by Gauteng Community Safety MEC Firoz Cachalia
14 February 2006
The Gauteng province faces the formidable task of dealing with crime in the
context of high urbanisation, population growth and global economic
integration. Better co-ordination across government departments and all spheres
of government has become imperative in ensuring that the challenge of safety is
met in this province. Hence the initiative by my Department to develop a
provincial safety plan which will outline roles and responsibilities to ensure
that we build a safer province for all.
Special tasks and priorities arising from the Premierâs speech
Provincial Safety Plan
The finalisation and launch of the Provincial Safety Plan will take place in
first half of the year. The launch of this plan should be a major initiative
around security in the province involving all stakeholders (including national,
provincial and local government; business, civil society) in a major push
against crime.
The Premier made reference to the completion of a new Social Development
Strategy, which will complement the Gauteng Growth and Development Strategy.
These form part of the basic tenets for social transformation in the province.
It is our view that the Provincial Safety Plan will support these strategies by
creating the necessary conditions such as building safer communities and
conditions for investment.
Road Safety
The finalisation and launch of the Road Safety Plan will also take place in
the first half of the year. Road safety is a huge challenge, which requires a
fundamental rethink, significant systemic/institutional change, change in the
way government works and a change in social and behavioural patterns. One of
the strategies we want to introduce in the province is intensified monitoring
of road safety throughout the year as opposed to periodic monitoring during the
holiday season and the Easter period.
The Department of Community Safety, through the establishment of an
integrated information system will become the custodians of information,
primarily on traffic management and road safety data - ensuring accurate,
verified and real-time quantitative and qualitative information. This will be
accomplished through the establishment of various components dealing with
specialised information which will be housed within the Department of Community
Safety. These components are the centralised accident capturing unit,
information management and the call centre.
In the current financial year the Department has also recruited 100 new
provincial road traffic officers to strengthen law enforcement and increase
visibility on our roads. The Department has also purchased 40 branded cars in
addition to the existing 280 cars for law enforcement. This should enable the
citizens of the province to be able to recognise provincial traffic officials
who work with metros but are distinct from metros
Strengthening law enforcement
The Premier in his speech mentions the general lack of respect for the rule
of law in our society as an area that needs attention. This speaks to the
general respect of the law by citizens starting from simply respecting bylaws
to bigger issues. Failure to pay a traffic fine, offering a bribe, littering,
etc. all need the same kind of attention as other serious crimes. The
departmental response to deal with this issue will be to focus mainly on
effective policing and creating awareness around responsible citizenship. There
needs to be an understanding of what professional policing is all about. The
following elements will form part of this response:
* Assisting police to improve service delivery
* Improving community police relations
* Enhancing the capacity of the police to deal with corruption and
ill-discipline amongst members
* Monitoring of the service charter for each police station in the province
(currently the police are using the national service charter).
Improving community policing
The Department has completed the development of Community Policing Forum
(CPF) directives for the Province which will facilitate with the improvement of
community police relations and enhancing safer communities. In addition, the
Department will implement the civilian oversight model which sees CPFs as the
agency at a local level that will assist the Department in assessing and
monitoring service delivery by law enforcement agencies. CPFs have been revived
and strengthened in 48 police stations. Attention has also been given to
special communities. During this process the Department also engaged Hostel
Indunas to determine their safety and security needs. In areas such as
Daveyton, Thembisa, Vosloorus, Thokoza and Kagiso sector crime forums were
established in hostels.
Bank robberies and cash in transit heists
In the latter part of the previous year, Gauteng saw an increase in
cash-in-transit heists and bank and retail store robberies. It became clear
that this was an urgent situation as it caused panic amongst our communities
and was a blatant assault on the Provinceâs economic infrastructure. In
response to this there were interactions between the Department of Community
Safety, Police leadership, mall managers and leaders of cash-in-transit
companies. This interaction indeed yielded results as there was better
co-ordination and sharing of information. The police identified suspects and
there were immediate arrests. This year we commit to ensuring that there is
better policing of this crime and effective prosecution and conviction of those
responsible. A better focus and strategic approach to policing has proved
effective with hijackings. If it can be done with hijackings it can also be
done with cash heists and robberies.
In the last financial year a total of 171 individuals positively linked to bank
robberies were arrested and 86 who were positively linked to cash in transit
robberies were also arrested and a total of 143 life sentences were achieved by
the specialised unit dealing with these crimes. Many of the offenders involved
in these crimes were also found to be repeat offenders.
A provincial workshop is planned to look back at what happened last year
(specifically the spike in cash in transit heists) and come up with ways of
protecting this industry and ensuring its profitability.
Safety and Development
The provincial Department of Housing has identified 20 top townships for
rejuvenation. Work has already started to ensure that planning around safety
forms part of this programme of rejuvenation. We want to ensure that safety and
policing forms an integral part of development planning and urban renewal
programmes. The Department has also started to look at challenges around
policing informal settlement with the aim of improving safety in these
areas.
Crimes against women and children: making the justice system victim
friendly
The Premier gave clear instructions that the Department must ensure that we
have a victim friendly justice system. The Department through Ikhaya Lethemba
is already providing holistic support to victim services such court
preparation, court support, post trial debriefing and general counselling and
case management services. The challenges are to broaden these services
throughout the province. This will be addressed through the envisaged linkage
of victim empowerment centres (VECs) throughout the province. Through the
linkage of VEC the services available at Ikhaya Lethemba will be replicated and
made available to all communities in the province at station level.
The Department also intends to work closely with the Department of
Correctional Services in promoting corrections as a societal responsibility in
line with the White Paper on Corrections. Discussions are also underway with
the Department of Correctional Services in Gauteng to involve victims in the
parole process to ensure that victimâs voices are heard during parole
processes.
The Department is already working with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)
in drafting and submission of victim impact statements to relevant justice
structures to ensure that the impact of the crime on the victim is heard in
court. This is currently done priority crimes; there are plans to make this
standard practice for all the victims. All the above are also done towards the
furtherance of the victimâs charter.
Enquiries:
Phumla Mthala
Tel: (011) 689 3633
Cell: 082 909 3708
Issued by: Department of Community Safety, Gauteng Provincial
Government
14 February 2006
