The Constitution of the Republic (Chapter 11) directs that 'national security must reflect the resolve of South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, to live in peace and harmony, be free from fear and want and to seek a better life.
Since the beginning of the current term of government, we have undertaken considerable steps to ensure that 'people are and feel safe.' In dealing with issues of crime, the ANC government proceeds from the premise that a rising quality of life also means improvement in the safety and security of citizens: in their homes, environments where they live, work and engage in extramural activity. Critically, focus must be placed on mobilising society to make life extremely difficult and unbearable for criminals in our midst.
This should include an overhaul of gender and family relations and intolerance of abuse within communities. The utilisation of latest technology, enhanced intelligence capacity, commitment to work with the people and eradication of corruption within the criminal justice system remain key to our efforts in the fight against crime.
Co-operation with police services in the region and further afield is being intensified and border control continually tightened. In introducing these measures, we proceed from the premise that crime is a scourge that does not respect borders, with syndicates that have made the entire globe the theatre of their operations 2011/12 festive season will rank as one of the most consuming and challenging in terms of policing for the South African Police Service, yet equally as one of the most successful.
The period was challenging at the same time successful within this context that our police officers had a mammoth task of ensuring the safety during the Operation Duty Calls National Festive Season Crime-Fighting campaign, the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and a few days ago, the ANC Centenary Celebrations in Mangaung.
The magnitude and importance of these occasions bore enormous importance on the country, from an economic as well as political perspective. One cannot ignore the security perspective because any compromise in security could have negatively tarnished our international reputation. We could not afford that gamble. Neither could we use previous events experience to adopt a laissez-faire approach and say: we have done it before. Suffice to say both these two major events were safe and secure, that is why South Africa received global accolades.
From the onset, our security plan was thoroughly crafted and it focused from the biggest to the smallest of threats. We left no stone unturned. We planned and executed our safety and policing approach with precision, paying attention to detail because we understood the significance of the events. Over 2 500 officers worked tirelessly at the COP17 assisted by their counterparts in the security cluster.
We know that some sceptics and analysts amongst us would say, as they said during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, that crime was less because 'criminals were on festive holiday.' We will never be side-tracked by such assertions. In fact, through these operations we can safely say police gave the criminals 'forced and unpaid leave.' And that is going to be an on-going philosophy going forward.
The fact of the matter is that such successes were not sporadic acts of luck but achieved because as the police, we planned better, we coordinated and implemented better, we learnt and improved because our philosophy is premised along a notion that, security planning is an on-going process.
The central aspect during the festive season was that we could not compromise the safety of all South Africans whilst our eyes were fixed on COP17 and the Centenary. That is why in September last year we launched the festive season safety campaign in Thokoza, Gauteng.
To coincide with the national launch, we also officially launched the Tracking Team, a pilot unit which has been operating in Gauteng since May 2011, tracking the most wanted criminals in South Africa.
The tracking teams in just four provinces have arrested over 750 wanted suspects in the past month. These suspects were wanted for a various categories of crimes most of which encompassed our priority crimes such as murder, aggravated robberies, ATM bombings and sexually-related offences.
The Limpopo team has been extraordinary; they have arrested an impressive 569 suspects wanted for a range of serious crimes. From the 10th October 2011 to 5th January 2010, we arrested a total of 542241 suspects; theft of motor vehicles 1 535, illegal possessions of firearms and ammunition 2 147, drug related crime 34 187, illegal liquor outlets closed 18 912, crimes against women and children (rape, sexual offences, sexual assault, child abuse) there were 6 602 arrests made, 11 946 for driving under influence of liquor/drugs, to mention but a few.
The main success of this campaign was through the active participation of citizenry, who partnered with the police in fighting this scourge.
Since 28 November last year, police across the country working in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, government departments have seized over R2 billion worth of counterfeit goods. With the passing of the Second Hand Goods Act, this piece of legislation specifies that a person who buys a stolen good, is as guilty as the person who sold it.
Towards the end of last year, I began consultative processes with the practitioners within the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units throughout the country, as part of our commitment to the eradication of women and children abuse.
I was encouraged to note that police officers around the country have secured 362 conviction of life sentences with more than 20 000 years of imprisonment on heartless criminals who committed heinous crimes such as rape and abuse against women, children and the elderly in recent period. This is what must become the epitome of our inroads, by securing more and more convictions with inevitably, will begin to instil confidence in our justice system. We shall sustain all these successes in our policing approach in 2012.
The first step to achieve this will be through on-going training, which is crucial in our approach to improving policing, particularly around detective. We are now revising how and what is involved in training. Our training is now tackling both the content and the manner in which we train, including the calibre of cop we recruit.
During the festive period we also had concerted focus on alcohol and drug abuse. The drug trade and its associated problems continue to grow in most parts of the world, primarily because global abuse and accessibility of drugs has become increasingly complex, as trafficking routes have become shorter, more diverse and more easily traversed.
As part of the broader fight against crime during this festive season and beyond, we also launched the Anti-Piracy and Counterfeit Goods Campaign. The campaign is in partnership with other departments and strategic partners; including Trade and Industry, Home Affairs, South African Revenue Service (SARS), National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Southern African Federation Against Theft, Recording Industry of South Africa Films, Publications Board and various artists most of whom are direct victims of piracy.
As I walked around the streets of various cities during the festive season, our streets were becoming cleaner by the day from illegal hawkers who sell pirated goods. Whilst we shall target those street traders, our core focus will be on the manufactures of such counterfeit goods. As we had done with drug trafficking, unless we break the backbone of those syndicates, we shall not win this war.
The progress we have made, the victories we continue to score are reflective of the vision of the South African citizens' commitment and determination to the cause of peace and social progress. This reflection does not mean we are celebrating the victories against crime, but are encouraged.
As government, we undertake these tasks conscious of our responsibility as one of the battalions of the global army for progressive social change. The ANC government is confident that South Africans will persist in building an enduring national partnership further to change our country for the better. Working together with them, we shall spare neither strength nor courage, until there is peace, security and comfort in our country.
For enquiries, please contact:
Zweli Mnisi
Cell: 082 045 4024
