North West MEC of Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison,
Mr Nono Maloyi;
SAPS North West Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Zukile Mbombo;
Mayor of Mamusa Local Municipality, Cllr Motswana;
Mayor of Dr RS Mompati District Municipality, Cllr Tladinyane;
SAPS North West Deputy Provincial Commissioners and Management present;
Representatives from the North West Provincial CPF Board;
Representatives from Business, Civic structures and Youth formations present;
Community of Amalia areas;
Distinguished guests;
Members of the media;
Ladies and gentlemen.
As the police leadership, we are pleased to join you this morning. Our presence to Amalia is not merely a symbolic event but should be understood from a perspective of strengthening partnership between government and its citizens.
As the community, you are faced with various socio-economic challenges and for government to eradicate these challenges, it is vital to join hands with communities. To this end, one of government’s five key priorities is fighting crime and creating safe and secure environments which can enable businesses to flourish, kids to learn in safe environments and for citizens to enjoy themselves without fear of being attacked or killed by heartless criminals.
Crime and all its evils, stands in direct opposite of us achieving and transforming these priorities. It is an impediment to our goals of improving the socio-economic challenges. What this means is that crime is our common enemy as such it needs to be tackled collectively. To enable reduction of crime, we first and foremost need to ensure as government that we bring services to the people.
The building and handing over of Amalia Police Station should be understood from this perspective. As a democratically-elected administration under the stewardship of President Jacob Zuma, we listen to the concerns of society, and respond accordingly.
As we traverse across the country, interacting with communities around the very principle of community policing, the common cry we hear is that people need police stations. The cries are more prevalent and loud in rural areas, which for whatever reason in the past, were neglected.
When the ANC-led government came into power, we looked at this situation and began to put corrective measures to ensure that even those citizens who reside in rural areas are secure. Furthermore, government is committed to improving the socio-economic conditions of women, children and elderly to reduce their susceptibility to abuse.
We are aware that the North West province currently has a drastic backlog of Police Stations and the province includes numerous rural areas. This hampers service delivery as it is not possible to bring services close to the communities. In fact during November 2011, as the Minister of Police, I officially handed over two police stations, namely Klipgat and Hebron to the communities. But more still needs to be done if we are to deal a blow to crime.
The station we are officially handing over to the community this morning serves an estimated population of 15 000 people. We have been informed by the provincial police management that it is experiencing mostly contact crimes such as Assault GBH and that the most affected area being Molatswaneng.
The crime generators are drugs, liquor and domestic violence. Other problematic contact crime is rape and we learn that most victims are adults who are raped and sexually assaulted after leaving the tavern at night by unknown suspects. Residential burglaries and theft in general are also a cause for concern and are scattered throughout the station area.
Our crime analysis tells us that crime in South Africa is committed by the same offenders again and again, and this would represent a very small percentage of the population. Our further findings indicate that in South Africa 70% of crime is mainly concentrated around three provinces; namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
However as we began to intensify police operations around these provinces, crime gets displaced to provinces such as North West. What this speaks to is that when criminals feel the heat and try to hideout in areas such Amalia, they should find police ready. We should never allow our streets to be dominated by criminals.
Sadly, the majority is young persons and it cannot be business as usual when our prisons are filled by vulnerable young people. This in turn brings the aspect of morality into perspective. We need as society to revive our moral regenerations programmes. As the community of Amalia, you need to work with government in developing pragmatic programmes which must discourage young people from engaging in drugs, prostitution and crime in general.
As government we remain concerned about the increasing nature of illicit drug trafficking and alcohol abuse. These place enormous strain on our society’s wellbeing and compromises safety of citizens. As you may have noted recently we are intensifying the war on drugs however our success is dependent on society’s support and active participation. We are faced with a societal challenge and it is therefore requires a societal response by all of us.
We have been informed by the Provincial Commissioner about some of the policing challenges facing the station. Policing is hampered by poor roads infrastructure, unemployment and the geographical layout of the area that is often inaccessible. We undertake to engage our local government counterparts to attend to this challenge as a matter of urgency.
We further want to emphasise the point that this police station is a property of the community of Amalia. The building is not a property of the Minister of Police, the Deputy Minister or the National Commissioner of Police.
To the management of this police station, the message we want to leave with you on this historic day is simple: deliver. Serve these communities with respect; respond to their calls on time and be courteous as you implement the Batho Pele principles. It should not be seen as a favour to serve communities; it is duty and a duty that must be carried with pride and excellence.
Together, we can do more to defeat crime in Amalia.
I thank you.
