Honorable Speaker and Deputy Speaker;
Honorable Premier of the province, Mr DD Mabuza;
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature;
Honourable Members of the Executive Council ;
House of Traditional Leaders;
Head of Department, Mr. William Mthombothi and fellow HODs from other departments;
The South African Police Service (SAPS) Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General;
Thulani Ntobela;
Public Safety councillors from different municipalities;
Representatives from the JCPS cluster;
Chairperson of the Provincial Community Police Forum Board Mr. Kevin Pillay;
Distinguished guests and all dignitaries present today;
Members of the media;
Comrades and friends;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Honourable Speaker, it is an honour that I am presenting the Department's Policy and Budget Speech only days after we celebrated our great leader and a World Icon, the late, former State President Nelson Mandela's birthday. The world, has for the first time, celebrated this year's Mandela International Day without him. As the country celebrated its 20 years of freedom, and in respect of Madiba, again our people had an opportunity to go to free and fair, one man one vote democratic elections to elect a government of their choice. They confirmed, without intimidation or prejudices, that the ANC is their home.
The right to vote was also fiercely fought for, and many were killed and buried in shallow graves by those who were vehemently opposed to freedom. Many of our brothers and sisters perished in Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, Tanzania and many other parts of the world.
And as we celebrate a global icon, an internationalist, Honourable members, it is very important that I take this opportunity and pledge solidarity with the people of Palestine, children and elders, disabled and defenceless mothers and fathers who are subjected to a rain of air strikes by the Israeli army.
Honourable Speaker, all forms of international intervention and peace-making have, until now, failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian laws to respect fundamental human rights and end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine. In the spirit of Madiba, an internationalist, let us unite our voices in condemning the occupation and colonisation of all Arab Land as well as the killing of innocent, unarmed civilians on both sides.
The women and children who are now suffering as a result of the airstrikes raining down in Palestine did not send even a single missile into Israel yet they are the primary casualties. I therefore call on this August house, out of its conscience, moral responsibility and in the name of international solidarity, to condemn the actions by Israel of bombing residential areas in Palestine.
Honourable Speaker, as we begin the term of office for this 5th Provincial Administration, the department will be guided by Vision 2030 as contained in the National Development Plan (NDP). The NDP has identified five priority areas to focus on in order to achieve a crime free South Africa by 2030 and they are:
- Strengthening the criminal justice system.
- Making the police service professional.
- Demilitarisation of the police.
- Build safety using an integrated approach.
- Build community participation in community safety.
The Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison as a Secretariat to the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the province will focus on the last two priorities of the NDP which are building safety using an integrated approach as well as building community participation in community safety. Yingakho sifuna wonke umuntu ohlala lapha eMpumalanga asho kanye nathi athi, “Crime is our number one enemy”, okusho ukuthi ubugebengu buyisitha sethu sokuqala. Uma sonke sisho njalo, sizophumelela ukuncoba ubugebengu, sibucede nya, ukuze sikhone ukuthuthuka njengesizwe. Ngalokhu sizibophelela ekuthini ubugebengu asifuni ukubuhlisa nje, kodwa sifuna ukubuqeda nya. Yingakho sizoqinisa lokhu okushiwo lapha ku NDP ukuze sakhe imiphakathi ephephile.
Sizochubeka nezimbizo kanye nokuxhumana nomphakathi ukuze sikwazi ukuqinisa ubudlelwano kanti futhi sakhe insika eqinile ezobhekana nqco nobugebengu, iphinde ilwisane nenkohlakalo.
Honourable Speaker, the conference of the ANC in Mangaung observed that “unacceptable levels of crime continue to threaten peace and stability and undermine the economic growth and tarnish the image of the Republic”. The observation of the ANC finds expression in the State of the Province Address by Honourable Premier DD Mabuza who said, “In order for us to achieve the socio-economic objectives of our province, we must have a solid foundation in place, and this foundation comprises the elements of a safe and cohesive society and an honest and capable public service”.
By all intents and purposes Honourable members, this places the fight against crime and corruption at the centre of development and economic growth. This is a call to all of us, to make it our responsibility to build that foundation from which a safer and a developing Mpumalanga shall be built.
Honourable Speaker and Members, l want to call upon every citizen, that we all honour our civilian responsibility and report incidences of crime and corruption to relevant authorities. This will address the negative perception that is perpetuated about corruption in the province. It will also set us on track to build the foundation from which development can take place. To consistently make allegations of corruption without bringing forth evidence to back them is counterproductive. We call on those who have evidence of corruption to report to the Police, so that suspects are caught, prosecuted and convicted if found guilty, irrespective of their status, colour or creed.
Honourable Speaker, our office has been inundated with calls from ordinary community members appreciating the work of SAPS' Tactical Response Team (TRT) in their communities. They have also called for the unit to continue patrolling their areas in order to reduce crime.
The sentiments of these communities were further echoed by members of the Portfolio Committee who have called for increased police visibility in all crime hot spots. This is a clear cry from our people that there is a need to intensify our Overall Friday Programme which saw all security agencies joining forces to fight crime and improving law enforcement visibility.
It is during the Overall Friday Programme, that, I take a lead in demonstrating to the public that prevention of crime and corruption is not a sole responsibility of the security agencies. That is why Honourable Members, I and the department's officials do our oversight role on the Police with them on the ground. We are doing so because we want to send a message that crime can only be won when there is a massive cooperation between security agencies and the people on the ground, thereby isolating the criminals. This is amply emphasised in the NDP.
Our plans with regards to Community Police Forums (CPFs) are a clear indication that we value the contribution and the role that must be played by members of the community. The plans include adequately resourcing the CPFs and ensuring their functionality. The province is heeding the call by the Executive Council to close all taverns that situated close to schools. We will never stop visiting taverns and ensuring that they stick to their licensing conditions because we have noted that they are primary generators of criminal activities.
Honourable Speaker, the abuse of alcohol and other substances continues to interfere with the safety and welfare of our people. The department is committing itself to building a broad front to fight the abuse of drugs and alcohol which eats the moral fibre of our society. We further believe that the legislative amendments declaring nyaope an illegal drug earlier this year by the department of Justice will further assist in the battle against drugs and substance abuse and that will have a positive impact in our crime prevention initiatives. We believe that it will continue to enable the police to bring swiftly to book culprits so that we can rid our communities of this undesirable substance.
Domestic violence remains a thorn in the ear. As a society, we must take a stand against woman and child abuse. We must ensure that as we close our doors and rolling down curtains, turning lights off to sleep, we do so not because we are creating a conducive environment for any form of abuse.
The department is calling on all the citizens of the province, particularly parents to protect children. Incidences such as the one that happened in Reiger Park, where young Taegrin Morris was dragged for kilometres and killed by hijackers has no place in our society.
We are seeing an increase in cases of brutality against defenceless children committed by adults throughout the country. Recent incidences of brutality meted against children include the Pongola one where a child's dismembered body was found at a church.
Honourable Speaker, in Mpumalanga, we say “No to child abuse and No to Child neglect”.
Programme1: Administration
Honourable Speaker and members of the House, in October last year, the department was put under Curatorship by the Executive Council. I want to report to this House that the department is making steady progress in the management of its finances. The appointment of the new HOD also assisted in stabilising the situation.
Over the last financial year, the MEC's office managed to coordinate Munimec and the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS), and Joint Management Forum (JMF) to strengthen integrated crime prevention initiatives.The Administration Programme in the department is doing well in terms of supporting all the other Departmental programmes; however, the delay in the approval of the organisational structure has had a negative impact on the department's ability to deliver on its mandate. The office of the MEC has prioritised this matter for a speedy resolution.
Programme 2: Civilian Oversight
As part of enhancing police service in the province, Honourable members, the department has in the last financial year monitored police compliance with policy, this included compliance with the Domestic Violence Act and other policing prescripts. The process of evaluation culminated into the annual MEC's Excellence Awards Ceremony that was conducted in Ermelo earlier this year.
Honourable Speaker, the department will continue to monitor the police stations around the province. We will evaluate the work of the police and reward those who are doing well through the MEC's Excellence Awards. We will not only be rewarding best performers but we will intervene at police stations that are not doing well in terms of the tool that is used to assess their work.
We will in that regard make recommendations to police management in the areas that need attention so that policing in our province continue to improve for the benefit of Mpumalanga citizens, as part of addressing service delivery complaints in the police, the department is fully implementing the electronic complaints monitoring system. We will continue to monitor complaints and make follow ups with police management to ensure that complaints raised by members of the public are swiftly resolved.
Honourable Speaker, as part of addressing increasing incidences of sexual offences and domestic violence, the department will continue to conduct 27 audits on the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act at police stations. We want the Police to make significant strides in the fight against Domestic Violence and sexual offences so that we realise the objectives of Outcome 3, which advocates that people are and they feel safe in the province.
The department is intending to increase the number of stations monitored from last year's 63 to 75 this financial year. Over and above, we will also conduct research on policing matters in order to direct and guide intervention programmes by SAPS and the department in all domestic violence and sexual offence related crimes.
Programme 3: Crime Prevention and Community Police Relations
Madam Speaker, I am happy to report that the department had functional CPF's in all our 86 police stations. This was translated into their participation in various initiatives such as street patrols, sector policing and other crime programmes in their localities.
We will further continue to prioritise their functionality in the current financial year. We have further strengthened community participation in safety and security by empowering and resourcing 44 CPFs across the province. The resources include reflector jackets and torches.
In the previous financial years, we called on communities to protect our police officers through a campaign and provincial slogan, “Wabulala Iphoyisa, Wabulala Umphakathi”. I am comfortable to report that, less police officers were killed in the last financial year. In the 2012/13 financial year, 12 police officers were killed; however in 2013/14 only two police officers died in the line of duty.
Although we appreciate the decrease Honourable Speaker, but the loss of two lives is still unacceptable. This is a clear indication that there is a need to continue supporting our law enforcers in order to get maximum protection from them. It is encouraging Honourable Speaker to note that the provincial slogan has now been adopted by the National Minister of Police; hence we are now requesting the country to rally behind it. Asishoni sonke sithi “Wabulala Iphoyisa, Wabulala Umphakathi.”
As part of strengthening participatory democracy with regard to safety and security matters, we conducted three Public Participation Programmes (Izimbizo) where we provided the ordinary members of the community an opportunity to make inputs on crime prevention initiatives in their own communities. The department has also conducted numerous awareness campaigns to create awareness to communities on border security, gender based violence, tourists safety, rural safety, drugs and substance abuse.
We have also implemented the School Safety Strategy in collaboration with other stakeholders such as the Department of Education and SAPS. The highlight of the strategy has been among others, visits to identified schools, random searches for weapons and drugs and learners' prison visits.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have not only contributed towards improving safety of visitors to our beautiful province, but have also contributed towards realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDP) by increasing the number of Tourism Safety Monitors from 538 to 588 in the previous financial year. This meant that the department was also able to put food on the table to an additional 50 unemployed youth.
Honourable Speaker, we have noted with concern the emergence of vigilantism in some parts of the province. Over the last few weeks, we destroyed a dilapidated building in Accornhoek in the Bushbuckridge Municipality. The building was used by a vigilante group to torture members of the community who are suspects of crime. A number of the group members have been arrested and their cases are on the roll as we speak.
We find this trend very disturbing, because our country has a competent Criminal Justice System and everyone regardless of their political convictions or ideologies must work with the police to combat and prevent crime and nobody has a right to take the law into their own hands.
This department, will in that regard, continue to monitor the development around this matter so that we ensure that such incidences are not repeated anywhere else in the province. An appeal is therefore made to all members of our communities including political parties not to be tempted to take the law into their own hands when they could easily give information to our law enforcement agencies so that crime suspects are brought to book.
Ladies and gentlemen, the backwardness that has presented itself to us in the form of violent service delivery protests that are usually characterised by destruction of public and private properties, blockading of roads and general anarchy need to come to an end. Ours is a free and democratic state where everybody has a right to freedom of expression and therefore regardless of how genuine their concerns are, communities must bring those concerns to the attention of authorities through peaceful demonstrations without any violence.
This is pure criminality and we must curb it. It is worrying that our communities will resort to burning down a library to demand a crèche or a school, burning a community hall to demand a road. Our communication as government needs to be strengthened so that we avoid instances where communities' frustrations lead them to protesting violently. This cannot be allowed as it puts a strain on police resources and also ruins the good relations between the police and the community.
In this country, we have a very progressive Constitution which contains many rights including that of marching. It is disturbing that, despite the progressive Constitution, our people still resort to embarking on illegal marches which are violent and accompanied by criminal activities.
Honourable Speaker, we are calling on our communities to apply when they want to march so that we can provide them with all the necessary support, which includes police and traffic officials to escort them to ensure that their petitions and demands are handed peacefully and orderly.
Honourable Speaker, in this financial year; the department will conduct 60 educational awareness campaigns and workshops to ensure that our communities are well informed about their rights. The campaigns and workshops will include campaigns against crime, liquor traders' workshops and gender based domestic violence. We will continue to conduct border security awareness campaigns where issues around human trafficking matters will be addressed.
The department will also enhance its relationship with the Mpumalanga Liquor Authority, so that together we attend to the call to deal with liquor outlets that are built near schools and also enforce compliance with the laws of the country.
Honourable members, as part of a deterrent mechanism for the youth to commit crime, the department will coordinate prison visits for identified schools in order to expose learners to the harsher realities of life behind bars so that they may not be tempted to commit crime. As part of intensifying our school safety programme in the current financial year, schools safety committees will be empowered and assisted to conduct campaigns against substance abuse and crime to ensure that our schools provide a fertile learning environment.
Further interventions that the department will embark on to implement crime prevention strategies will include rural safety campaigns, the intensification of the 365 Days of Activism for ‘No Violence Against Women’ and children related campaigns.
Honourable Speaker, we will further prioritise Community Safety Forums (CSFs) in 21 municipalities in the province. This will ensure that we are able to develop integrated safety plans in all municipalities to guide and synergise our crime fighting efforts. We also intend to support the eight Municipalities that have developed the Municipal Safety Plans to implement them and continue to support those that are still lagging behind.
Honourable Speaker, the Department will continue to support the 86 CPF's in the province and also conduct a functionality and resource need audit in order to determine areas that need to be strengthened. Once an audit has been completed, programme of action will then be developed to close identified gaps. We will continue to prioritise the safety of visitors to our beautiful province by continuing to enlist 588 TSMs in the current financial year. The TSMs will be placed at tourism hotspots across the province.
Madam Speaker, our efforts as a department working together with the police has always been around crime prevention and more often, less attention has been given to victims of crime. Failure to give these victims and survivors of crime adequate support, ladies and gentlemen would further subject them to secondary victimisation hence the department will launch a Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP) that will result in the recruitment of 130 volunteers who will work as councilors at all 86 police stations.
The programme will assist with strengthening of victim friendly facilities as part of supporting the victims. Part of their duties, Madam Speaker will be to give support to victims of abuse and rape in police stations before they open cases. They are expected to define the victims' rights and also explain all the processes before SAPS and the Department of Justice taking over. We believe that the programme will further assist in ensuring that perpetrators of crime are successfully prosecuted. The programme will be rolled during the second quarter of this financial year.
Honourable Speaker, I have just taken the house through the many crime prevention programmes that we will be implementing. It is therefore important to note that over the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) period 2009/10 – 2014/15 there has been a significant reduction of crime by 23% in the province. Out of the seven categories of contact crime, two have shown a consistence decrease during the same period and they are:
- attempted murder; and
- common assault.
Assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) and Robbery.This achievement can be attributed to the crime prevention programmes rolled out in our priority stations around the province.
Programme 4: Transport Regulation
Honourable Speaker, in the last two financial years, the department has reported about its plans to build a Traffic Training College in Mkhuhlu, Bushbuckridge Municipality. Let me report that Phase 1, which is the installation of bulk services, has been completed. The construction bid is out on tender and it is envisaged that the college will be completed in the 2016/17 financial year.
An amount of one hundred and nine million rand (R109 million) has been set aside for 2014/15 financial year for the commencement of the building process for the college. This state of the art college, once completed Madam Speaker, will not only benefit the department in terms of training of traffic officials but will also be beneficial to members of the public to enhance their driving skills through offering them advanced driving techniques among others. We believe this will assist to augment general road safety initiatives in our province.
Honourable Speaker, you and the other honourable members of the house will have an opportunity to book for the advanced driving courses. We believe that this will contribute towards ensuring that we have quality drivers. In the previous financial year we have been able to conduct 300 surveys on identified road crash spots and one hundred and seventy multi-disciplinary road blocks.
Honourable Speaker, our road safety campaigns have been taken to 1 500 schools and 94 159 community members were also educated on road safety. These numbers exclude the people who were reached through media campaigns. Furthermore seven hundred and sixty eight (768) compliance inspections were conducted on various Driver Testing and Licensing Centres (DTLCs).We have weighed 938 860 heavy motor vehicles and 14 990 were impounded because they were overloaded.
Over the last financial year, the department has been able to reduce road crashes and fatalities. However, we are still worried about the increasing number of vehicles with high occupancy rate becoming involved in crashes as this lead to many persons losing their lives. The department has planned to intensify its work on buses, taxis and other vehicles with high occupancy rate.
Honourable Speaker, our condolences goes to all victims and survivors of road crashes in recent months and that include those who were burnt beyond recognition in a collision between a truck and a bus near White River last month. The White River incident was sad because it took families about three weeks before they could bury their loved ones. DNA tests had to be conducted to determine the identities of the bodies of those who were burnt beyond recognition.
Working together with communities, the department will mobilise all stakeholders and interested parties in as far as road safety is concerned. We will continue to support the 110 road safety councillors in their work to ensure safer roads in the current financial year.
Honourable Speaker, over the last financial year, the department recorded a 9.5 percent decrease in road crashes. Fatalities were reduced by 8.8 percent with serious injuries declining by 10.13 percent and slight injuries recording a reduction of 5.9 percent.
This indicates that there is a lot of work put by the department and its stakeholders; hence there is a need to encourage everybody to work harder for the safety of our communities. Part of the successes in the reduction of road crashes and fatalities is attributed to the work of the Traffic Intervention Unit (TIU). In the last financial year, this unit checked more than 155 000 vehicles, issued more than 48 000 summons and arrested 115 suspects for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Honourable Speaker, towards the end of the financial year, the National Department of Transport will be sending 15 drivers to the International Driver of the year Competitions in Poland. Among the 15 drivers, five will be from the province. We believe that this is an indication of the dominance of our drivers in these competitions because in 2012 we sent the same number of drivers to Sun City in the North West province where the International Driver of the Year competition was held.
In order to curb the unnecessary crashes, the department will conduct surveys on all the hazardous roads. This will help us to make informed recommendations to Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) and Trans African Concessions (TRAC). This will be coupled with roadside check points for vehicles to ascertain roadworthiness and fitness of drivers as well as compliance to passenger and goods transportation.
The department will involve schools in road safety education programmes such as Scholar Patrol, School Debates and Junior Traffic Training Centre's (JTTC's). This will assist in enhancing the culture of road safety among our children. This will also promote good practice among our learners so that we produce better road users in the future. We will also conduct compliance inspections to Driver Testing and Licensing Centre's (DLTCs), Vehicle Testing Centre's (VTC's) and Manufacturers, Importer of motor vehicles (MIBs) and enforce remedial actions where there is non-compliance. If we succeed to implement the above, the department will be closer the realisation of its vision, that of “A safer, secure, crime and road accident free Mpumalanga province.”
Programme 5: Security Services
The centralisation of security services to the department came with its set of challenges and we have been working very hard to overcome them. We have started the process to ensure that when the current contracts expire at the end of November 2014, the department continues providing security services to departments without any hassles. This will give the department an opportunity to re-engineer and redirect the available resources to the security needs of the Province. In order to ensure that we strengthen our monitoring, the department will establish a control room as a nerve centre for monitoring of all government sites in the province.
As I conclude, Honourable Speaker, let me take this opportunity to thank the Premier of the province, Honourable, David Mabuza for trusting me with the work of this Portfolio. I would like to promise him and the citizens of this province that we will spend sleepless nights in order to bring an end to criminality and corruption in this province.
I would also like to thank all Executive Council Members for their continued support and all members of the provincial legislature as well as the Portfolio Committee for their guidance and monitoring of the work that we are doing.
I would again thank the team from my department under the leadership of the newly appointed HOD Mr. William Mthombothi, for the sterling work, commitment and dedication.
The SAPS Management in the province under the leadership of Lt. General Thulani Ntobela, and the entire Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster should also be applauded for their continued and reliable support.
Lastly Honourable Speaker let me thank my wife and my family for supporting me in executing my duties and to all my friends and comrades who have been a pillar of strength to me.
Honourable Speaker, allow me therefore, to present and table to this house the budget for Vote 9, which is the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison for the 2014/15 financial year.
The budget allocation to the department is R1.027 959 000 which is distributed as follows:
- Administration: R115 543 000
- Civilian Oversight: R12 349 000
- Crime Prevention and Community Police Relations: R44 341000
- Transport Regulation: R 435 761000; and
- Security Management: R419 965 000.
I thank you.
