National Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Ms Annelise Van Wyk,
Director General of Higher Education, Mr Gwebinkundla Qonde,
UNISA Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya,
Group CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), Mr. Lucky Montana,
CEO of the Safety and Security Sector Education and Training Authority (SASSETA), Ms Manana Moroka,
All South African Police Service (SAPS) Deputy National Commissioners,
All SAPS Provincial Commissioners,
All SAPS Divisional Commissioners,
Representatives from South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Correctional Services and Metro Police,
Representatives from research and academic fraternity present,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen.
The programme of our government is based on five key priorities, namely education, health, creating decent jobs, improving the economy and crime reduction. The President of the Republic further reiterated government’s commitments to ensuring that all people in South Africa are and feel safe.
Government is mindful of the fact that for the country to develop and experience sustained economic growth, South Africa should be safe for all citizens and visitors thus creating a conducive environment for investments. To achieve this, we need to create a police service that is steeped in the values enshrined in our Constitution, that is ready to serve the citizens and is able to inspire the confidence of the ordinary person on the street.
We are also in the process of developing a programme that will encourage and re-enforce positive behaviour and seek to discourage bad behaviour. This will involve initiating a campaign supported by systems and mechanisms that will encourage SAPS officials to themselves report bad behaviour and to encourage professionalism.
The need to develop the SAPS Academy Paarl as a University for SAPS was conceptualized around these notions. In fact, when we made the initial announcement in July this year, there was such positive and overwhelming response, both internally within SAPS as well as amongst many South Africans.
Broadly, through this Police University our intention as the police leadership and management are to create a capacity that will provide professional service to the community of South Africa and to equip police members to deal with complex international crime.
It is also important to ensure that we empower police members by developing their specialised knowledge and helping them to acquire specific technical know-how as well as academic expertise.
More importantly, we want to begin to attract high-calibre recruits/students who will regard SAPS as an employer of choice. To emphasize this point, we are aware of the massive challenges facing young people in our country, which by the way, include indecisiveness when it comes to career choices.
Some unfortunately, end up choosing wrong careers due to lack of knowledge. We need to ensure that the important step we are undertaking today begins to positively enhance the image of police and inspire the public’s confidence in policing.
We recognise and clearly understand that the task of keeping our country safe cannot be achieved if we operate in silos. That is why a multi-pronged approach in the fight against crime, underpinned by the involvement of the communities we serve, is the only and most effective solution to eradicating crime.
Similarly, in enhancing the skills capacity of our police officers, we took a conscious decision to also involve the best of the very best. Some of the current partnership initiatives between SAPS and various Tertiary Institutions include the following:
- SAPS/Nelson Mandela University: Programme to Support Planning and Management for Improved Organization Performance, sponsored by Belgian Government
- SAPS/University of Pretoria: Executive Public Management Development Programme Sponsored by Old Mutual
- SAPS/UNISA School of Business Leadership: Practical Project Management.
While the SAPS appreciate the contribution made by different universities in developing SAPS members providing different qualifications and skills, the need establish a Police University has been influenced by the demand by the broader public of South Africa for the SAPS to transform into a professional institution.
The difference between the traditional SAPS College and the SAPS University would be that the SAPS University will consist of two legs, viz the academic leg-which will provide academic qualification under the direct control with full autonomy of a partnering university.
The second leg, the police professional leg- which will allow for the instilling of discipline, police culture, patriotism, the preservation of police culture and the professionalization of police within a controlled police environment.
The institutionalisation and provisioning of a Bachelor of Policing Degree, Honours and Masters with the first intake of 120 learners is scheduled to commence during January 2014, at this very institution where we are today. The recruitment of potential students is scheduled to take place and be finalized before the end of November 2013.
In UNISA, we could not have asked for a more iconic partner. UNISA is considered to be a Public University that meets all the requirements that will ensure that SAPS Academy: Paarl is transformed into a Police University within a period of seven (7) years commencing from January 2014.
UNISA also has experience in establishing and working with satellite campuses such as the University of Cape Town (UCT), Potchefstroom, Witwatersrand, Rhodes, just to mention but a few which are currently established as fully fledged universities with full autonomy and currently independent.
UNISA is the first and main provider of police-related education at tertiary level through Technikon South Africa (TSA) for the past twenty (20) years, providing the following police related qualifications including Diploma Programmes: Correctional Management, Law, Policing and Security Management, Forensic Investigation to mention just a few.
We believe this cooperation and partnership augurs positively for our goals around skills development because SAPS is currently involved in cooperation with regional, continental and international police agencies through human resource development and crime combating, hence UNISA has the capacity to facilitate educational exchange programmes with counterparts.
In fact, we are also revisiting the current SAPS Recruitment Strategy to encapsulate the whole continuum from recruitment to retirement in order to determine and put more emphasis on career-pathing of members to ensure staff retention and to minimize attrition.
As we conclude, I want to reiterate a message I shared with the public on the occasion of our SAPS Budget Vote in Parliament, earlier this year. I stated, quote: ‘the world is beginning to look at us and our continent, not so much for our lack of capacity, but for our capacity to do things in a way that makes everyone proud. Conditions have emerged where the world wants to do business with us.’
Policing for the future must be guided by the understanding that the crime landscape will continuously evolve. This will require the SAPS to remain innovative and adapt its policing approaches to respond to this changing environment.
Collectively, we have a duty to translate our words into actions so that we can improve policing and ensure that citizens are and feel safe.
I thank you!
