Let me first take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster departments for attending this important session, which is expected to provide direction on how we will conduct our business going forward.
Last week, we read in the media (The Herald) about an out of frustration outburst from the local magistrate about the administration bungles, which allowed convicted criminals to walk free. Have we ever thought about the victims of these criminals?
Over the weekend, I attended the African National Congress (ANC) Bosberaad on Safety and Security in Cape Town and we all acknowledged the fact that the level of crime in South Africa is unacceptable.
For many years, we have been having a target of 7 to 10 percent reduction of crime in this country, but there is no clear indication of the progress that we have made to achieve that.
We all agreed that there is an urgent need to overhaul the entire criminal justice system in order to ensure that we drastically reduce the levels of crime and corruption in our country.
In order to achieve this, the following will be done:
* Establishment of a new modernised, efficient and transformed criminal justice system to enhance the capacity for crime fighting with a particular focus on improving the functioning of the police, the judiciary and correctional services in order to achieve integration and coordination
* Actively combat serious and violent crime by being tougher on criminals and organised crime syndicates, and to recruit more South African Police Service (SAPS) members, rigorous training, better remuneration, equipping the detective services, forensics, prosecution and judicial services. Last week, we witnessed the birth of the new elite crime unit the Hawks which marked the end of the Scorpions’ era and a new beginning in the fight against organised crime
* Combat violence and crimes against women and children through ensuring that law enforcement agencies are well equipped to detect such cases
* Community mobilisation as the cornerstone of our crime prevention efforts
* Improve measures on the tendering system to ensure that the adjudication process is transparent and in line with government procurement policies and procedures.
I strongly believe that the Eastern Cape can be able to deliver on the above expectations, because there is a political will, which was declared by the Premier Noxolo Kiviet during the State of the Province Address that one of the eight priorities of provincial government would be to intensify the fight against crime and corruption. We have to inculcate an understanding amongst the people of the Eastern Cape that crime does not pay.
Today, the Executive Council and the people of the Eastern Cape are pinning their hopes on this session to emerge with a lasting solution in order to promote peace, security and comfort in our communities.
The provincial strategic framework gives us a solid foundation to build on and ours is to coordinate and strengthen relationships between all law enforcement agencies in the province and further promote cooperative governance in the fight against crime. This workshop must help us to emerge with a clear programme of action that will be appreciated by all stakeholders and the people of the Eastern Cape.
A particular focus must be given on the following:
* “Hands-on” support to local government crime prevention programmes. We have community safety forums, but we need to examine their effectiveness and then find a way of improving their operations in order to roll out the process to other municipalities.
We need to ask ourselves the following questions, do municipalities understand their role in the promotion of safety and security? Do they have the necessary infrastructure e.g. Street lights, house numbers and accessible roads?
Six municipalities have declared their interest to have public viewing areas during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but there is no clear security plan to deal with the challenges of the public viewing areas. Such a plan should be based on our experiences during the Confederations Cup, when we had public viewing areas in Matatiele, Miki Yili Stadium in Grahamstown and Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane.
In our assessment of the crime statistics, we have identified liquor as one of the contributing factors to the increasing levels of crime due to the large number of liquor outlets, which are mostly illegal, but continue to operate some 24 hours a day. Unfortunately nobody wants to shoulder the blame between the Liquor Board, municipalities and the SAPS. My advice is that municipalities must have clear by laws on this matter.
* Big events security management. As we were all busy with the dry runs during the Opening of the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, British and Irish Lions Tour and the Premier’s Cup, we have observed serious security challenges, which we all need to urgently address. The first test of our revised security plan will be the Soweto Derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates here next week and I will be there to observe and I would like to be personally convinced that we are ready to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup and any other bigger event in this province.
* Intensification of the fight against corruption. For many years, the Eastern Cape Provincial administration’s efforts to delivery services to our people have been eclipsed by the stigma of corruption within government. The time has come for all of us to turn the corner and ensure that all departments have the necessary anti-corruption capacity in place, risk management and fraud prevention plans.
* Crime reduction through community mobilisation. I have been launching community-based structures such as neighbourhood watch in Duncan Village and Village Committees in Mount Ayllif. We need to further reposition these structures to assist us in dealing with the scourge of human trafficking, which is currently plaguing our province, especially in the rural areas of the former Transkei region.
I would like this cluster to soon coordinate a provincial consultative workshop on street and village committees in order to thoroughly explain this concept to the people. Such a session can also be utilised to popularise the community mobilisation plan that we are going to develop today.
* Border control and security. Certain parts of our province are still experiencing serious challenges of stock theft, which is further complicated by the smuggling of firearms, vehicles and drugs. We need multi agency collaboration in order to effectively deal with this. As we prepare for 2010, we are observing an increasing number of foreign nationals who are coming to South Africa, especially in this Metro and buy properties. Our law enforcement agencies need to monitor their movement closely to ensure that there are no illegal activities. There must be a campaign to reduce illegal immigrants and improve refugee registration.
In conclusion, I would like to once more thank you for your attendance and I strongly believe that through working together we can permanently erode the bottlenecks, which have been compromising the integrity of the criminal system due to its unsatisfactory response to challenges, especially gender-based violence.
Let us continue to make this province a compelling place to live, work, invest and play in.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Transport and Safety, Eastern Cape Provincial
Government
13 July 2009
