ATMs. We hear one of the guards died yesterday; May his soul Rest in Peace.
We must be explicit, loud and clear we are tired of these animals masquerading themselves in human bodies killing our people like dogs. We should be equally vigilant and commit ourselves to removing these animals out of the society for good. It's time we say Washa, Wafa Tsotsi and to hell with criminals. It is time we kill these bastards! Or they will kill us. Now poor guards are in critical conditions and one is dead.
The experts, say, since South Africa has reached a recession, actions like these Cash-in-Transit heists and armed robberies should be expected. They continue by saying that the number of patients in the Hospitals has increased due to stress-related illnesses caused by recession.
Recession is a global problem, and we need together as South Africans join hands in the fight for positive economic growth for the better of our lives, but, this does not mean if this economic condition continues people should allow stress to determine and make a decision for them by committing crime, be it robberies, homicide, suicide.
We hear recession makes the vulnerable to commit suicide or tend to crime because, some amongst us, have lost their jobs and others are going to lose their jobs. A person decides to take her/his life and the lives of those around him. Other people when relationships go wrong they turn to committing suicide or homicides.
This is a problem, the reason we want the Police to be rooted within our communities it is precisely to avoid situations that could have been avoided. In any case when the court says a person is on a suicide-guard that should not only be the time when the SAPS works around that person. That's not Community Policing.
Ladies and gentlemen
We need to encourage a safe and healthy environment within which we live. We need to encourage the involvement of communities in the fight against crime. We owe all these to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
We must also stress it loudly that local government plays a critical role in the Local Crime Prevention, promoting crime prevention through multi-agency partnerships. As part of our mandate to expand and establish the Community Policing Forums, the Provincial Departments of Police and Community Safety should be taking the lead as these structures should be located within.
This does not mean that the Community Safety Forums will take over the role of the SAPS at local level or creating another bureaucracy at local level in the fight against crime, but it is about strengthening the community involvement in the fight against crime.
This will empower the Community Police Fora and the Community Safety Fora to play a meaningful part in the safety and security of our people. As police and community, we need to develop and implement a structured multi-agency approach to improve safety in our homes and the community. We must reduce crime and criminality by addressing the causes of crime through structured partnerships.
We should acknowledge that crime and fear of crime seriously affects the way we live and the quality of life. As part of the National Policy Framework for Community Safety: A multi-agency government-community partnership approach, we should look at, amongst others, the reduction of crime, social crime prevention, improving environmental design principles on community safety, encourage and improve the citizen participation in the community safety initiatives and reduce re-offending and integrating ex-offender into the community. Those should form a base for your discussions later; on how do we structure our engagement as the community and the SAPS?
Ladies and gentlemen
Crime should not be out of control. We should not allow the criminals to dictate to us on how to live our lives. We should be able to say to criminals as Martin Luther once said "here I stand I cannot do otherwise". We should refuse to be afraid to be free human-beings because someone hates to see peace reigning in our communities and households.
We are talking of Amending Section 49, on the use of Deadly Force when confronted with a life or death situation as the police officers. Currently as we speak, the statistics tell us that there are 95 police officers, who died this financial year. 44 died on-duty whereas 51 off-duty.
As the police, we are saying one death too many. We can't allow a situation that say our police officers should every time when they wake up in the morning say "I am still alive". Why should a life of a Police Officer be like that?
Our focus as communities and as lawmakers should be to prioritise the life of a police officer, in our thinking and engagement in the Amendment call of Section 49. Some people say Section 49 was not exclusively designed for the protection of police officers but for the perpetrator as well. In this case the perpetrator is seen as a victim, when in actual fact the victim is the Constitution-protecting Police Officer.
Others already argue that Section 49 is ambiguous, if it is ambiguous let’s correct it. It is our duty to defend the constitution and the people protecting the principles enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
Ladies and gentlemen
Currently we are working on the process of in-take of Reservists into the SAPS. We are hopeful that the experience they gained during their tenure as the Reservists will bear fruits for the country in the fight against crime.
In this quest, we believe the new team of Officers will gain a lot in the Training Curriculum that the SAPS offer, and that when their intake has been finalised we would have a physically and mentally strong Police Man and Woman, who'll have good stature in the community. A police officer who understands the principles of Ubuntu, the police officer who understands the oath she/he took.
You are now taking an oath to say washa, wafa tsotsi!
As you get down to the work ahead, it is advisable that whatever we do we should do it with love for my community, both as Police Officer and the community members. We are committed to have a functional Local Police Stations with the intention of fighting crime with all our might. We have said all Station Commissioners will be in their uniforms combating the prevalence of crime. It is our commitment.
Whatever we design and comes out of this summit it should also commit the leadership of the police to action. Together we can do more in the fight against crime.
The recent public violence on Service Delivery should work as a lesson to us all gathered here, that, if my community is in turmoil like this, what is my responsibility?
We have just established recently that in actual fact, there is an element of criminality perpetrated by aboTsotsi within our communities who have other intentions not related to service delivery, but use Service delivery protests as a tool to commit their intended crime.
These criminals use politics, and when our focus is on the genuine issues raised by the community, they steal all the money from the poor foreign nationals in these communities. These criminals have established that our fellow poor nationals are not using Financial Services Institutions like banks to save their cash; they know they bank their hard earned-cash in their shops or homes.
We can't allow these criminals to dictate to us using service delivery protests. When the poor communities genuinely protest, these thugs target poor small business owners by looting their shops and take all their hard-earned cash. As a word of encouragement to all the small business owners, be it foreign nationals or South Africans, there are other ways to protect your hard earned resources, services like Banks can stop many of these senseless crimes we have seen taking place in our country recently.
We are not saying stop with your service delivery protests, but we say do this within the confines of the law and genuinely. Don't allow people with bad police profile to lead you. They might not mean what they mobilised you for.
Do it responsibly with Police Officers there to protect you when you march to present your memorandum.
I thank you.
Issued by: South African Police Service
13 August 2009
