Theme: Moving South Africa forward through safety and security
House Chair
Honourable members
Chairperson of Select Committee Honourable DL Ximbi.
The Acting National Commissioner Lt Gen Phahlane and your management team
The Head of DPCI Lt General Ntlemeza and your management team
The Acting Executive Director of IPID Mr Kgamanyane
The Acting Secretary for Police Mr Rapea
The Chairperson of the PSIRA Board Prof: Mazibuko and Executive Director Mr
Chairperson of the Firearms Appeal Board: Mr Mongwe
Members of the South African Police Services
Esteemed guests
There is a convergence of views in articulating the future of our society; at the centre of which is education. The former President Nelson Mandela advanced that education is the most powerful weapon which one can use to change the world; Abraham Lincoln stated that the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next; the great philosopher Plato suggested that the direction in which a man starts will determine his future in life.
We raise these matters today precisely because the fundamental question we ask, is how people could decide to burn down 25 schools, destroying the future of our children, just because of a dispute over municipal, not even national or provincial borders. This is an act of blatant, utter selfishness.
It represents a situation where a backward thinking human being only think of their narrow interests and disregarding the interest of others, even worse, completely disregarding and or deliberately destroying the future of our children. Regardless of the seriousness of the dispute, we cannot let our children suffer Our children cannot suffer because of our inadequacies as adults.
In this regard, we speak for the African National Congress, its supporters and the majority of other people who still remain in their sober senses in condemning the acts of thuggery that have manifested themselves in Vuwani, Limpopo where schools have been torched ostensibly in the quest for municipal boundaries which nothing else but a disgrace, a despicable act which we all, the ANC and opposition parties alike, speak out against and shun upon.
This despicable behaviour, a behaviour that encourages anarchy and chaos as a form of addressing grievances was under different occasion and circumstances actively encouraged by others in this legislative house. Worse still we have heard some among us, deliberately speaking out to our people, publicly claiming to want to settle their political scores and disrupt this democracy through the barrel of a gun. It is a shame and indeed sad.
Certainly there can never be any justification for burning down a school. Never! Even during the evil days of apartheid, we always understood that education was vital for our liberation; that education was essential for the development of an African child, for the African child to take their rightful place as worthy human beings of our society; that our collective future depended on us improving ourselves. It cannot be that as we commemorate Africa month, we see actions that contribute to keeping the African child under growth deprivation.
We have consistently argued that making our country safe is a collective effort that involves all stakeholders – communities, government and business. Now we need this collective effort and conscience more than ever. We salute the brave and wonderful parents of Bungeni village who have taken upon themselves to guard their school from these louts.
This is a true meaning of being a responsible member of society – putting the interests of children first even if it means spending sleepless cold nights. I also take this opportunity to congratulate our police members for handling this situation in the most responsible manner under the circumstances, especially the arrest that have been effected.
We earnestly appeal to the community of Vuwani and anywhere in our beautiful land to reject the criminal elements, the inhumane beings who use the genuine grievances of our people to commit such dastardly acts. We thank acting Minister Mahlobo, Minister Van Rooyen and the Deputy Minister Sotyu for leadership in intervening in Vuwani.
Since my assumption of office in 2014, we have visited every province in our beautiful country to interact with citizens but also to acquaint ourselves with the prevalent conditions and learn what improvements could be made to reduce crime and its scourges from our communities. We are encouraged by the good men and women who defy the odds and their circumstance in the fight against crime.
We have heard our people complaining about the easy and ubiquitous availability of alcohol and drinking places that are taking over communities and are precursor to other crimes. Drugs like Nyaope have turned family members against each other and children rob their homes and parents for a fix.
We have heard, during our visits, people complaining about the lax or the non-compliance with municipal by-laws which at times sees taverns in close proximity to schools. This is what the community of KwaDukuza in KZN and Secunda in Mpumalanga told us. We heard similar tales in all other provinces.
Every day, we are confronted by tales of a hijacked building in central Johannesburg, cable theft that brings industries to a halt, taxi violence, mushrooming settlements, to undocumented foreigners especially in provinces like Limpopo and Mpumalanga; the abuse and rape of the elderly in the Eastern Cape; stock theft in Free State and illicit mining.
Much as we still experience these stated difficulties however our situation is not hopeless.
We have recorded some successes including the profiling and detaining of vessels carrying counterfeit goods in the Eastern Cape; cracking a cash-in-transit gang of 13 in Virginia, Free State; detecting and closing 21 illicit drug laboratories in Gauteng; smashing rhino poaching syndicates in KwaZulu-Natal resulting in 69 arrests and seizure of 35 firearms associated with these gangsters; linking 3431 out of an overall 3900 schools in Limpopo to police stations; prioritising and recording significant drug busting in Mpumalanga through the Lebombo border post en-route to Gauteng; recovering 596 livestock worth R3.3million in North West; linking via DNA a serial rapist to 34 cases in Northern Cape, and piloting the mobile Client Service Centre for localised service delivery in Western Cape.
Crimes against women and children continue to bedevil our society. We have seen some notable successes in fighting this scourge. The Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units has done extraordinary work and has really dealt a heavy blow to abusers and rapists.
This unit in Limpopo has attained 52 life sentences and 2 050 years’ imprisonment for those convicted of rape and other sexual assault cases. In Gauteng, 45 suspects were sentenced to life imprisonment for rape; 54 accused received life sentences in Free State and an equally high number in the Eastern Cape where raping of the elderly is rife.
Challenges for the medium term and beyond, are the need to address the problem of gangsterism, upgrading infrastructure, respond to rapid spatial developments; enhancing police safety; focussed investigations of cyber-crime and conducting more high-density lock-down operations.
As part of our efforts to improving policing service, we continue to rollout police station infrastructure to reverse the apartheid patterns of resourcing and take into consideration new settlements. We launched police stations in Diepsloot, Yeoville in Gauteng; Mambuka (KZN), Plettenberg Bay (WC) and are due to do the same in Madadeni (KZN), Keimoes (NC) and a number of other areas some which were not previously serviced.
Through the Civilian Secretariat for Police, we are ensuring that police stations deliver the required service. We are monitoring and having unannounced visits to police stations assessing their school crime prevention protocol as well as auditing their compliance to Domestic Violence Act.
Visits were conducted to Eastern Cape (24), Free State (29) and North West (10) to mention but a few. There is a need to ramp up DVA audits because a nation that cannot safeguard its vulnerable sectors does not deserve a place among a community of nations.
Civil society remains a key partner in this effort and we would like to urge organisations to keep up the pressure and work closely to ensure that DVA is implemented correctly and consistently.
The same goes for complaints management. Standing Order (SO) 101 regulates the activities, processes, practices and time-frames relating to the management of service delivery complaints lodged against the police service.
Complaints provide the police service with an opportunity to make in-depth analyses of the systemic challenges that must be addressed to improve service delivery to the citizens. As part of addressing service delivery complaints, complainants should receive regular and consistent feedback from the appointed SAPS investigator.
We received and are dealing with a total of 517 complaints from all provinces which included, but not limited to resourcing shortcomings and general unhappiness with 10111 service.
Through the Secretariat we have also assessed Community Safety Forums as well as Community Policing Forums and found that the majority of these structures are functional. The following challenges are, among others, raised by provinces with regard to CPFs:
- Inadequate resourcing;
- Lack of provision of transport by SAPS for CPF members to attend meetings; and
- No budget for implementation of CPF programmes given the limited budget provided by the Departments of Safety and Security;
This is work in progress and we will continue to close the distance between the police and the policed. Part of this work includes ensuring that provincial Secretariats are up and running; to date Gauteng, Free State, North West and Western Cape Provinces have established Secretaries while the other Provinces are busy reviewing organisational structures with the aim of establishing the secretariat in the foreseeable future
The common challenge shared by the Provinces is the shortage of personnel and financial constraints, which hampers service delivery.
House chair, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) contributes to building safer communities (as outlined in the national development plan) and ensuring that all people in South Africa are and feel safe
IPID received a total of 5519 cases for 2015/2016 period.
- Of these (3 508) constitute the majority of cases related to assault.
- (865) for the discharge of official firearm
- (366) for deaths as a result of police action
- (216) for deaths in police custody.
The majority of the assault cases reported in Western Cape were 871, Free State (545), Gauteng (436) and KZN 426 cases. Most of the assault cases were common assault.
For the period under review, 3 050 matters have been closed and archived. The majority of the cases were closed as declined (1036), unsubstantiated (888), and as referred back to SAPS (416). IPID has forwarded 1 297 matters to SAPS and 939 matters to NPA for decisions.
The Directorate achieved 177 convictions of which 26 received verbal warning, 66 written warning, 27 dismissals, 10 suspended from service, 1 suspension of salary and 47 were fines. The Directorate received 83 convictions and in one matter member(s) received a life sentence.
It should also be noted that IPID has an additional mandate of implementing the recommendations of the Farlam Commission of Enquiry. This additional mandate has implications on IPID’s staffing and financial resource needs. The Directorate has started with implementing elements of the recommendations that do not have budgetary implications.
The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority has developed new training standards for all the different categories or classes of security service providers who are required to register in terms of the PSiRA Act and has prepared a policy document for consultation with the industry and its stakeholders.
The consultations and the Draft Training Regulations took into account the principles as pronounced by the Promotion of the Administrative Justice Act.
Improving service delivery remains a key priority for the Authority. In order to ensure that stakeholders continue to have access to our much needed services, the Authority will be officially opening new offices in Free State and North West provinces during 2016/17 financial year.
The launch of these offices will help to address the growing demand for the Authority services in these areas and further ensure that the various rural communities from these provinces are serviced. Due to lack of recourse for users as well as end consumers of private security services in case of damages incurred, the Authority is in the process of establishing a guarantee fund which is aimed at addressing the high costs of Public Liability insurance covers, lack of capital investment and credit guarantee in the sector. The main objectives of the fund are:
- To provide limited guarantee to security service providers against public liability
- To provide protection to consumers for loss or damage caused by negligence of Security Service Provider
- To improve standards of service by the security service providers
- To strengthen compliance within the Private Security Industry
In an effort to create a safer environment for all South Africa citizens, the Authority has developed an advisory document that will provide some guidance on how the various communities, especially underprivileged ones confronted by violent crimes on a daily basis, can partner with other law enforcement agencies and the private security industry towards combating crime.
The Ministry of Police will provide policy direction on how various stakeholders (law enforcement agencies, the private security industry and communities) can work to create a safer environment for all.
House chair, let me thank the Select Committee and its members for its diligence in maintaining and exercising oversight and in ensuring that we deliver on our mandate and constitutional obligations. Our effort in policing South Africa is about humanity and its development, therefore our determination and effort is about honour and integrity.
It is all about upholding ethics and values of our forefathers in creating a humane society. In this regard we shall not fail our people.
I thank you.
