MEC Joyce Mashamba: Provincial Youth Crime Prevention Summit

18 Feb 2014

Opening address by the MEC for Safety, Security and Liaison Mme. Happy Joyce Mashamba on the occasion of the Provincial Youth Crime Prevention Summit: The Ranch Hotel, Polokwane, Capricorn District

Programme Directors,
Colleagues from the Executive Council,
Executive and Local Mayors,
Councillors Responsible for Safety,
Head of Department of Safety and Security,
Deputy National Commissioner,
Provincial Commissioner of SAPS,
Provincial Board of Community Police Forums,
Provincial Board of Community Safety Forums,
Junior Provincial Commissioner,
Youth Formations and Agencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Comrades and friends.

Good morning.

The mandate of the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison as pronounced by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa involves the following:

Monitoring of police conduct
Overseeing effectiveness and efficiency of the police service, including receiving reports on the police service
Promoting good relations between the police and the community
Assessing the effectiveness of visible policing
Liaising with the Cabinet member responsible for policing with respect to crime and policing

It is expected that the mandate should bring about an environment in which the people of the province are safe and feel safe. The National Development Plan’s objective of building safer communities envisage that in 2030 people living in South Africa feel safe and have no fear of crime. They feel safe at home, at school and at work, and they enjoy an active community life free of fear. Women can walk freely in the street and the children can play freely outside.

The National Development Plan further envisages the police service that is a well-resourced professional institution staffed by highly skilled officers who value their work, serve the community, safeguard lives and property without discrimination, protect the peaceful against violence, and respect the right of all to equality and justice.

The vision of the National Development Plan will not come out of its own accord like the Biblical Manna from heaven. It will come out from the toil of all who cherish the ideal of safer communities. On our part as the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison there is a lot that we are doing to move South Africa forward.

In the past twenty years of freedom we have continuously monitored and evaluated all our 97 police stations. This is done as part of our civilian oversight duties. As part of this civilian oversight brief the department has assumed the monitoring and evaluation of SAPS compliance with the Domestic Violence Act.

Currently the department has also extended its monitoring and evaluation to the SAPS implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Auditor-General, Parliament and Provincial Legislature.

All these oversight duties are meant to ensure optimum performance by SAPS. If SAPS performs to its maximum capacity we will be quicker in attaining safer communities. However the police cannot fight and win against crime without the active participation of communities. It is in pursuit of our multi-agency approach to fighting crime that we are mobilizing every sector of society. No sector of society will be left untapped.

This brings us to today’s Provincial Youth Crime Prevention Summit. The Summit is a response to the escalation of the involvement of young people in crime. The youth constitute a large part of the population. They easily fall victim to socio-economic challenges confronting the South African population at large.

Some young people resort to crime as an escape from these socio-economic challenges. The increase in the number of young people who resort to crime cause us sleepless nights – hence the convention of this Summit to bring heads together in an effort to find resolution to this potential disaster.

The figure sourced from the Department of Correctional Services’ Polokwane Management Area gives us a total offender rate of young people of 18 to 35 at 1 002. This number can be broken down as follows:

Children under 18 years: 0
Juveniles (18 – 20 years): 89
Youth (21 – 25 years): 399
Adults (26 -35 years): 509

The criminal offences committed by young people often range from: housebreaking and theft, theft out of motor vehicles, arson, malicious damage to property, parole violation, sexual assault/rape, common assault, assault GBH, robbery, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, possession of dagga and dealing in dagga.

From the police statistics for the period October and December 2013 the following picture emerges:

1499 children were arrested
295 children were found guilty and convicted
1204 cases are still under investigation

From studies conducted on youth and crime it has emerged that young people are more likely to commit crime. Statistics also reveal that young offenders are more prevalent than older offenders. Some of the factors which lead the youth to crime are the following:

Young people are easily influenced, peer pressure, family circumstances
Movies they watch can influence them in good or bad ways
Drugs (children who do drugs are more likely to do crime)
Alcohol consumption
The thought that it is cool to do crime.
Economic hardships
Civil unrest
Breakdown of the societal value system or moral degeneration

This Youth Crime Prevention Summit takes place in the context of the picture that the statistics from Correctional Services and SAPS have painted about the youth and crime. From these figures we have a fair idea of the extent of the problem of young people and crime. We will therefore be able to find solutions to match the problem whose magnitude we know.

This Summit is not meant to be another talk shop. It is a working session meant to dissect the problem and emerge with solutions. It is with this commitment to action in mind, that we have set three objectives for the Summit: