Programme director
Chairperson and members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Safety
Representatives of the House of Traditional leaders
Members of Mayoral Committees responsible for Public Safety
Head of the Department, Igbal Motala
Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mbombo
The Executive and Members of the Provincial Community Policing Board
Representatives of the business sector, church organisations, faith based organisations, labour, youth and women organisations, farmers, non-governmental organisations
Members of community policing forums
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa on the occasion of the announcement of the 2009/10 National Crime Statistics three weeks ago reminded us that mandate of our Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster is to ensure that “all law-abiding citizens of our country are and feel safe” in their homes, places of work and businesses whilst they carry on with their lives.
The mandate of the JCPS cluster is informed by the vision articulated in the Freedom Charter adopted by the African National Congress (ANC) at its historic congress held on the 25 to 26 June 1955 in Kliptown that, there should be security and comfort for all of our people.
It was in pursuit of this vision that on the occasion of the presentation of our departmental policy statement and budget speech we shared with you Ben Okri’s poem Lines in Potentis that laid the primary task that had to be undertaken that we called upon all our partners, stakeholders, crime prevention structures and our communities to beat the drum and blow the horn for a war against crime to:
“Tell everyone
That history, though unjust,
can yield wiser outcomes,
that the future
is yet unmade
Many possibilities lie in your cellars”
The release of the provincial 2009/10 crime statistics comes after the successful hosting of the best ever Football World Cup tournament in the history of FIFA .Our province hosted six incident and accident free international matches that raised the stature of our continent and country.
We have demonstrated to the world that we are a people determined to succeed in whatever we do. All of us carried the African project with pride and gave criminals no breathing space to spoil the world’s greatest sporting event. We reclaimed our streets and our communities to celebrate our cultures, universal friendship, our diversity and humanity.
Thanks to the men and women in blue, our people experienced safe and secure environment that they are yearning should be a permanent feature of their lives. We owe it to our communities to sustain the momentum of the onslaught against crime and lawlessness in order to push back the frontiers of the scourge of crime.
It is through the sacrifices and tireless efforts of members of the South African Police Service (SAPS), our dedicated reservists, volunteers, and community policing forums supported by cluster community policing boards and led by the provincial community policing board that we today report a significant reduction in crime.
We also acknowledge the role played by our municipalities, traditional leaders, churches, farmers unions and in particular Agri-North West, faith-based organisations, non-government organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (COBs), youth and women organisations in creating a favourable environment for our police to execute their responsibilities. The successes we are reporting were not going to be possible if our communities were not part of our crime fighting strategy.
The business sector and in particular Business Against Crime North West played a significant role in boosting the morale of our police by providing much needed technology to fight crime. Though we still have categories of crime that still need our focus and attention, we appreciate your support for our campaigns and projects to make North West safer.
In 2004, Cabinet set the target for reduction of contact crimes by between seven to 10 percent annually. This call was reiterated by the Honourable President Jacob Zuma during the State of the Nation address delivered on 3 June 2009. This is a national target which is also applicable to all the provinces.
The national crime prevention strategy (NCPS) adopted by government in 1996 provides a framework for a multi-dimensional approach to crime prevention. Amongst other things, the strategy provided a means by which government departments should integrate their approaches to problems of crime control and crime prevention.
In keeping with the approach outlined in the national crime prevention strategy, I am convinced that effective and efficient law enforcement and the provision of social crime prevention programs to reduce the occurrence of crime, coordinated at local government level will reduce the fear of contact and trio crimes.
The multi disciplinary approach coordinated by local government through structures such as community safety forum whereby all role players from justice, crime prevention and security cluster, community police forums, NGOs, civil society, business against crime should implement social crime prevention strategies such as street committees, neighbourhood watch, community patrols, campaigns of destroying markets for stolen goods, installing closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras and working in partnership with security companies will make us achieve our goals.
Our province recorded the highest decreases in the following crime categories in the country:
- murder at -13,4 This is a significant achievement given that murder is the most reliable crime category in crime stats
- cash in Transit Robberies at -33,3 %
- arson at -20%
Other significant decreases that were recorded were for:
- bank robberies -46,2 %
- illegal possession of firearms -19,1%. We firmly believe that once we correlate the figures for next year, where the bulk of the firearms amnesty figures will be included, it will show an even greater increase in the recovery of firearms
- kidnapping –12,8%
- theft not mentioned elsewhere -12%
- street robberies -9%
- sexual offences -8,9%
- shoplifting -7,6%
- crimen injuria -6,2%
- assault common -4,7%
- neglect /ill-treatment of children -3,9%
- robbery with aggravating Circumstance -3%
- robbery Common -2,7%
- robbery residential -2%
- malicious Damage to property and Culpable homicide both decreased by -1,5%
- assault with intend to inflict grevious bodily harm -1,4%
- business Burglary -0,2%
As a province, we are challenged to redouble our effort to bring down the following categories of crime which recorded increases:
- truckjacking: 42,9%
- public violence: 30%
- commercial Crime: 15,4% (the highest in the country).
As a rural province whose economy also depends on farming, we need to redouble our effort to address stock theft which also recorded 13,4%. Drug related cases increased 8,4%, carjacking and robbery from non residential premises both recorded an increase of 8,3%. Our Zero tolerance traffic law enforcement resulted with us recording an increase of 6,6 % for drunken driving, attempted murder 6,5%, burglary residential, theft of Motor and bike and theft out of motor vehicles recorded 4% increase respectively.
Our provincial capital, Mahikeng is thus far the best place to live in because it has recorded reduction of all crime categories, include -60% for carjackings and -51% for murder. The town recorded no bank robberies during the period under review.
The Rustenburg Cluster contributed 25,99% of crime though bank related crime were reduced by -70%, bank robberies by -57%, business robberies including attepted by -20%. No cases of robbery cash in transit were recorded in the cluster.
The arrest of 8 security companies for house robberies in Zinniaville during the FIFA Football World Cup has encouraged us to tighten and monitor possible involvement of private security companies in crime.
Morokweng cluster recorded the least crime, i.e. 37% of crime in our province while The Brits Cluster recorded an increase of all categories of crime, contact crimes and property related crimes except murder. A special attention and focus will be given to this cluster to turn the heat on criminals.
The ANC government has focused attention on the revamping of the Criminal Justice System. The basis for this is to ensure a far better integration of the different departmental role players in the Criminal Justice environment. SAPS have focused considerable energy on efforts to establish a transformed Criminal Justice System. In this regard the number of detectives is being increased and there is focus on intensified and improved training aimed at reaching a guilty verdict.
We believe that if we can considerably increase our conviction rate that trust in the SAPS and the Criminal Justice system will improve. It is our belief that while there is still significant work to be done, the work that has been done over the last year provides a strong base upon which we can build.
We also believe that intelligence should act as a nerve centre as it has a crucial role to play in all aspects of policing. The intelligence component of SAPS is in the process of being revitalised. Part of this revitalisation includes ensuring the integration of intelligence into all aspects of policing. Based on lessons learnt during the Football Wolrd Cup, war rooms are in the process of being reengineered.
There is need for us to cultivate the attitude of reporting crime in order to turn the tide against crime and allocate resources to assist the process. The establishment of a Provincial Command Centre to coordinate 10111 processes will also assist us to monitor all vehicles allocated to support sectors.
Focused strategies and approaches to increase our community mobilisation will be finalised in due course in order to expedite the establishment of street committees and recruitment of street patrollers. Cluster workshop will be held with farmers to address stock theft and operation of pounds in Ventersdorp, Mmabatho, Madikwe, Phokeng, Potchefstroom, Lichtenburg, Klerksdorp, Makapanstad, Taung and Mogwase. Road Shows to conscientise traditional leaders and subsistence farmers about brand marking and operations of stock speculators will also be conducted.
In conclusion, I wish to emphasise that the overwhelming majority of our people hate crime with the same passion expressed by an anonymous poet who wrote the poem “I hate crime” which reads:
“I HATED IT; like a dog wandering on the street detests to be lambasted,
I hated it; like thunder clouds in sky which simply refrain to rain,
I hated it; like the seasonal stream of water which protests vehemently against drying,
I hated it; like a sacrosanct priest in the church who intractably rejects worldly pleasures,
I hated it; like the unscrupulous burglar in the street despises to be apprehended,
I hated it; like walls of the palatial mansion severely repulsed ghastly darkness,
I hated it; like the palpable and intricate heart rebukes the closure of breath, I hated it; like the sensitive tongue in mouth hates to be mercilessly scalded, I hated it; like silver sands of the ocean thoroughly despise acerbic rays of brilliant sun,
I hated it; like the aircraft soaring high in puffs of clouds hates to collide
I hated it; like fresh fruits dangling from tree branches hated to become rotten,
I hated it; like the synchronized demeanor of computer hated a host of virus,
I hated it; like the gleaming surface of immaculate marble hates yellow stain,
I hated it; like an innocuous child abhorrently detests to be scolded,
I hated it; like the motorized lift in the edifice hated to close brusquely midway,
I hated it; like the scintillating edge of sword hated to acquire rust,
I hated it; like the grandiloquent ship sailing on the sea hated to sink,
I hated it; like the people with perfect sight hated to transit to blind,
I hated it; like the silken spider in its web hates to loose balance and fall,
I hated it; like the innocent hate to be tyrannized and brutally mutilated,
I hated it; like compact cubes of solid ice hated to melt,
I hated it; as much as the marathon champion hated to loose the race,
I hated it; as much as a cluster of fortified teeth in the mouth hated to painstakingly decay,
I hated it; as much as I hated to relinquish indispensable breath and die,
Oh! Yes the thing that I hated has been hated profoundly since centuries”
Our people hate crime. Let’s intensify the onslaught against it during this year of action to ensure that all people in our province are and feel safe. Together we conquered odds against us and ascended to greater heights and with our communities we can do more to sustain the gains we have made.
As I handover to the police management to take us through the detailed presentation and hotspots that need all of our collective effort for us to win the war against crime, we wish to reconfirm our unwavering commitment to fight crime and work toward ensuring a safe environment to the benefit of all of our people and our communities.
In areas where there have been positive in-roads, we wish to reiterate that we will continue to work hard and smart to entrench these successes. Accordingly, in areas where there have been some increases in crime, we re-commit ourselves to finding and working with all stakeholders to ensure we create a safer North West. This is our mission and this is our conviction.
It remains our firm and achievable belief that while there is still significant work to be done in ensuring our people are and feel safe, we have shown that we are certainly up to the task and are capable of addressing the challenges that lie ahead. Many possibilities lie in our cellars.
Ke a leboga.
Enquiries: Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 381 9171
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 018 381 9123
E-mail: LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za
