Budget Speech for Transport, Safety, Security and Liaison Vote 10 Delivered by the MEC, the Hon Me. Mapula Mokaba Phukwana to the Sixth Legislature of the Limpopo Province at Lebowakgomo Legislative Chamber
Madam Speaker
The recent report on the death of two inmates at the Botlokwa Police station during the month of March was unacceptable. We have expected this period to be celebrated as a Human Rights month by all including prisoners. No amount of offence should exclude prisoners from enjoying their rights as human beings. Above all, the fundamental rights we enjoy today in a democratic South Africa is the right to life as entrenched in our constitution. This is a God-given right that no one except the Almighty can take away.
The two inmates who died at Botlokwa Police Station were also protected by the same Human Rights like anyone else. The official report that alleges the cause of death to be inmate fights, gives a discouraging picture about our correctional facilities. In the past we have witnessed prisoners completing their Matric and even graduating from these prisons.
That says a lot about how far this democratic government has gone in normalising the prison life. As a caring government we must truly represent the aspirations of our people as codified in the Freedom Charter, the South African Constitution of 1996 and other conventions. To ensure this, as politicians in this house, we may differ on certain issues, but our ultimate aim of improving the lives of our people should be the ultimate purpose that brings us together.
Deputy Speaker,
His Excellency, the Honorable Premier, Chupu Stan Mathabatha;
Honourable Members of the Executive Council,
The Chief Whip of the Majority Party,
Chairpersons of the Portfolio Committees,
Honourable Leaders and members of the opposition,
Honourable Members of the Legislature,
HoD for Safety, Security & Liaison, Nchabeng Tsebe,
Senior Management and staff from the Department,
Representatives from the DPSA,
Executive Mayors, Mayors and leaders from our municipalities,
Their Excellency’s Makgoshi a Rena and the entire Traditional Leadership,
Our newly appointed Provincial Commissioner Major General CN Zulu,
Law Enforcement Agencies, Members of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security,
Chairperson and Members of the Provincial Community Safety Forum,
Chairperson and Members of the Provincial Community Policing Forum,
Stalwarts and veterans of our struggle against racism,
Acting Director General and Heads of Departments,
SAPS Management and officers,
Representatives from various faith based organisations,
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
The Limpopo Province under the leadership of the ruling party continues to be the supplier of outstanding professionals to the national cause. We are proud to officially announce that Lt General Masemola has been deployed to serve as the National Deputy Commissioner. His current deputy Major General CN Zulu, have been promoted to the position of the Provincial Commissioner of Police in Limpopo.
In its Statement of the NEC on the occasion of the 104th Anniversary of the African National Congress delivered on the 8th January 2016 in Rustenburg, the ANC has declared 2016 as the year to “advance peoples’ power”.
This year also marks 60th anniversary of the historic 1956 Women’s March to Union Buildings in Pretoria. The courageous and heroic actions by those women continue to dominate in our Constitution and other policies of this government.
The event was a definite turning point in the role of women in the struggle towards a united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.
The campaign also challenged the notion borne out of the male-controlled society we inherited which always asserted that ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’, it made it clear that women would not be silenced by unjust laws forever.
In as much as the protest was against the pass laws, primary to it was opposition to the accompanying oppressive rules that came with the pass laws. We should not forget that all the past injustices were perpetuated against the black majority.
Mariam Makeba once said, “Everybody now admits that apartheid was wrong, and all I did was tell the people who wanted to know where I come from how we lived in South Africa. I just told the world the truth. And if my truth then becomes political, I can't do anything about that”.
It is that activism, vigilance and determination shown by those women that we need today to eradicate the spirit of racism, hatred and intolerance. The Human Rights Commission reported that they have received over 200 racism related complaints in January 2016 alone, after the Penny Sparrow online social network post.
The commission also received 53% of equality – related complaints during the 2013/14 financial year. Our concerns are that the segregations and racism of the past apartheid era is coming back to haunt us and is conveyed to the new generation by the old.
I could not agree more with the Hon Premier Chupu Mathabatha, when he said during his Budget Speech that: “Racism must actually be declared a criminal offense. Like Apartheid, it is a crime against humanity”
Recently, in Waterburg, a farmer brutally assaulted and terrorized a women and a young man from Statistics South Africa conducting a survey on farms.
We were supposed to be deliberating on how to fight and forget these stereotypes once and forever. As members of this responsible and accountable house, let’s stop this recent concertation aimed at undoing what we have achieved as a country to date. Let our view points, be debated modestly without derogatory, finger pointing and slamming everything proposed by the majority party.
Within that context, we managed as the ruling party to introduce progressive legislations and policies that among others,
- allowed us to debate as equals in this house regardless of race, gender, creed, wealth or political affiliation.
- redressed the 1913 and earlier land deprivation laws that saw only 97% of our land owned by the few and the native majority forced to squeeze into a mere 13% of the land.
- broadened the economic base to the benefit of those who were regarded as peasants condemned to poverty and slavery.
These achievements were brutally opposed by our distractors who preferred the previous ready-made dispensation. We are all on the learning curve, as re bolela re re thuto ga efele.
Most of us could not be where we are today if the ruling party did not aggressively push forward with the transformation agenda which displaced the privileged and empowered the downtrodden and forgotten.
Madam Speaker
The ANC has prioritized the fight against crime and corruption.
As a developing country we need each other as a nation to tackle crime and corruption in our society. We need the police services, Security Cluster and other partners within the Justice Crime Prevention to fight this scourge. One cannot seriously talk about the political, social and economic development of a nation to the exclusion of crime and corruption fighting. Our men and women in blue and other crime prevention agencies plays an important role in ensuring that the province and the country is conducive for growth and development.
That brings me to the special acknowledgement and expression of gratitude to our law enforcement agencies in the province for effectively combating crime in our area. These men and women in blue, continue to ensure that our communities, tourists, visitors and all of us gathered in this chamber today continue with daily activities unhindered.
In fact, the Constitution of our Republic guarantees the right to a safe and healthy environment to all our citizens. Section 206 of the South African Constitution of 1996 mandated us as the Department to ensure the safety and security of our communities.
This budget vote is specifically aimed at supporting this constitutional mandate through:
- Effectively monitoring the police conduct;
- Ensuring and overseeing the effectiveness of visible policing, including receiving reports on the police services;
- Lastly, but not least, to promote good relations between the police and the community we serve.
Similarly, Honourable Speaker, the National Development Plan we have adopted as a country instructs us that by 2030, people living in South Africa should feel safe and have no fear of crime.
Women, children and vulnerable groups should feel safe and protected at all times. Our people should have confidence in the criminal justice system to effectively apprehend and prosecute criminals who violate individual and community safety.
The South African Police Services and the municipal police should be professional institutions staffed by skilled, disciplined, ethical individuals who value their work above their personal interests.
As a contribution towards attaining this NDP vision 2030, the Limpopo Development Plan assigned us the responsibility:
- To ensure that the levels of serious and violent crime are drastically reduced;
- To ensure an Efficient and Effective Criminal Justice system is established and maintained;
- To ensure that the Limpopo’s cross borders points are effectively safe guarded and secured;
- To ensure that the existing Cyber space is secured;
- To ensure and promote domestic Stability; and
- Ensure that corruption in the public and private sectors is reduced.
It is for these reasons that this budget vote is amongst others, key to advance people’s power. We do so in firm belief that this is necessary for us to realize the vision and missions assigned to us by the supreme law of the land, the NDP and the LDP.
Madam Speaker
Allow me to report that during 2014/15 financial year we saw a steady increase in contact crimes and property-related crimes in our province. The increase for contact crimes rose by 6.11% and 0.01% for property related crimes. The property-related crimes showed a marginal increase.
There was a slight decrease of 1.3% on sexual offences in 2014/15 compared to the year 2013/14. Aggravated robbery increased by 19.64% in 2014/15 compared to the year 2013/14.
We are also meeting in this august house at a time in our country and Province when criminals have declared war on our policemen and women. We are losing the protectors of our lives and properties to heartless criminals within our society.
Lest we forget these martyrs who died protecting our families and properties in Limpopo. On 20 July 2015 Constable Z.C Mabada attached to Siloam Police Station was killed in cold blood.
On 02 November 2015 Constable T.A Nkuna attached to Vuwani Police Station was killed and on 10 January 2016 Constable M.E Ralematha attached to Botlokwa Police Station was murdered.
In January 2016 Warrant Officer M.J Bouwer attached to Modimolle was also killed. Recently, Warrant Officer B.J. Seloga attached to the Hlogotlou Police Station was killed in a funeral.
In addition to the arrests made to those responsible for police killings, we once more appeal to communities not to harbor these criminals any further. They stay with us within our communities and we know them.
Make your contribution towards the fight against crime and corruption by privately reporting these perpetrators.
Honourable Speaker, in response to these killings and in pursuit of our constitutional mandates, we have intensified our efforts to improve community police relations. On the same vain, we called on the South African Police Service to increase sector policing so as to contain the escalation of crime in the Province.
We have formalized and strengthened Community Policing Structures throughout our Province. We have functional Community Safety Forums located within our Municipalities and Community Policing Forums attached to all our Police Stations.
I am happy to report here today that as we stated last year that an amount of R4, 5 million was secured to resource CPFs and the CSFs volunteers. Indeed the work is progressing very well, especially because of transportation and cellphone allowance we pay to volunteers. The CPF and CSF structures continue to carry out their respective mandates despite the challenges they face daily from their communities.
Community Police Forums and Community Safety Forums are critical in the fight against crime and in building safe communities. We have stated last year of our intentions to strengthen and empower these community based structures. To walk the talk, we are presently negotiating a co-operative and best practice sharing with the Alexandra Police Forum and the Alexandra Property Owners association. This will assist us greatly to better police the N1 between South and North.
Furthermore, during 2015/16 our CPFs and CSFs were receiving stipends and sitting allowances as per the EPWP Crime Prevention program.
We can pride ourselves once again that Limpopo is the first out of nine provinces to successfully align their policy to the National CSF Framework.
Workshops were rolled-out throughout the province to capacitate CPF and CSF members with the necessary knowledge and skill in order to carry out their functions effectively and efficiently.
Madam Speaker
Last year we singled-out Blouberg Municipality as being the first to have institutionalized Community Safety Forum. The Municipality has since been regarded as the bench-mark nationally. Our offices are inundated with request from other provinces to visit our community based police forums and community safety forums to learn on our successes.
In the 2015/16 financial year, Mopani District Municipality excelled in institutionalizing the activities of the CSFs. To that extent, the Member of the Mayoral Committee responsible for Community Safety was elected chairperson of the regional CSF. The Director for Community Services oversees the administrative functions of the CSF and a dedicated coordinator was appointed from within the municipality.
The approach has yielded positive results for the District with Tzaneen Municipality taking the lead in hosting the provincial Safety and Security Summit. The purpose of the summit was to align local plans with the Limpopo Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy. This was a step forward in ensuring that the crime prevention and safety plan at a local level forms part of the Integrated Development Plan.
We are still appealing to struggling Local and District Municipalities to learn through benchmarking their safety activities to the Blouberg Local Municipality, Mopani District and Tzaneen municipalities.
We strongly believe that as we continue in 2016/2017 to formalize and resource these structures, the fight against crime and lawlessness will be intensified.
We therefore call upon the communities to take part in activities of these forums aimed at promoting safety in their areas as well as addressing the policing needs.
Through these efforts we intend to mobilize all our communities in the fight against crime, while at the same time we isolate and ostracize the minority who has chosen crime and corruption as their way of life.
Honourable Speaker
It is imperative to report to this House that the Limpopo Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy was reviewed and adopted by the Executive Council on the 9th December 2015.
The adoption came after the successful Provincial Safety and Security Summit, the Youth Crime Prevention Summit and the five District Consultative sessions and recommendations from the JCPS Cluster.
The strategy should be used as the basis during the planning processes of all Clusters, departments and municipalities in the fight against crime in the province.
The following pillars were retained from the previous strategy but adapted to the changing environment:
- Rural Safety,
- Social Fabric Crime,
- Situational Crime Prevention and
- Management of Trans-border and organized crime,
- Improvement of the Criminal Justice System
We are confident that as we roll out the implementation of the Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy, our province, will not be the same again for those with criminal and corrupt intents.
As the department of safety security and liaison, we have already set plans afoot to intensify monitoring of the implementation of this strategy by our JCPS cluster partners and the private sector.
Honourable Members
Our Province did not escape the range of protests that have engulfed many communities. Section 17 of the Constitution states that every person has the right to peacefully and in an unarmed manner participate in protests, marches and handing over of petitions. But such rights are expected to be accompanied by responsibilities and are limited by Section 36 of the same Constitution which calls for limitation of rights.
However, it is disturbing that most of these protests in the province as well as the country in general, are accompanied by some level of criminality and violence. As a case, residents complain about lack of adequate water. Instead of coming up with alternative methods of providing water to their families, they decide to disrupt schools and burn clinics used by their families.
When we disrupt schooling, we frustrate the development efforts of our own children and this government. The quality education that the apartheid government denied us for many years is today being denied our kids by overnight irresponsible leaders.
This is disturbing and a huge draw-back to our achievements as a country. If we continue Ma-Africa with these destructive conduct, destroying what we have for something we don’t have. A better life for all promised by our struggle heroes will remain a pipe dream to our distractors joy.
Madam Speaker
These challenges have prompted the Provincial Government to establish a Priority Committee on Protest Actions under the stewardship of the Department of Transport, Safety and Security. The Department has, in partnership with SAPS, SALGA, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, Home Affairs, CoGHSTA and the State Security Agency held various workshops with the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, District House of Traditional Leaders and Councilors.
The purpose of these workshops was to empower through education all stakeholders in dealing with such protests. The focus was on preventing such protest through opening a dialogue with affected parties. Communities’ satisfaction levels are to be monitored as per section 152 of our Constitution on the objectives of local government
We have, during 2015/2016 as part of these efforts also investigated land allocations and registration of foreign nationals in rural areas. The partnership was well appreciated by the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders as well as the District House of Traditional Leaders which requested the partnership to continue into the future.
We have therefore planned to continue with these engagements for the benefit of our people and the Province over 2016/2017 financial year.
Madam Speaker
The prevailing crime statistics and all these disruptive developments reflect the kind of society we live in. They reflect the level of hatred that continues to persist beyond the call for reconciliation between our compatriots.
In order for us to win the war against criminals it is critical that we all heed the calls to intensify and promote social cohesion. Reconciliation should be everyone’s responsibility and not left to the victims only.
We cannot hide from the reality that crime and corruption levels in our province do not augur well with economic stability, growth and development. Our humble appeal is that let us change our attitudes and contribute in rebuilding Mzansi towards a developmental trajectory. Ka moka re a tseba gore re ka kgona ge re berekisana mmogo.
We are not resting on our laurels Honourable Speaker. Criminals are in the minority and cannot be allowed to rule or continue to instill fear in our communities.
This budget vote commits to the mobilization of our people, communities and all law enforcement agencies in the province to reclaim ownership of our neighborhoods.
To that effect a Recovery Plan aimed at turning around the provincial crime and violence outlook has been put into place. The plan is, not only to address challenging crimes, but to ensure that there is continuity and sustainability on the program until we meet our objectives and defeat the crime scourge. Through this 2016/17 budget vote number 10, we declare an all-out war against criminals.
The period ahead deserves more work and less talk. We have to focus on what we are doing best and continue to do so guided by Chapter 12 of the National Development Plan.
We have in 2016/2017 allocated an estimated amount of (fifty three million two hundred and thirty two thousand rands) R53 232 000m towards achieving these objectives during and beyond this MTEF period.
In this financial year, we are launching a new pilot project on Young Civilians on Patrol. The intention of this program is to massively mobilize our young people to actively engage in the fight against crime and corruption in the Province.
The department has secured an allocation of R3, 9 million to implement the “Young Civilians on Patrol” volunteers program. This program will be operationalized throughout the Mid-Term Expenditure Framework period.
Approximately 496 people linked to CPFs in all police stations, and CSFs in all local municipalities, will be participating in this project. The focus of the program will be among others, physical fitness training and alternative theories on crime prevention, safety, pilot patrols and patriotism. The intention here is to equip the young people with the necessary skills for patrolling our streets in the company of the police.
The indirect spin off is a contribution towards reducing the high unemployment rate among our youth. The project will also help in building a sense of patriotism to our young people.
Madam Speaker
The department will continue to monitor and evaluate the South African Police Services. Consisting of 99 police stations, 13 cluster commands, 8 specialized units, 7 SAPS Garages, 12 heads of components within the Limpopo province. We will also conduct customer satisfaction surveys in the areas of all the 99 police stations monitored.
The Department will also conduct Domestic Violence Act implementation audits to check the SAPS compliance in all 99 Police Stations. Availability of skilled personnel is key to ensuring cases of domestic violence are not thrown out of court. I am pleased to announce that the DVA Officials have been appointed in all five Districts and they received advanced training in dealing with domestic violence.
In order to ensure that our police officers understand and comply with the Act, officials from the Department have been to all the Clusters in the Province. Providing training to police officers with regard to DVA compliance.
This is to ensure that when police officials conduct their community outreach campaigns they inform communities about the legal requirements of the DVA. They will be in better position to empower communities on the procedures to follow when reporting domestic violence. To that effect, for the 2016/2017 allocation, an amount of R5 000 000 (five million) has been set aside to resource the Domestic Violence Unit in the Department.
The sexual offence courts in our province will continue to fast-track cases by ensuring that victims receive justice speedily. We are therefore still appealing to our people to break the silence and speak out against any form of abuse.
Honourable Speaker
It is obvious that 2016/2017 will not be business as usual for both the department and our partners in the fight against crime and corruption in province.
Together with everyone else we need to work towards a crime and corruption -free society. This expectation calls on us as a department and our partners to ensure that through this vote number 10, we continue to:
Mobilize all sections of society behind the fight against crime
Lessons from 2015/16 have shown that JCPS Cluster has cumulatively succeeded to conduct 8 982 crime awareness campaigns and community outreach programs. Building on these achievements in the 2016/17 financial year, we aim to intensify such campaigns and outreach programs.
We are committed in ensuring that no community in the province will be left out in our efforts to educate our people about safety and how to prevent crime.
We are aiming at those members of society that are vulnerable to criminals. I am talking here about women, children, persons living with disabilities, the elderly, farmers and farm-workers.
Honourable Speaker
Strong law enforcement to combat illicit drugs and illegal trade of liquor as well as regulation of informal businesses is being implemented.
In all the 99 police stations in the Province, sector policing is being implemented as a strategy for visible policing. The mushrooming of taverns and shebeens in our townships and villages continues to be a challenge. Some of these liquor outlets are built next to both schools and churches.
Small businesses in our townships and villages operated by undocumented and unregistered foreign nationals compound the problem, leading to xenophobic violence and crime. These exert tremendous pressure on our police officers and resources. These unregistered and unregulated enterprises are at times used to paddle illicit items such as illegal cigarettes, drugs and related matters.
We have made recommendations to the Liquor Board to close liquor outlets planted near schools and churches. Another measure taken which we intend sustaining into the 2016/17 financial year, is the intensification of police rates operations on both legal and illegal outlets.
During the previous financial year, the department inspected a total of 16 849 liquor outlets. These operations for example, resulted in the confiscation of the following items:
- 5 400 packets of illegal cigarettes worth R21.3million were confiscated
- 18 942 dagga plants were destroyed
- 2 562.2 grams of cocaine
- 81.064 grams of Crack
- 90 grams of Chat
- 50 grams of Ecstasy powder
- 99 grams of heroine
- 0.8 grams of Mandrax
- 26 grams of Crystal meth
- 33.3 grams of Tik-tik
- 22 grams of Rock
- 50 089.225 grams of Nyaope
It goes without saying that a lot of these drugs could have been found and destroyed with more co-operations from our partners and communities.
We repeatedly pronounce that criminals reside within our communities and by implication we become accessory to the crime. When we buy stolen goods, we create a market base to these criminals.
Our efforts to combat crime are frustrated by community members who harbor these criminals and hide them in their homes instead of reporting them to the police.
House-breaking has become a prevalent crime in many areas. Unfortunately, this points to the lack of efficient street / village committee initiatives. We have learnt from some of our police stations that unoccupied houses contribute towards the escalation of crime.
Break-ins in such properties are carried with ease. We repeat our call to house-owners to please ensure that your houses are not left unoccupied for long periods. You might not be in good terms with your neighbour, but for the sake of safety, ensure that there is somebody keeping an eye on your house.
In that regard, we will continue in this financial year to liaise with Traditional Leadership, CPF’s and CSF’s to establish a mechanism to monitor such houses throughout their vacancy.
Within the same context, we earnestly make a call to our people under the guidance of the police, the CPFs and CSFs to ensure that as a way to advance people’s power and getting ahead of criminals, street and village committees are established and strengthened throughout the province.
In his budget speech last Tuesday, the Premier, Chupu Mathabatha, encouraged members of the public to report incidents of corruption including the abuse of state resources to the anti-fraud and corruption hotlines. Please note the Anti-corruption and Fraud hotline contact details are 0800 204 647, or whistleblowers can send an e-mail to limpopoleg@tip-offs.com.
On the Involvement of youth in crime prevention initiatives
The SAPS has since moved away from making random searches at schools in search of dangerous weapons and illicit drugs. The abandoning of school searches was informed by our attempt to reduce interference with the school teaching hours.
The new approach is to link every school or schools to the local police station. As part of the new approach, a total of 3 689 out of 4 069 schools in the province were linked to police stations. This is in line with the Adopt a School campaign.
The concept of linking SAPS members to schools also ensures that police officers take interest in school safety and security. Together with the Department of Education we are going to intensify the school safety programs during this financial year.
We believe that this partnership between our police officers and schools bare positive outcomes. Police officers develop interest on a particular school and thus becoming ambassadors of these schools in all its spheres of development.
In addition to our efforts to demilitarize and socialize the police force, there has been initiatives from various police stations to play friendly football games with the local soccer teams. This is a commendable initiative indeed, in that it helps to take kids away from the streets and socialize police back into communities they serve.
In the process, ideas are shared and the police learn from their communities and vice-a- versa.
Madam Speaker
On strengthening border control and citizen identification management
Effective and Integrated Border Management is key to ensuring safety of the non-immigrants nationals. It is always when ports of entry are not managed effectively that the stability of one’s country is shaken.
This result in the influx of undocumented foreign nationals who might become a threat to the security of the receiving country. The budgetary allocation of the host country is over stretched as a results of unregistered and unknown huge numbers that also consume services as free riders.
In addition, unconfirmed rumors and suspicions abound blaming unemployment, crime and love partner snatching on foreign nationals. The outcome has always been xenophobic attacks accompanied by uncontrolled crime and violence.
Our police officer found themselves having to deal with the ratio of one police officer per above 347 or around 288 police per 100 000 citizens.
According to data from the UN, the global average for police per 100,000 people is around 340 officers. This illustrate the burden our men and women in blue have to carry every day and the situation become worse during protests and xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals.
During the year 2015/2016, we have conducted a total of 116 joint operations across our ports of entry in an attempt to secure the safe movement of goods and people. We are committed to continue with these operations into the new financial year.
I am pleased Honourable Speaker to indicate that the Cargo scanner has since been deployed at the Beitbridge Port of Entry. Construction is complete in that regard and the scanner is functional as we speak, however there are few challenges identified that need to be rectified.
During the past financial year, several Joints Operations were conducted. I must emphasize that the previous list was for our own efforts and the one to follow was a Joint Operation with other law enforcement agencies such as SARS, Home Affairs, SANDF and other partners. This led to the confiscation of among others the following nuisances:
- 8 421 919 cartons of illegal cigarettes valued at R66 813 455 were confiscated.
- Over 140 vehicles were detained. Most of these vehicles were being used to smuggle goods in and out of the country.
- Out of the 140 vehicles, 36 were seized and forfeited to the state. Some of those were disposed through crashing or auction.
- A total number of 6 054 536 legal travellers were cleared through the port of entry during the period under review.
- A total of 29 stolen vehicles were recovered.
- We confiscated 4 036 kg of copper to the value of R208 486
- 7 cases of Gold and Diamond to the value of R3 517 000 were confiscated.
- 7 cases of Firearm and explosives were discovered together with,
- 10 cases of Narcotics to the value of R1 392 140
Madam Speaker
As a way of dealing with over-loaded vehicles and other challenges associated with Easter and Festive vacations, the Ministry of Transport, Safety, Security and Liaison has since launched the Malaisha Operation.
The Operation is meant to prevent stolen goods from crossing the border and also curb the overloading of vehicles along the N1 road.
The Malaisha Operation will continue until it is drilled into foreign national’s minds that South Africa has laws and they must be respected by all. No one is allowed to pass through Limpopo public roads with overloaded suspicious goods. The Second-Hand Goods Act is in place and as such, we cannot allow people to pass through without proof of purchase or gift for every goods transported through our public roads.
On access to police and justice services
It is critical that for the sake of peace and security, our communities must have access to police and Justice Services. As a measure to reduce distances travelled between communities and their police services, we have established satellite police stations all over. Some are currently being renovated to ensure that they become fully-fledged police stations.
Today, Madam Speaker, I feel confident to report that we have added two more fully-fledged Police Stations to make them 99 in total. These were, Mokwakwaila in Bolobedu area and Rakgoadi in Zebediela.
We know that more still needs to be done in that area to increase access to police service delivery. As we move towards 2016/17, discussions are continuing with Farmers Unions and stakeholders to ensure that police can get access to farming properties whenever crimes are reported or suspected to be taking place.
In the same vein we would like to say no to farm killings and to have police officers adopting farms for security reasons.
We are pleased that the Limpopo High Court has officially being opened and that the Judge President has been appointed. The opening of the High Court has come as a huge relief to the people of our province. There will no longer be cases that are adjudicated in the Northern Gauteng High Court. The practice use to come with exorbitant costs and unnecessary delays. As we all know that Justice delayed is Justice denied.
Intensification of community involvement in the rehabilitation of offenders
As much as it takes the village to raise a child, the same must happen when children find themselves on the wrong side of the law. It cannot be that when our children find themselves behind bars then they suddenly stop being our children.
We continue to engage all structures in our communities to see to it that such children are rehabilitated and corrected. We are working with Correctional Services Department in our efforts to ensure that we successfully reintegrate ex-offenders back into society.
I am deliberately referring to children because I do not expect adults to willy-nilly disobey the rules that they crafted into law through voting.
Madam Speaker
To the Head of Department, Mme Nchabeng Tsebe and her team, we say continue with the good work to ensure the safety of our citizens. To the SAPS Management under the outgoing Lieutenant General S.F Masemola, all we can say to you is that keep up the good work. We are confident that the newly promoted Provincial Commissioner Major General CN Zulu who is a woman, will run with the baton and continue or improve on her predecessor.
Let me also express my gratitude to the CSF Board Chairperson Mr. NS Kgorutle and the CPF Board Chairperson Mr. EN Mafune as well as their members for the continuous support.
As I conclude, let me extend my heartfelt condolences and appreciation to the families of the police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Kindly accept our deepest admiration to the work your next of kin did while still in the service of our nation. The fact that these martyrs paid the heaviest price above all other prices should be enough for us to give them honor. They have indeed fought a good fight.
Honorable Speaker, I hereby present the budget estimates for the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison amounting to R 95 615 million (Ninety Five Million Six Hundred and Fifteen Thousands Rands) for the 2016/17 financial year allocated as follows.
- Programme 1: Administration R 43 385 million
- Programme 2: Civilian Oversight (which includes Crime Prevention and Community Police Relations) is allocated R 53 232 million.
To realise all our objectives with limited resources we need to earnestly stretch not only our budgetary allocations but also our existing warm bodies to work harder. This will be in line with fiscal belt tightening and the recently released Whytehawk findings on State salaries bill.
Both these developments emphasise the need and urgency of merging the Department Transport and the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison. The restructuring will minimise duplications and fragmentation in law enforcement. It will also avoid the present confusions brought about by double subordination and poor co-ordination and span of control. As indicated by the Premier in his Budget Speech, the restructuring will also deal with displaced employees to maximise our performance as a department with limited resources.
Let me leave you with a scripture from the book of 1 Corinthians 1:10 which reads thus: I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
A good listener is not only popular, but he learns while he listens.
Working Together We Can Move South Africa Forward!
Thobela!
