Programme director
Provincial Commissioner Landu and management
CPF provincial board representative
Nominees of the awards and their family members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is, indeed, a great honour to get my first opportunity to address this august occasion on its 10th anniversary. The SAPS star of the year awards have been a strong motivator for members on the ground to continue to serve our people with honesty, humility, loyalty and integrity.
Before I proceed with my address, let me first take this opportunity to congratulate all members of the SAPS in the Eastern Cape for an incident free 2009 general election.
Despite minor challenges, I would like to salute all the SAPS members, who were led by Deputy Commissioner Pam Mckenzie, for the good work during the British and Irish Lions Tour to the Nelson Mandela Bay last month.
As provincial government, we were further impressed by the manner in which the SAPS handled the crowds, who were at the public viewing areas in Matatiele, Miki Yili Stadium in Makana and Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane during the FIFA Confederations Cup.
I am convinced that our members will continue with their excellent track record at this year’s National Arts Festival, which is currently underway in Grahamstown.
This clearly shows that working together with various role players, we can be able to improve our performance and ensure that we deliver the best service to our people.
As we prepare for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we need to be prepared for greater challenges because we are going to have a Fan Park in Nelson Mandela Bay and more public viewing areas in Buffalo City, Makana, Matatiele, Cofimvaba, Lady Grey and Port St Johns.
I strongly believe that this is a greater opportunity for our law enforcement agencies to contribute in hosting a successful first ever “African world cup”.
We need to be ready to work closely with the private security industry, but this partnership will be preceded by the vetting of security companies by the National Intelligence Agency, including the owners and workers. This process will further ensure compliance of these companies with the private security industry regulating authority.
In Department of Transport, I have established a 100 member provincial task team, which has been operating successfully since the last festive season. In January, I instructed that this team should continue to work until 2010 and I expect the SAPS, preferably 50 members, to form part of this roving task team to hold road blocks, stop and search operations and other activities that will improve safety and security in our province.
Despite the achievements that I have mentioned, we remain with certain challenges that continue to haunt the good image and profile of the SAPS in the eyes of the public. In the recent past, it has been not uncommon to receive reports, especially in the media, of alleged misconduct and poor performance.
The Department of Safety and Liaison has a responsibility to ensure that the SAPS acts in accordance with the Code of Conduct and behaves in an exemplary manner.
Two weeks ago, I made a public undertaking through my policy speech in the Eastern Cape Legislature that we will embark on a vigorous programme of oversight over the SAPS in all corners of the province. As government, we have committed ourselves to ensure that SAPS in the Eastern Cape achieves its target of reducing serious and violent crime and in particular contact crimes.
But we remain concerned about the target that has been set in terms of these reductions of 7 to 10 percent, which has been there for a number of years. How successful have we been in achieving this? Are we winning?
These are questions that we all need to respond to collectively, especially in this new term which has a lot of tasks on issues of dealing with crime and its root causes and corruption.
The first indelible step has been taken this week with the official dissolution of the Scorpions and I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all members who cooperated during this process of transition and wish the new directorate on priority crimes investigation a success in its endeavours.
Our sincere gratitude further goes to the joint management team that led this process in our Province, because today we are confident that by Monday next week it will be all systems go for the new unit.
From our side as the Department of Safety and Liaison, we will:
* Do service delivery evaluations at 98 police stations in the province.
* Meet quarterly with the provincial SAPS management to discuss various issues relating to crime; community mobilisation; community police relations and implementation of the recommendations of departmental service evaluation reports.
* Assess reports on the restructuring of SAPS in the Eastern Cape
* Monitor complaints and compliments relating to service delivery of SAPS members.
* Promote community police relations and general cooperation within the criminal justice system through holding 42 police accountability meetings. These are meetings where a community within a particular policing precinct engages with the criminal justice system.
By doing that, we will assist the SAPS to perform better and ensure that communities appreciate the role played by this organisation in making the Eastern Cape a compelling place to live, work, invest and play in.
I would like to commend the provincial commissioner and the entire SAPS management for considering the inclusion of awards for the best police station and best community police forum in the province. We know the challenges that continue to confront police stations, especially in rural areas. Despite those challenges, we still have men and women in blue who survive in those conditions and continue to serve our people with dignity.
The Community Policing Forum (CPFs), even without any material gain, have been the cornerstone of our mass mobilisation strategies and in this term their role will be maximised in order to ensure that they play a meaningful role in the provision of safety and security for our people.
Last week, we launched the neighbourhood watch programme in Duncan Village, which marked the start of a process towards the establishment of street committees and village committees. We will soon convene a provincial consultative workshop on street and village committees in order to ensure that we all understand the concept, which will enable able us to emerge with effective urban and rural safety plans together with the necessary resources. Our community police forums in rural areas will be prioritised to ensure they respond effectively to the needs of the communities. Police performance will be closely monitored to evaluate the quality of service being given to rural communities.
Before I conclude my address, I would like to raise a serious concern about the scourge of human trafficking, which has been recently highlighted to be predominant in the Eastern Cape, particularly in rural areas. This needs to be given much attention.
There is an urgent need to embark on massive public messaging campaigns within schools and communities and ensure that our law enforcement agencies are trained to deal with any human trafficking situation and prompt response to it.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate all nominees and recipients of the awards for their excellent performance hoping that these awards would motivate them and their colleagues to do more. It is gratifying to witness the special recognition of the role of women in the SAPS, which clearly positions this organisation as an employer of choice.
Let us continue to work together to provide the first line of defence, especially for the vulnerable groups in our society such as women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Transport and Safety, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
3 July 2009
