Premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, Dr Z Mkhize
MEC for Safety and Security, Mr TW Mchunu
Acting National Commissioner of Police, Lieutenant General Lebeya
KwaZulu-Natal SAPS Commissioner, Lieutenant General Ngobeni
Representatives from civic organisations present
Representatives from Business Against Crime SA present
Representatives from CPFs present
Representatives from Unions present
Representatives from ICD present
Representatives from PSIRA present
Representatives from Interfaith Organisations present
Representatives from Traditional Leaders and Youth present
Representatives from NGOs present
Representatives from Research and Academic fraternity present
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
We welcome an opportunity to address this provincial summit, albeit on a sombre occasion. We would have preferred to gather as we did this morning to share success stories in the fight against crime.
Instead we are here to find lasting solutions against the recent mauling of our police officers by merciless scoundrels. We can attribute these cowardice acts as opportunistic responses by these scoundrels because they are feeling the pinch.
From January this year 15 police officers have been killed in KwaZulu-Natal. This has reached proportional and unacceptable levels. In fact even if one police officer has been killed, we would still be increasingly worried. We shall never equate the killing of our police officers to statistics because these are the shields of the nation.
Following a National Summit Against Attacks on and killing of police officials held last month, we have since outlined and are currently implementing the 10-Point Plan. In essence our objective was to seek solutions from across all sectors of society on what needs to be done to eradicate these killings. Today’s summit is but one of the many that will be rolled out across the country.
The President of the Republic, His Excellency Jacob Zuma said from day one to all of us, when we were given this portfolio, that we must do things faster and smarter, and differently. We then had to assess the kind of beast we are faced with, which is the scourge of crime in our country. To give effect to this call, we undertook to fight crime smartly and toughly and parallel to this, was our community-centred philosophy.
We made no apologies that those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law will be severely punished. That is why we needed to be unambiguous about our warnings to criminals. Indeed they began to feel the heat. As experts in your different fields gathered here, we are confident you will agree that this challenge, this is a societal challenge that requires a societal response.
There are some approaches we have begun to implement in the past two years, including working smartly. If we take for instance, the concept of War Rooms, which is a combination of intelligence work, police visibility and effective utilisation of information communication technology (ICT) as a deterrent to crime; these tell us that we are making inroads in dealing with crime.
There is no doubt that these criminals having noticed that we are on top of them, in every aspect, resorted to cowardly acts on attacking and killings. But because of the support of the communities we serve, we shall continue to address these areas in a multi-faceted fashion because they are systemic issues and if our intention is to ensure we address them holistically. We have to look at the entire system and how it operates.
In fighting crime, we have embarked on a concerted campaign of wielding out rotten cops including in KwaZulu-Natal. It is therefore not surprising that as a result people today talk openly about police who are ill-disciplined and those who are involved in corruption, because there is confidence that if they report these things something will happen to such cops. More importantly there have been serious and harsher consequences. So we will continue along these tough disciplinary actions.
Whilst many people will welcome an approach that sees the police taking a more aggressive approach towards tackling criminals, there were concerns that without first strengthening internal controls, we would see increased levels of police abuse. We have begun addressing this through strengthening the civilian oversight structures as well as by strengthening partnerships with communities.
If police become aggressive in a non-aggressive situation where a law-abiding citizen has become involved in some misdemeanor, they should know that that is not acceptable. In fact as we have demonstrated police, would themselves face the wrath of the law.
We also want to do these things speedily so that that the public confidence grows. There is a growing level of confidence from our communities, but we would like to see it grow even more so that when they talk to us, we act. As different experts gathered here this morning, the fundamental question becomes: what more can we do to enhance this philosophy?
We want the kind of police officer that can serve as an example to our society, an upright policeman, and because of that we decided to review how we recruit these police officers. One of the ways of doing this is to subject the process of recruitment away from an individual recruitment officer to a broader kind of a forum or formation.
For example, when communities know someone in a village or township with the right kind of capabilities to become a police officer, it is not left to the prerogative of one police individual whether that person should be allowed to join the police.
We want to ensure that whatever the police do they do as police officers, that they are upright and there to protect everybody in society without fear or favour. We want the kind of police officer who will not be bound to some form of administrative process when, for example, people report something and the policeman would say “I am sorry I am off duty now.”
As the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster that people have felt safe during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and that we have done part of our job. Going forward we need to ensure that everybody feel safe. Beside the feelings of being safe and feeling safe, but practically there are some things such as street and other robbery where people expect a difference.
The killing of our police officers stands in direct opposite of us achieving this goal; of ensuring that South Africans are and feel safe. In this province in particular, we have had sad and heartbreaking memories of violent crime. But through concerted efforts and partnerships between civil society, government and communities, we have been able to thwart these criminal elements.
Now is the time to revive this spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood in stopping these killings.
Have we begun to look at our training methods? Are communities playing their roles as they should? Are the sentences given to cop killers harsh enough? Have we sensitised society to view cop killings as a danger to our democracy? And these are some of the questions we must answer so that whatever arsenal we employ and assemble is aimed at dealing with this scourge.
It will definitely serve no purpose in dealing with the symptoms of the problem and ignore the root cause, and come back tomorrow to complain about the same problem. We must know that this is what we are doing so that whatever plans we are coming up with we know and check and say that our approach is orderly or not, or we need to make changes.
Whilst the rights of all citizens need to be protected as entrenched in our Constitution, rights of criminals must not supercede those of law abiding citizens. A call was made to the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) to relook the punishment of cop killers as part of intensifying the war against these heinous crimes. Some even likened a killing of a cop to a killing of the nation’s shields. We could not agree more. However, it is only through the participation of communities and strengthened partnerships with police that this form of crime will be eradicated.
Because if one looks at how we intensified our war on drugs, our focus is now centred on breaking the backbone of drug syndicates, by targeting the masterminds or drug lords. That is why we have always urged communities to report crime immediately as opposed to first conducting searches on their own capacities, whether suspected rapists of drug lords.
The delay in reporting leads to some communities resorting to vigilantism and that to a certain extent is based on perceived lack to police pro-activeness. Some of the tactical changes will include being smart about the kind of deployment and resources that are implemented, as well as ensuring that we anchor our policing approach on intelligence and the best intelligence is from communities. We approach all these tasks with all the seriousness they demand.
Our 10-Point Plan must and will have to address these challenges whilst at the same time stopping these killings immediately. One cop killing is one too many. Criminal acts, including killing of police officers deny and take away the most elementary human rights from law-abiding citizens. Today there can be no doubt about the determination of the overwhelming majority of the citizens of this country to take concerted action to help us liquidate crime.
We shall continue to cement police-community relations because in our view community policing is the central plank of our approach to policing. This is informed by the recognition that it is not police alone who combat and prevent crime. A lot of work and resources have gone into strengthening visible policing. One of the objectives has been to ensure that police remain in touch with their communities, that they know and understand the community anxieties.
As the police leadership we have committed ourselves to ensuring that policing becomes a professional activity with more emphasis on better training and recruitment programs. Training and discipline should be underpinned by a deeper commitment to the Constitution and a culture of service to the people.
The police are the institutional expression of the resolve of South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, to realise safety and security. The police are, and always must be, subject to the will of the people they serve. The recent attacks and killings of our police officers is a sad reminder to all of us to intensify our resolve in fighting crime with even more vigour. We dare not fail.
Together we can do more to eradicate attacks on and killing of police members in KwaZulu-Natal.
I thank you.
