The Honourable President, Jacob Zuma
National Commissioner, Bheki Cele
Deputy national commissioners
Divisional commissioners
Station commissioners
Mr President on the occasion of the state of the nation address, you shared with all South Africans that the fight against crime is one of the five key priorities of government. As a result, that government pledged that over the next five years the criminal justice system would be overhauled and crime levels reduced. This pledge was given substance when the President stated: “together we must do more to fight crime. Our aim is to establish a transformed, integrated, properly resourced and well managed criminal justice system”.
Exactly seven days ago, we released the crime statistics for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. Again, as reiterated during the briefing, the release of this statistics was not merely to quantify and create a debate in our society. We conducted this exercise to gauge where we have made progress, where we are still lagging behind and collectively, find ways to deal with the challenges before us. We need to emphasise again that we are not entirely happy with some of the statistics, notably in areas where we have noticed increases in crime trends. In such instances, we re-committed to deal with these trends decisively.
Again we recognise that South African Police Service (SAPS) needs to do more to address crime in our country. Equally we realise that we need greater engagement and interventions with various stakeholders. Forums such as this (today) help us in sharing and receiving valuable insights. Today’s dialogue with the President should not be documented as a first of its kind, rather as one of the new approaches towards fighting crime. Let us use this gathering as a new wave of finding solutions to crime, together. Today's gathering provided an opportunity for our management not only engage with the highest office in the land on first-hand basis, but also ensure synergy from national, provincial and local level.
We believe this was an excellent opportunity for the President, to share his vision with our members; a vision that has been entrenched in our commitment to serve and protect our citizens. The presence of my peers at today’s gathering is further testimony that a transformed, integrated, properly resourced and well managed criminal justice system is critical to the fight against crime. It is also critically important to improve the efficiency of the courts and the performance of prosecutors, and to enhance detective, forensic and intelligence services. This work has started in earnest, and it will be undertaken with new energy and vigour. Mr President, I’m certain that our station commissioners present today share your vision of ensuring a better life for all our citizens.
This vision includes safer communities, safer business environments, safer schools and hospitals. We are not going to allow criminals to prevent us from fulfilling our historic goal of improving the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person. Success in crime fighting requires rejuvenated and focused SAPS operations. In his first 10 days in office, Commissioner Cele met with all 1 116 station commissioners across all provinces. He undertook this exercise to boost our officers’ morale while at the same time understand first hand their challenges. The commissioner was equally pleased to learn about some of the successes in other provinces in nabbing these criminals.
During these country wide interactions, we learnt about some of the challenges ranging from capacity building, wellness of our members to lack of resources in ensuring they fulfil their duties. As we move towards a more integrates policing system, we believe these lessons will stand us in good stead. What is clear is that, to address these challenges it cannot be business as usual.
We need to see real operational energy in police work. We are certain that as our commissioners return to their respective police stations, they return more determined, more rejuvenated and more focused in their goals towards crime-fighting. The task and magnitude ahead of us is enormous, but we remain confident that positive progress is within sight. We believe alone as the SAPS we cannot win the fight against crime. Instead through a multi-stakeholder approach involving government, Business, NGOs and our communities, we can succeed.
We certainly need to take the war against crime to a new level. The time for indifference, inefficiencies and lethargy is over and everything we do must incorporate efficiency and excellence.
I thank you.
Issued by: South African Police Service
29 September 2009
Source: South African Police Service (http://www.saps.gov.za/)
