Today marks the start of our decisive intervention programme in an effort to deal with criminal activities that continue to haunt our rural communities.
We all understand that more than 60% of the Eastern Cape population resides in the rural areas with unique challenges, especially in dealing with crime. Four months ago, the rural masses of our people gave this government a mandate to improve its delivery of services, including fighting against crime and corruption.
Central to our crime prevention efforts is mobilisation of communities, both urban and rural, to participate actively in combating crime through the establishment of street committees, village committees, neighbourhood watches, community courts, amongst others.
The Department of Safety and Liaison, through its legislative mandate to oversee the South African Police Service recognises the important and crucial role played by the community in fighting against crime. One of the key focus areas of our Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy is strengthening communities against crime, strengthening families and parents. In realising this key focus area, we have village committees to work in small areas of our communities.
We have decided to launch this Village Committees Programme here in Mount Ayliff because it is mostly rural and vast, but serviced by one police station, which is based in town. That makes this area an ideal place to have such a programme in order to assist with safety and security and report to the Community Police Forum (CPF).
We know that most of the time CPFs are available at police stations and the village committees are at a locality level in small areas to make the environment safer through doing patrols and neighbourhood watch working together with the police.
Our main purpose is to:
* make sure that each and every small village enjoys a right to protection and secure environment through creating strategies that seek to change crime causing conditions.
* allow the villages as small as they are to work together to solve problems of crime and reduce fears of crime.
* improve the quality of life through committee members' visibility.
* mobilise communities against crime
Our objectives are to:
- promote pro-activeness in the fight against crime
- ensure the active involvement and participation of youth and community at large in crime prevention initiatives
- promote neighbourhood watch.
On that note, I would like to call upon traditional leaders, councillors and ward committees, youth structures, CPFs, community-based organisations and community at large to join forces with us in order to make this programme a success.
From our side as the Department of Safety and Liaison, we will:
* Soon host Provincial Consultative Workshop on Street and Village Committees in order to ensure that we all understand the concept, which will enable able us to emerge with effective urban and rural safety plans together with the necessary resources.
* Do service delivery evaluations at 98 Police Stations in the province, with a particular focus on stations in the rural areas.
* Meet quarterly with the Provincial SAPS Management to discuss various issues relating to crime; community mobilisation; Community Police relations and implementation of the recommendations of departmental service evaluation reports.
* Prioritise CPFs in rural areas to ensure they respond effectively to the needs of the communities.
* Closely monitor police performance to evaluate the quality of service being given to rural communities.
By doing that, we will minimise the challenges that continue to confront police stations, especially in rural areas.
In the recent past, we have observed the emergence of the scourge of human trafficking, which has been highlighted to be predominant in the Eastern Cape, particularly in rural areas.
We are going to embark on massive public messaging campaigns within schools and communities and ensure that our law enforcement agencies are trained to deal with any human trafficking situation and prompt response to it. We further expect village committees to play a pivotal role in such campaigns.
In conclusion, I would like to salute everybody, who is participating in this programme, which clearly shows your commitment to win back your villages from the hands of criminals.
I strongly believe that working together we can defeat crime and reposition the Eastern Cape to become a compelling place to live, work, invest and play in.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Ncedo Kumbaca
Tel.: 043 604 7584
E-mail: nossy.mzini@dot.ecprov.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Transport and Safety
8 July 2009
