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Be an active part of the fight against crime

As part of the effort to improve our crime fighting capacity, President Jacob Zuma during the State of the Nation Address highlighted among others, the need to enhance our detective and forensic services.

This is a massive task that involves many aspects of the criminal justice system. Central in this regard, is the development of capacity for fighting and reducing crime, and thus the need to review the functioning of the whole Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) value chain and to ensure integration and coordination.

Specific measures include: steps to ensure speedy finalization of investigations and cases; use of alternative custodial sanction where appropriate; maintaining and safeguarding the identity of citizens and foreign nationals; the maximum and efficient utilization of facilities and infrastructure within the JCPS Cluster including integration of Information Technology systems; bringing courts closer to communities; increasing the number of prosecutors, legal-aid practitioners, systems development, coordinating mechanism for border management, development and implementation of performance management criteria for the JCPS Cluster; and the establishment of the awaiting detainees branch as part of the Department of Correctional Services.

To give a sense of the scale of the programmes being undertaken, approximately 12 900 detectives are already undergoing training in various detective courses. More than 1120 of these are sitting for advanced courses. Our training programmes are benchmarked with international policing agencies to ensure the maintenance of requisite standards.

Part of the criminal justice system modernisation process is going to involve the application of technology solutions to manage routine operations, reduce costs and eliminate waste and automating paper intensive systems. The Information Technology systems of the various cluster departments are being integrated to ensure greater utilisation of technology in the fight against crime.

Our forensic services will be strengthened through the passing of the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill, a task we must accomplish within the year. We have declared war against organised crime and corruption in the public as well as the private sector. We shall move with speed to finalise all matters relating to the establishment of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI). The head has been appointed and we are on course to ensure that it will be fully functional by the 1st of July.

The time has come for the subject of crime to be on the agenda of every home, private or public organisation, not only in the form of a passive debate, but as part of the effort to reclaim our peace, security and comfort. We all have an ongoing responsibility to improve our capacity to prevent crime before it is committed.

There is no police organisation that can be everywhere every time. Nor is there a police service that can predict every possible incident of crime. An improved capacity to prevent crimes before they occur requires active partnerships between the police and the public.

Over the centuries African communities used the letsema, ilima, as a way of tackling problems collectively. We must continue with the efforts aimed at the retention of this progressive tradition which gives practical expression to the aspiration of human solidarity.

Government continues to strengthen the structural design aimed at assisting to better realise our safety objectives and deepening and tightening the interface between communities and the police service. This design includes the establishment of Community Safety Forums (CSF), street or village committees, and the strengthening of the current Community Policing Forum establishment programme.

Community Safety Forums will help in the monitoring and functional coordination of the criminal justice system at the local or municipal level. The establishment of street and village committees will take crime combating and crime prevention to every corner of our country. We commend those communities already in action on this score and encourage others to follow suit.

We are going to be tough on criminals. We shall soon be launching and escalating throughout the country, Operation Washa Tsotsi as part of strengthening the social contract against crime.

Law enforcement cannot succeed if the social, economic, ideological and cultural conditions continue to spawn criminality. The living environment must itself be less conducive to crime. Together we must change this situation. We should harness all the people's creative potential to deepen the culture of civic responsibility and human solidarity.

The security cluster will also deepen its interface with labour, churches, business, the private security industry, traditional leaders, the youth and all other stakeholders. The youth is the energy of society. The young lions represent the future and have the energy and capacity to land a telling blow on this social ill.