record straight
5 June 2006
The Ministry for Safety and Security would like to correct the on-going
misrepresentations about Minister Charles Nqakulaâs Budget Vote speech on
Thursday last week.
The record must be put straight here. It is a complete fabrication that
Minister Nqakula is encouraging victims of crime to emigrate.
It is regrettable that public attention is being focused on those remarks
rather than the subject matter of crime-combating measures and initiatives
contained in his speech.
For the record, Minister Nqakula was referring to a letter by Clive Swann of
Boaero Park in Kempton Park to the editor published in the Star, 30 May,
criticising South Africans who constantly whinge about crime and stated that he
concurred with the author.
Clive Swann said in his letter; âWe seem to have become a nation of
whingers, sending our offspring to seek paler climates as soon as they
graduate. The United States have traversed a crippling economic depression,
Ronald Reagan, unbelievable crime waves of gangster warfare in the 1920s
followed later by decades of mafia outrages. If they have followed our hand
wringing ethos most of their population would have emigrated but instead warts
and all they patriotically rolled up their sleeves and took charge of their
countryâs destiny. For goodness sake South Africans get a life get away from
the negative call to skin colour attitudes. Join hands and make this country
great. Then maybe your kids can come home to a bigot free zone.â
Whingers were defined as those people who always and consistently attack and
denigrate every effort by government and the police to prevent and reduce crime
without offering any constructive criticism or solutions.
Minister Nqakula subsequently proceeded to link this to the response his
budget vote had received in particular from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and
the Freedom Front Plus (FFP) and then directed his remarks at three MPs who he
specifically named (honourable Jankielsohn, honourable Groenewald and
honourable King) the transcript of which is available in parliament and our
website (www.saps.org.za).
This was in stark contrast to the inputs from other opposition political
parties who generally spoke in support of the South African Police Service
(SAPS).
The people who should apologise are those who deliberately subvert the truth
by claiming that the Minister in any way suggested that people that complain
about crime should emigrate. By doing this they are hiding behind the South
African masses who rightfully complain about crime and who the Minister
continues to engage on an ongoing basis in various forums.
During such interactions and in many public utterances the Minister has
acknowledged that crime remains at unacceptable high level. The difference is
that something is being done about it and despite all arguments to the contrary
crime in general has and continues to come down.
We trust that everybody, especially the victims of crime, will see the
reckless elements in the DA for what it is, spreading blatant lies in an
attempt to destabilise our peace loving nation.
We trust that the politicians will act to inculcate a sense of
responsibility and sobriety. The sensationalist misrepresentations are
condemned with the contempt they deserve.
For more information please call:
Trevor Bloem
Cell: 082 778 3561
Hangwani Mulaudzi
Cell: 082 555 3505
Issued by: Department of Safety and Security
5 June 2006
