speech by MEC T Madikane
5 June 2007
Honourable Speaker of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, Mme Connie
Seoposengwe
Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Mme Dipuo Peters
Honourable Deputy Speaker, Mme Grizelda Cjikella
Honourable Members of the Executive Council and the Provincial
Legislature
Honourable mayors and councillors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
This budget is presented in the Youth Month and therefore we would like to
dedicate it to our young people in the province. The history of our struggle is
rich with heroic deeds by our young people some of whom sacrificed their lives
so that all of us can be free today. This budget is also tabled at a time when
society is discussing pertinent issues that affect us as a country, as a region
and as a continent.
This I perceive to be democracy at its best particularly in our country, as
everyone feels and is entitled to air his/her views. A lot is being said about
crime. This leads us to have a common agenda i.e. that of working towards
realising a crime free society where all of us enjoy the freedom and rights
that are enshrined in our constitution. We cannot as a nation allow for a
situation where we live our lives in fear and become hostages to criminals.
All of us have the right to be free, to enjoy the fruits of our liberation
that we fought for as enshrined in the Freedom Charter. We should be free to
walk in our streets at any time and anywhere without fear of being robbed,
murdered or raped. Our children have the right to be free to play in the
neighbourhood, without fear of being abducted, raped or killed.
Madam Speaker
The levels of contact crimes in the province are still at an unacceptably
high hence we need the commitment and dedication of everyone to rid our
province of the scourge of crime. Our province is notorious for violent crimes
that are committed against the most vulnerable and defenceless people in our
society i.e. our elderly, women and children, and this is usually attributed to
substance abuse. Hence we continue to forge links with other departments as
well as with civil society to try and get a different mindset in our community
in terms of responsible drinking.
The responsibility to ensure a safer and secure province rests with all of
us. It is against this background that we table the Departmental budget of R72
974 million for the 2007/08 financial year.
Social crime prevention
Madam Speaker, the reduction in crime especially contact crime and those
crimes committed against women and children remain our major focus in the
Province. The budget I present today will enable the Department to ensure a
broad based mass community mobilisation. Crime is not the responsibility of
government alone but everybody's business as it takes place within communities
and affects community members.
It is against this background that the Minister of Safety and Security in
his budget speech this year said "It is not the size of the police service that
will guarantee success in the fight against crime but the ability of the police
to forge a viable relationship with the people to prevent and combat
crime".
We are now in an era where greater emphasis is placed on community involvement
and mobilisation. Thus we speak of the "Anti-Crime Mass Mobilisation Campaign";
a campaign that is based on the premise that it's only when all the relevant
sectors in crime prevention and combating are working in concert that we shall
realise our goal. The goal of having a society that is free from the bondage of
crime and all its manifestations together with its causes and contributory
factors.
Crime is an emotional issue as it affects people deeply yet it is
preventable. This is the situation that we would like to focus on more as
dealing with the effects of crime is more expensive in terms of all respects
namely the medical bills, the justice processes that must be followed, the
emotional trauma experienced by the victim and those close to him or her. All
these necessitate that we must focus more on the prevention of crime.
To this end I wish to announce that we will be launching our Provincial
Anti-Crime Mass Mobilisation Campaign this month. The objective of which is to
mobilise civil society including the religious sector, the community based
organisations, non-governmental organisations, organised business, organised
workers and government in the war against crime. The only way that we can win
this war against crime is by working together in partnership.
This campaign will entail programmes that will be embarked on by government,
civil society and business all geared towards sensitising our communities to
the fact that they need to be both resilient and intolerant of crime. It will
include door-to-door campaigns, crime prevention campaigns, church visits,
debates at school, indoor safety games and so forth. All of these will be
happening within communities in partnership with the community.
Partnership policing is considered an essential element in sector policing
and the utilisation of existing partnerships as well as the establishment of
possible new partnerships especially at local government. Community involvement
in preventing and combating crime will also be enhanced by rejuvenation of the
Community Safety Forums (CSFs) in the various municipalities in the
province.
We are currently at a stage where the whole concept of the location of the
Community Policing Forums (CPFs) and the establishment of CSFs is at the level
of policy review and we are participating fully as a department in that
process. This policy change will formalise the existence of CSFs. These
structures are aimed at doing oversight over the whole Criminal Justice Cluster
Departments. This will also necessitate the amendment of existing legislation
governing local government as crime prevention and combating has to be rooted
closer to the people, in this case in local government.
We will continue to participate in the Municipal Integrated Development
Planning (IDP) review process through our Departmental IDP Champions in
ensuring that Municipal IDPs are reflective of Integrated Social Crime
Prevention programmes.
We have recruited and trained Expanded Public Works Programme Safety
Volunteers who are stationed at the provincial 21 crime weight stations, which
are now 22 with the inclusion of Kgalagadi and Pampierstad. These volunteers
are responsible for visiting schools complimenting the School Safety Programme
of the Department of Education, door-to-door activities where contact crimes
are prevalent and serve as a support group to victims of crime.
The overall objective of this project is to utilise the volunteers as an
intervention programme to strengthen community participation in crime
prevention and community police relations. We have made great progress in
relation to inter-governmental integration and strengthening the role of and
relationship with local government in crime prevention. The department has
formulated a working plan in collaboration with the safety volunteers, the
police and the community development workers.
Madam Speaker
We are pleased to announce that this year again we shall be recognising
outstanding female police and traffic officers in carrying out their duties
through the Female Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Competition. This
competition is held every two years and will be held during August, the women's
month. The competition is aimed at giving recognition and encouragement to
women to continue breaking the glass ceiling in these previously male dominated
disciplines.
Oversight, Monitoring and Quality Assurance
Madam Speaker
The quality of monitoring and oversight of the police continues to improve
following the implementation of the monitoring tool and police accountability
meetings with communities facilitated by the departmental officials. These
accountability meetings together with the increase in structured oversight
visits to police stations result in very useful oversight reports with
recommendations for corrective intervention in respect of improving police
performance and conduct as well as police community relations.
The continued transformation of the South African Police Service (SAPS) will
be closely monitored, especially since the setbacks that have been observed in
this regard as a resultant unintended consequence of the restructuring process.
The community outreach programme that is championed by the Provincial
Commissioner is being rolled out particular to areas with high crime levels.
This is giving our communities another avenue to voice their concerns.
The department is also involved in the policy review process with the
national Secretariat and the Ministry of Safety and Security in streamlining
the structure as well as the functions of the Provincial Civilian Oversight
Offices.
Policing
Madam Speaker, during the past financial year statistics show that 13 out of
14 priority crimes are on the decline only one crime category has shown an
increase and that is robbery aggravating in the Northern Cape. In terms of
contact crimes of which we have a responsibility of reducing by 7 to 10%
annually till 2014 in line with the provincial and national priorities as well
as towards the realisation of the millennium developmental goals, we have
observed a decrease in six of these crime categories.
The biggest reduction is in common robbery, which has seen a decrease of
28,8% followed by common assault at 27%, attempted murder at 20,4% ,assault
grievous bodily harm at 10.8%, rape at 10% and murder at a 3,6% reduction. The
only two depicting an increase are robbery aggravating at 1,2% and indecent
assault at 1%.
Rape and domestic violence are a serious problem for the Northern Cape. In a
third of cases of rape the charges get withdrawn and this has a negative impact
on the prevalence of this type of crime, as nothing seems to deter the
offenders from repeating the crime. The Domestic Violence Act is abused and you
find instances where there are 30 charges and counter charges laid by the two
concerned parties. These charges get withdrawn time and again depending on
whether it is convenient or not for the affected parties.
A programme by the SAPS in partnership with the Department of Education is
currently being rolled out to all police stations in the province i.e. the
concept of Junior Station Commissioner and Junior Branch Commander. This
project is intended to enhance and strengthen the campaign against crime. We
are giving special attention to the youth and children in order to build
resilience and resistance to crime. We need to mention that this is serving as
a best practice as other provinces are copying it as well.
We have resources at our disposal as government in the form of human,
structural and technical capacity. These are in the form of the increase in the
numbers of members of the service including the reservist system, which is
regarded as a force multiplier and that is now remunerated. This will enable
better visibility and response times. The recent restructuring of SAPS had a
profound effect on delivering support to station personnel. This process is
viewed as positive towards improving our services to our customers as well as
in building capacity in the identified accounting stations.
The clustering of stations led to the identification of 17 accounting
stations in the province. This was done through thorough consideration of
distances, current capacity and infrastructure. The single most valuable impact
of the clustering of station lies in the integration of available efforts and
the sharing of resources in the form of skill, knowledge and physical resources
in the prevention and combating of crime. Five directors were placed at police
stations through this process. Crime prevention, investigations personnel and
support staff have also been deployed to stations.
Management was changed in stations where serious and violent crime is most
prevalent and this has improved command and control as well as increased
managerial capability at the stations. The specialised units have also been
placed at the local stations for quicker response to complaints, especially
those that relate to the abuse of women and children. Mentorship is used to
improve communication between the province and the stations to enhance
involvement of provincial personnel at station level. The result will be
informed station personnel, uniform approach to policing and the sharing of
best practices for the greater good of service delivery.
Madam Speaker
The use of technology facilitates the creation of a result-driven organisation
in the SAPS. The performance chart is a management and performance tool that
has been developed to guide management in setting performance standards, to
measure the actual performance, identify deviations and to initiate corrective
action. It also sets the foundation for sustainable, strategic and operational
management processes.
The instrument has been used to grade and rate all police stations. To
enhance the current organisational performance and give effect to Batho Pele
(people first principle) a measurement tool for operations has been developed
and will be utilised to ensure that all major operations executed contribute
positively to the realisation of organisational objectives and targets.
The use of a tracking system for SAPS vehicles that is being rolled out to
all provinces will greatly enhance the accessibility of services as it will
monitor and help direct the optimum utilisation of the vehicles. The
improvement in the performance of our officers is an aspect that continues to
receive attention and results will soon be visible as the whole Justice, Crime
Prevention and Security Sector is undergoing an overhaul in terms of the
amendments to existing legislation to make it more efficient.
Madam Speaker
The spin offs from this restructuring process just to mention a few is better
policing at local level as a result of fewer organisational levels. Authority
is devolved to the lower levels, which enable police officials to be able to
make decisions at those levels and thus they are able to respond quickly to the
needs of the community.
Traffic management
Madam Speaker, one of our key priorities is the smooth takeover,
continuation and integration of Traffic Management Services in the
disestablished Kgalagadi and Phokwane Cross-boundary Municipalities affecting
Moshaweng and Pampierstad as from the beginning of the 2007/08 financial year.
This will not be an easy task as we are inheriting an organisation that is as
depleted as ours in terms of personnel, and the added adjustment that we have
to make, as we shall be policing an area that has challenges in terms of access
roads, which require other types of vehicles like 4X4s.
We take all of this in our stride, as we understand that it is about
bringing services to our people and not about how easy or difficult this would
be, with the hope that we shall receive all the necessary support to accomplish
this. We have to mention that we are faced with a serious challenge in terms of
traffic law enforcement as we have the responsibility to train traffic
officers. Natural attrition due to deaths either resulting from illness and
road accidents as well as members leaving the service to join other sectors
continuously depletes our personnel. The municipalities are also encouraged to
have their own traffic offices; this also puts a further strain on us, as they
take from the pool that is available.
The Department has taken over one additional traffic station at Mothibistad
with 23 traffic officers who will continue to serve the community in the
Moshaweng area. The Pampierstad community will be serviced from the Jan
Kempdorp traffic station, which was the ninth traffic station to be established
in the Province before the inclusion of Kgalagadi and Pampierstad. This has
enhanced and strengthened traffic law enforcement capacity.
We will continue to profile and promote traffic law enforcement and road
safety as important components and elements of community safety and security.
In the last financial year 30 student traffic officers were recruited and 28
completed their basic training and were deployed to the nine stations in the
province. In this financial year we have recruited 31 additional traffic
officers who have already commenced their training at Lengau Traffic Training
College in Thaba Nchu.
Road Safety is rolling out campaigns and programmes geared at raising road
safety awareness in the community. There are also joint programmes with the
Department of Education and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
that include the incorporation of these programmes into the curriculum.
Visibility of our traffic patrol vehicles is key to the whole concept of
Visible Law Enforcement to this end we have managed to brand our Traffic Patrol
Vehicles with blue lights and reflective markings. The Arrive Alive Campaign,
which is intended to keep our drivers, pedestrians and passengers safe on our
roads, will be intensified by making use of a task force that will target
specific hazardous locations. Analysis of causes of accidents is unfolding in
order to make focused interventions.
Last year we have in conjunction with the Department of Transport, Roads and
Public Works, hosted a Provincial Transport Conference. As part of the
resolutions of that conference an Integrated Provincial Road Safety Strategy in
consultation with national, provincial and municipal traffic components has
been developed and will be implemented soon.
This year we continue with the driver of the year competition whose national
competition we successfully hosted last year in the province. Our province
achieved first position, with the overall winner coming from Kuruman. This
competition is aimed at improving the skill of heavy vehicle drivers as well as
encourages them to use best practice so as to make our roads much safer. They
are also sensitised to the dangers within this industry, as we partnered in the
province with other departments like Health, Social Services and Population
Development and Justice.
This was meant to give them useful information in the areas of HIV and Aids,
the importance of family life as well as their rights and responsibilities
towards their families. Schoolchildren were also invited to learn and observe
the basics in terms of road safety. It must be mentioned that we have not as a
province managed to make a substantial impact in the competition with our
female drivers. To this end we have introduced a Female Driver of the Year
Competition in the Province to prepare our female drivers well for the National
Driver of the Year Competition.
I'm also pleased to announce that the Taxi Driver of the Year Competition
will be rolled out in the whole province this year. We have piloted the
competition in partnership with Brandhouse last year in the Frances Baard
Region. The key objective of the competition is to improve driving skills of
taxi drivers as well as build in good customer relations and positive behaviour
on and off the road. We will also encourage women taxi drivers to participate
in the competition.
Madam Speaker, we have managed to successfully open a Drivers License
Testing station in Kleinzee Mine in order to enable communities living in and
around Kleinzee not to travel to Springbok for learners licences, drivers
licences, professional driving permits and the conversion of drivers licences.
We will be opening learner's licence testing centres in this financial year in
Phillipstown and in Barkly West and a fully-fledged testing centre in
Groblershoop.
We have also made strides in the collection and the reconciliation of
revenue from municipalities during the past year and are looking forward to
improved performance in this regard. This follows a process of streamlining
functions and strengthening of control systems with regard to revenue
collection and an extensive investigation to stamp out under-collection of
revenue, fraud and corruption at the then National Traffic Information System
and now electronic National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS) Helpdesk.
Even though it was not without teething problems, eNaTIS was also
successfully implemented; together with the appointment and training of new
eNaTIS Helpdesk personnel and the shifting of provincial eNaTIS Helpdesk focus
from transaction driven to customer care focused was successfully done.
In conclusion,
Madam Speaker, I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to the
honourable Premier of the Northern Cape Mme Dipuo Peters. Thank you very much
honourable Premier for the support, guidance and inspiration that you give us
from time to time. You might not realise it but the lessons and experience that
you share with are in invaluable.
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Provincial Executive for
your unending support and guidance. Although we might not agree on certain
issues, we still always remember what it is all about i.e. service delivery and
the improvement of the lives of our people. A word of gratitude also goes to
members of the portfolio committee for their vigilance and consistency in doing
oversight on the work that we do, particularly the consistent visits to the
police stations. Your advice and recommendations assist us to remain focused
and forge forward.
I would like to thank Provincial Police Commissioner Mbombo and her
management team particularly Commissioner Sitole who I know is standing in for
her today. We appreciate the service and the sacrifice that you make for us as
a collective at all levels of the SAPS including reservists and civilian
personnel. We understand the conditions that you work under but still
appreciate your resolve to continue making our society safe and secure for
all.
To the various stakeholders and role-players, volunteers, government
officials particularly those in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security
Cluster, communities, business, non-governmental organisations and community
based organisations, community policing forums/ community safety forums
together with their subsidiaries in the form of Women Against Crime and Youth
Against Crime we thank you, for all the inputs and efforts, co-operation and
assistance.
Last but not least the Department of Safety and Liaison including the safety
volunteers, for diligently executing the plans that are funded by the budget
tabled here today led by the Head of Department Mme Liz Botes.
Honourable Madam Speaker I table the budget for Safety and Liaison, in
anticipation to an insightful and constructive debate.
I thank you
Ke a leboga
Baie dankie
Enkosi
Issued by: Department of Safety and Liaison, Northern Cape Provincial
Government
5 June 2007
