N Mthethwa: Debate on State of the Nation Address

9 February 2009

Somlomo
UMengameli Ohloniphekileyo
Sekela Mengameli
Sekela Somlomo
Ongqongqoshe bakaHulumeni
Masekela Ongqongqoshe
Mamlungu EsiShayamthetho
Zimenywa Ezihloniphekileyo
Maqabane

Siqala ngokwethula ukubonga kwethu ezinkulungwaneni zabantu bakithi ngeqhaza
abalibamba nsukuzonke ukwakha impilo eyimpumelelo. Ngokubamba kwabo iqhaza
kulomshikashika, bahambisana nesiqubulo sikaHulumeni waKwaZulu-Natali esithi,
Asisukume Sakhe.

Nsuku zonke, lezizinkulungwane zisebenzela intando yeningi eyaqalwa umbuso
wenkululeko. Lezizinkulungwane zabantu bakithi zivikela ubunye nobumbano
esizweni; zilwela ukuqedwa kokucwasana ngokobuzwe nangokobulili; zisebenzela
ubulungiswa ezweni lakithi.

Namuhla sikubeka ngembaba ukuthi ikusasa ngelethu sonke, futhi liqhakazile.
Lokhu sikushiswa yizinto esikwazile ukuzenza sibambisene ngeminyaka eyishumi
nanhlanu vo yenkululeko.

Ethula inkulumo yakhe esizweni uMongameli wezwe ukhulumile ngesigagayi
somzabalazo uSolomon Kalushi Mahlangu. Lenkulumo ingikhumbuze inkondlo yembongi
uMzwakhe Mbuli ethi "uma senibusa, nikhululekile, nibokhumbula labo abafela
inkululeko."

Ngezwa kunkenteza ezindlebeni amazwi kaKalushi okugcina ekhuluma nomama
wakhe, uMama uMartha Mahlangu ethi "Mama utshele abantu bakithi ukuthi
ngiyabathanda, nokuthi igazi lami liyochelela isihlahla senkululeko."

Nebala, igazi lakhe aliphalalelanga ubala, umbutho wakhe waze walikhulula
lelizwe.

We thank the President on presenting a well balanced evaluation of the state
of our nation and pointing the way forward in the long journey towards the
realization of the goal of a better life for all.

Building on the achievements we have already scored, the ANC remains firmly
committed to work together with the people of our land to improve the quality
of life of all South Africans. Cognisant of the stubborn legacy of colonialism
and apartheid, and fully appreciative of the scientific reality that the road
to social progress is always under construction, however, we are convinced that
we will realise the kind of society enshrined in our Constitution and the
Freedom Charter.

The improved quality of life we talk about, must also find expression in the
improved conditions of safety and security of the people in their homes and in
their communities. They must be safe in their places of work, cinemas, stadia,
parks and other places of extramural activity.

This past festive season saw a concerted multi-disciplinary approach to the
fight against crime. During that short period we achieved good results on the
part of crime prevention and combating. This demonstrates that working together
we can indeed, do more. We should acknowledge though that the reasons and
extent of these successes still require further analysis.

Working together, we have scored great victories since the birth of our
democracy. Our criminal justice system has contributed immensely to enhancing
the stature of our country and its people.

Right from the birth of our country's democracy, our criminal justice system
has been there to contribute to the effort to ensure a law-governed
democratisation process. Our peace and stability machinery has ensured the
success of many significant events. By now we have held numerous elections. Our
country has hosted many important international events and welcomed onto our
shores, the Commonwealth Heads of State, the Rugby World Cup, the Africa Cup of
Nations, the African Games, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the
Cricket World Cup and many others.

Our courts have been and still remain an important platform in the process
of defining the content of our rights and obligations in a constitutional
state. Save for some few areas, we have extinguished the fires of political
violence and intolerance. We have ensured that the length and breadth of our
country is available to all to exercise their political choices.

For a young democracy like ours, these and many others are no minor
successes. And in the light of this, we can only assume that those who claim
that we make undertakings but never deliver are people who spend their time in
slumber land.

The important contribution of our armed forces in provision and preservation
of special and priority skills can never be overemphasised. Our ground army
forces, our Air force and the Navy have won the confidence of the people
through their capacity to protect the sovereignty of the Republic. These
successes demonstrate the time-tested truth that together we can do more.

These successes we have scored do not in any way de-emphasise the
fundamental necessity to transform the entire criminal justice system. We have
visible evidence of progress made; however, that progress has itself brought
about new challenges.

All South Africans share the President's deep concern about crime.
The African National Congress (ANC) and the government of our country are
committed to the establishment of a new modernised, efficient, and transformed
criminal justice system. This initiative will reduce drastically, the levels of
crime and ensure the stamping out of corruption.

The review entails the scrutiny of our performance along the whole value
chain, including the functioning of the police, the judiciary, correctional
services, with the aim of achieving enhanced level of integration and
co-ordination.

We are paying focused attention to the fight against serious and violent
crime. We are also acting with added vigour against organised syndicates, and
recent events around Durban in particular attest to our commitment in this
regard.

We will increase the capacity of the SAPS through recruitment, rigorous
training and better remuneration. Steps are being taken to better equip and
increase the capacity of detective services, forensics, prosecution and
judicial services. In this regard training is earmarked to commence in earnest
this year.

The people of our land can be assured that we are going to act with speed in
the process of establishing the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation
(DPCI). The architecture of this unit is such that it takes on board the
positive aspects of previous units while shedding off their weaknesses. In
essence, we are applying the law of negation of negation in our approach to
building the DPCI, taking the best and shedding off the worst. The review of
the criminal justice system has indeed resulted, among others, in the
absorption of the DSO into the DPCI.

Because there are many who skirt around the truth on this matter, we should
reiterate some of what we have said before, that is: The DSO was a new and
innovative development initiated by the ANC government to strengthen the fight
against organised crime. It included prosecutors, detectives and intelligence
operatives in one unit. This was indeed a powerful combination which,
nevertheless, created its own problems.

All police units are monitored by the Independent Complaints Directorate
(ICD), however, the DSO was under the NPA, and could not be investigated by the
ICD. Even as we speak, we are faced with the issue of plus or minus one hundred
million rand of funds which are unaccounted for by the DSO. The intelligence
gathering capacity of our agencies is monitored by the Inspector General of
Intelligence; however the DSO was not covered by this framework.

Better to exercise proper balance in their decisions to prosecute or not,
and to ensure the realisation of the principle of separation of functions,
prosecutors need to be independent from investigators. This was not the case
with the DSO. There was also what some referred to as "cherry picking of cases"
a preoccupation with certain kinds of crime, with the result that other crimes
were inadvertently ignored. For instance, complex and complicated crimes of
organised and trans-national nature were left unattended. Ironically, this was
the primary mandate that was being ignored.

Within the context of the review, these and many other issues that had
arisen in practice had to be given serious consideration in the process of
evolving our crime-fighting policies, strategies, entities, arsenal and
programmes. Strangely enough, non among our critics seem to appreciate the
gravity of these and other challenges. They appear even less interested in
finding solutions to the problems. This leads one to suspect that the clamour
about the DSO is less about the quality of its work, but more about the
usability of such work in the furtherance of the political aspirations of those
who directly or indirectly benefited from the racist dispensation of the
past.

To these doubting Thomases, the Chinese proverb applies, which states that,
"The one who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the one doing it."

We are going to pay added attention to attacks on members of the SAPS. As
part of this work, legislative measures will be introduced to protect
law-enforcement officials. We shall ensure that unarmed and defenceless people
are protected against possible abuse. However, for the scoundrels, who are
nothing but beasts in human face, (izinswelaboya), we have no mercy.

The scourge of violence against women and vulnerable members of our society
remains a blemish on our democratic order. Accordingly, the capacity of the
criminal justice system to combat violence and crimes against women and
children will be increased. Aspects of our legislative regime that
unintentionally protect perpetrators will be changed in order to drive the
point home that the sixteen days of activism is in fact three hundred and sixty
five.

In our country, it has by now been widely acknowledged and accepted that a
significant part of violent and serious crimes occur among acquaintances. This
makes it unlikely that our programmes and operations, including intelligence
operations, would have been targeted to families, relatives, friends and
acquaintances. Thus, the need for our communities to participate in preventing
and combating crime. The view that alone, law-enforcement agencies can in
practice defeat crime is incorrect and, we are glad that increasingly, South
Africans are becoming alive to this fact.

We shall therefore work consistently to build an enduring people's contract,
which will find expression in our unity of purpose and action, with each sector
contributing to the common objective of eliminating crime and all forms of
criminality.

Since 1994, the transformation of the judiciary has undergone marked
improvement. As Honourable Members will know, the first democratic government
inherited a judiciary that was dominated by White Males whose prior
contribution to the system had been to enforce and implement apartheid rules
laws.

Through the efforts of the ANC-led government, programmes were put in place
to commence the transformation agenda within the Judiciary. This was done
through the Magistrates Commission, an independent body responsible for the
processes for the appointment and discipline of magistrates.

The other structure that was used was the Judicial Services Commission which
is similarly responsible in respect of judges.

To date, of a total number of 199 judges, 54,3% are black and 45,7% are
white. Similarly, we have seen the appointment of women judges to the
Constitutional Court of whom two are African.

These statistics reflect that whilst more still needs to be done, government
has certainly ensured that there is a progressive agenda to spearhead
transformation in the judiciary.

Madam Speaker, recently we have heard a cacophony of voices purporting to
protect the judiciary from the so called 'attacks' on that important
institution of our democracy.

From where we stand, these modern day defenders of our democracy have
offered nothing new, better, nor wiser than what the late Chief Justice Ismail
Mahomed said, that, "a viable and credible constitutional culture evolves most
effectively within the crucible of vigorous intellectual combat and even moral
examination."

Nevertheless, those who seek to shut down this debate, consistently ignore
this wise counsel by the late Chief Justice. In this instance, we shall resort
to Aristotle, who, when faced with similar circumstances said such people "had
better take to heart what Hesiod says:
That man is best who sees the truth himself
Good too is he who hearkens to wise counsel.
But who is neither wise himself nor willing
To ponder wisdom, is not worth a straw."

A line in Tanya Jovanovski's booklet says, "Introduce any negative person
who crosses your path to someone else." Surely, our political detractors do
deserve to be introduced to bats.

Together we will face crime squarely in the eyes, and destroy it. We will
rid our society of rapists. There shall be no place to hide for those who abuse
women and children. The introduction to Parliament of amendments to the
Criminal Procedure Act necessitating among others, the examination of issues
relating to forensics and DNA databases is a positive step forward in the
context of the revamping of the criminal justice system.

Another way to improve conviction levels is the integration of IT systems of
government departments like Home Affairs, the SAPS, Transport and others.
Processes are under way to sharpen our fight against crime using information
and technology as a potent weapon. Our motto is work hard, but better still,
work smart.

Fellow citizens, rest assured we shall not only be knocking on the doors of
the bad. We shall also knock on the doors of the good, to urge each and every
one of us to be part of the great wave against crime. We must state this
categorically, that in the next five years crime will remain one of the key
priorities of the ANC and government.

Because they love peace, security and comfort, we are certain that the great
majority of the people of our land, continent and the world will heed our
clarion call to join hands and make life difficult for criminals in and outside
our borders. Regional integration and cooperation, is a guarantee that in their
pursuit for a just world order revolutionaries cannot be confined by national
borders.

Jean Toomer said, "We learn the ropes in life by untying the knots."
Together we disentangled the riddle of apartheid; together we can and will
defeat crime.

As the Chinese proverb says, let the one who says it cannot be done not
interrupt the one doing it.

I thank you.

Issued by: Secretariat of Safety and Security
9 February 2009