FREE DAILY EMAIL

Date : 30/06/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: F Cachalia: Gauteng Community Safety Prov Budget Vote 2004/2005


ADDRESS BY MEC FIROZ CACHALIA, ON THE TABLING OF COMMUNITY SAFETY DEPARTMENT'S BUDGET VOTE, Gauteng Legislature, 30 June 2004

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Premier
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the House
Members of Mayoral Committees responsible for Safety
The Acting Provincial Commissioner and Area Commissioners
Chiefs of Metro Police
Honoured Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:

INTRODUCTION

The budget under consideration was introduced before the last election. The Gauteng Provincial Government and its departments are reviewing their strategic plans and budgets to reflect the new mandate. In this budget speech, I will therefore not be focusing on the details of the current budget, but rather on the challenges that lie ahead.

The Department of Community Safety is also a new department, created in May 2004 by the decision of the Premier to merge the Department of Safety and Liaison with the Traffic Management Directorate of the Department of Transport and Public Works. The new department, which is much larger in terms of its personnel establishment, its financial resources and the scope of its functions will begin operating from one budget, under the direction of the new Head of Department from the 01st of July 2004.

At present, the traffic management wing of the department operates somewhat separately from the Community Safety wing. The immediate challenge therefore is to manage the merger of the department with a civilian oversight and co-ordination role, with a directorate, which is responsible for the delivery of traffic services.

The leadership of the Traffic Management Directorate attended our first strategic planning session and a task team has been established to manage the merger. The merger will have to be carefully managed to ensure an integration of personnel and personalities, institutional cultures, leadership and management styles, budgets and functions.

There are potential synergies. Both components of the department are concerned with the promotion of safety and education of communities; and both require solid data management and analysis capacities. The new department also creates new opportunities for co-ordination with local government and their Metro Police departments, to improve traffic safety and possibly, crime prevention throughout the province. I appointed an attorney to conduct an inquiry into the events that occurred on 20 April at the Buccleuch Interchange in order to begin the process of exploring ways of improving the co-ordination of the SAPS, the Metro Police and the Traffic Officers employed by the department. The attorney has interviewed the complainants, Mr Jonathan Fortuin and Ms Elna du Plessis, as well as various police and traffic officers. I have received his draft report, which I am considering.

The last six weeks has been a busy learning experience for me as a newly appointed Member of the Executive Council. I have met with the National Minister and colleagues from other provinces, the Provincial Commissioner of Police and all the Area Commissioners, the head of the Independent Complaints Directorate and will shortly be meeting with my counterparts at local government level. I have visited communities across the province including Mamelodi, Laudium, Soweto, Katlehong, Evaton and Craighall Park. I also visited Ikhaya LeThemba in Braamfontein, the centre established by the department to provide victims of domestic violence with a comprehensive service and attended the official opening of COPES, a community-based organisation in Protea Glen focused on preventing and reducing child abuse. I also had a memorable visit to Boekenhoutkloof Traffic Training College, and was privileged to witness the graduation of traffic officers. I was moved by their sense of accomplishment and the pride of their families.

I would like to share some of my impressions. We are fortunate to have a committed and incredibly hardworking police leadership in this province. Most police officers are conscientious crime fighters who work under very difficult and stressful conditions with only modest remuneration. We must therefore take particular care, in addressing issues of corruption not to tarnish the reputation of law enforcement generally. At the same time our concern must remain with the consequences of corruption, rather than with the scandals associated with the exposure of corruption.

Although we are all affected by crime, the most marginalised and impoverished are also the most vulnerable, but their experiences often receive less media attention. Our focus therefore on rebuilding the social fabric and on Community Policing is undoubtedly the correct point of departure.

Relations between communities and the police are an essential element of an effective crime fighting strategy. The strategy has had considerable success in improving relations between the community and the police, but confidence in the Criminal Justice System is also undermined by poor service delivery. Some Community Policing Forums are dysfunctional, while others are contributing significantly to the reduction of crime. I have encountered many examples, in communities across the province, of individuals of all races, and organisations with the commitment and vision to make a difference.

CRIME, DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT

The ANC's manifesto identifies improved community safety as one of the key challenges of the next decade of freedom. The national Cabinet and the Provincial Government have incorporated this commitment into their plans and programmes for the next ten years. This has been done because the government understands that high levels of violent crime and the fear of crime undermine the freedoms that we struggled so long to establish. Our sense of citizenship and common belonging, of autonomy and dignity, of purpose and agency and of hope and possibility are all eroded by the sense of powerlessness and victimhood that violent criminals inflict upon us in our streets, in our homes, in our schools and in our communities. Violent crime also deters investment and constrains entrepreneurship. It thus threatens the achievement of our social and economic objectives.

Over the last ten years, significant progress has been made in transforming the Criminal Justice System. The police, prosecution, intelligence services and the justice system have been deracialised. The Police Service has also been demilitarised, opening the way to a co-operative relationship with the community, which is so essential in fighting crime. Some success has undoubtedly been achieved in reducing some forms of crime like vehicle hijacking and bank robbery. It would appear that both from statistics of the South African Police Service and analysis produced by the independent bodies like the Institute for Security Studies that crime levels have stabilised, albeit at unacceptably high levels.

So the challenge remains, and we are determined that over the next ten years, Gauteng will become an even better place to live, work and visit than it is now after the first decade of freedom, through the efforts of all spheres of government and our law enforcement agencies working in partnership with communities.

I would like on this occasion to challenge the Members of this House, and particularly Members of opposition parties, to focus on safety issues over the next five years in a way, which makes a meaningful contribution to enhancing community safety and personal security. Because of the overriding importance of personal safety to us all, it is easy for politicians to exploit fears, and to use the crime issue for electoral advantage. The "blame game" contributes nothing to the safety of the community or to sound policy making.

I am also of the view that the debate about the limited powers of departments of Community Safety at provincial level is now only of historical interest. I am more than satisfied, for reasons that will become clear, that the powers set out in chapter 11 are adequate for the promotion of safety in our province.

THE MANDATE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY SAFETY

The department derives its mandate ultimately of course, from section 206 of chapter 11, and schedules 4 and 5 of the Constitution. These provisions entitle the province, inter alia to monitor police conduct, oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the Police Service, promote good relations between the police and the community and assess the effectiveness of visible policing. The policy framework is set out in the 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) and the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security.

The NCPS and the White Paper set out a dual approach to the government's crime reduction strategy, which in my opinion is fundamentally correct. First, law enforcement. Manifestly, if policing is to improve safety and security, suspects have to be arrested, cases properly investigated and brought to court with good evidence. The department therefore will continue to monitor the Police Service with a view to ensuring that appropriate and effective steps are taken to significantly reduce the number of serious and priority crimes in the province, increase the effectiveness of criminal investigations, and improve the quality of service delivery to the victims of crime.

The second leg of the policy framework is social crime prevention, which addresses the socio-economic and environmental factors that contribute to criminal conduct. Social crime prevention strategies include designing out crime, education, promoting social cohesion, supporting vulnerable groups, breaking cycles of violence, promoting individual responsibility and socio-economic interventions which undercut the causes of crime. The department will therefore continue to initiate, support and co-ordinate social crime prevention programmes which tackle the root causes of crime, and we will focus our efforts to empower vulnerable groups on young people, women and children.

To this must now be added the delivery of provincial traffic services in terms of the Road Traffic Act 1996 (Act 93 of 1996) and the National Road Safety Act 1972 (Act 9 of 1972). The provincial mandate of the department is derived from the Gauteng Public Passenger Road Transport Act of 2001 and the Gauteng White Paper on Transport Policy of 1997.

PREMIER'S OPENING ADDRESS TO THE LEGISLATURE- TOWARDS A DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO CRIME REDUCTION

In his opening address to the Legislature on 07 June 2004, the Premier outlined a comprehensive and ambitious plan for the province of Gauteng for the next decade. He committed his government to creating an enabling environment for investment and faster economic growth, to public investment in strategic infrastructure in order to create jobs and fight poverty, to deepening democracy, nation building and expansion of enjoyment of constitutional rights, to the development of Gauteng as a home for investment, tourism, competitive sport, business in general and to building sustainable communities.

This comprehensive vision for Gauteng, which includes economic, social and political objectives, must also be understood as being at the core of our crime prevention strategy, operating in tandem with the agencies of law enforcement. Fighting poverty, creating jobs, reducing inequality, promoting development and political inclusion are essential if we are going to succeed in reducing violent crime over the long-term.

Research shows for instance that children are best able to avoid crime when they are provided with opportunities for healthy, physical and mental development that involve families, schools, health care providers, police officials and community groups. It is also in a safety context that the Premier's announcements with regard to the commitment to provide a social security safety net to alleviate poverty, particularly poverty among children must be understood.

We also know that criminal sanctions and incarceration to combat domestic violence against women must be linked with programmes aimed at strengthening families and improving the economic position and educational levels of women so that they do not depend on those who abuse them.

Our developmental agendas and our safety objectives are obviously integrally linked. We must not accept, as the President pointed out in his address to Parliament, narrowly based punitive responses, which always promise, more than they can deliver. The answer to our crime problem over the long-term is surely not simply to increase the rates of arrest and incarceration. Indeed one of our objectives must surely be to reduce the rates of incarceration and to facilitate the reintegration of particularly young minor offenders, through rehabilitation, back into the economy and society.

However, a developmental approach to crime prevention must be understood as including an emphasis on law enforcement. Fighting crime is essential if we are to promote investment, tourism and job creation. Bringing crime under control in so-called townships is essential if we are to encourage investment, the development of markets and the growth of small and medium enterprises. I wonder how many of you read Kenny Fihla's, CEO of Business Against Crime, observations in the Sowetan that many township business people have to close their businesses when people are coming home from work, precisely when they need to be open, because of crime?

OUR STRATEGY

In his speech the Premier set out his objectives over the next five years. What then will be our strategy, as a department to achieve the objectives with respect to community and road safety?

A. COMMUNITY SAFETY

(a) Monitoring and Evaluation

First, we must strengthen our monitoring capacity, by strengthening our capacity for data collection, analysis and policymaking. Both effective prevention of crime and effective responses to crime depend on good quality information and analysis of the occurrence and the characteristics of crime and the opportunities and underlying causes. Data collection and policy-making competencies should strengthen the department's monitoring and evaluation teams in local communities, and improve the quality of our interaction with policing agencies in the quarterly review sessions.

In exercising its oversight responsibilities with respect to the SAPS and the municipal policing agencies, the department will pay particular attention to the planning and execution of strategies to reduce levels of serious and violent crime in the province, the policing of violence against women and children, improving tourist safety, improving safety in schools to enable the education system to function effectively, improving service delivery at station level and planning the safety aspects of the 2010 soccer World Cup.

The department will also seek to use its influence over the law enforcement agencies to facilitate enhanced interaction. We must ensure that all law enforcement agencies are reading from the same page and singing from the same hymnbook.

(b) Social Crime Prevention

Our developmental approach to crime prevention recognises the importance of strengthening the social fabric. The department will continue to initiate, co-ordinate and support selected social crime prevention projects, including ones initiated by effective and viable community based organisations and to raise public awareness. The focus will continue to be on vulnerable groups, namely women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities. A significant achievement in the past year has been the development and operationalisation of a model for a one-stop centre for victims of domestic violence and abuse, Ikhaya LeThemba.

(c) Co-operative Governance

To maximise impact of our social crime prevention programmes, horizontal integration across all the departments of the Gauteng Provincial Government and vertical integration of spheres of government, particularly local and provincial government, will be critical. Social crime prevention particularly must be seen as a responsibility of the provincial government as a whole, not just of the Department of Community Safety. For instance, school safety, control of alcohol and drug abuse, prevention of and effective responses to the abuse of women and children, all require integrated responses.

Local authorities have established, and some are in the process of establishing city safety plans, which also focus on social crime prevention. The department will establish an appropriate structure for co-ordination of all these efforts to maximise the impact of government programmes, avoid duplication and ensure the cost-effective use of government resources.

The recently published State of the Cities Report includes some observations about co-operative governance and local government, which is applicable to all spheres of government. The report states the following at page 171; "in order to lead partnerships, a change of mindset is needed within local government." All too often, especially as budget pressures bite, officials and politicians "reassure themselves that their mandate stops with a list of powers and functions defined in the Constitution. They may too quickly conclude that they are not responsible for a complex challenge because the definition of the challenge seems to involve the competencies of another sphere. These provisions do define the broad ambit of local government, but not its limits - the country cannot afford to build a system of co-operative governance that is only about making sure that each sphere keeps off the other's turf. It also needs to be about spheres of government actively co-operating with one another when a challenge demands their joint contribution." Community safety in Gauteng is certainly one such challenge.

(d) The Criminal Justice System

This is the spirit in which the department will approach the challenge with respect to the criminal justice system in the province. Although the department has no constitutional or statutory authority to direct the operations of the courts, prosecution service or correctional services, and therefore cannot be held directly accountable, we must recognise that the criminal justice system is an integrated whole. The police service over which the province has oversight must work together with those components of the criminal justice system under the direct control of national departments for the system to work efficiently.

So the department believes that we can play a valuable supporting role to the courts and prisons. In our efforts to improve criminal justice in Gauteng, we will focus mainly on those aspects of the justice system, which concern women, young people and children; and on the efficiency of municipal and traffic courts.

(e) Community Policing Forums

The Premier identified the strengthening of community policing as one of the provincial government's priorities. I am concerned therefore that some CPFs have become dysfunctional. I will therefore be commissioning a review of their functioning, with a view to issuing directives regulating their composition, structure and functioning.

I am convinced that Community Police Forums must remain an essential element of our crime combating strategy. When residents are active in establishing Community Police Forums, working with their sector managers, establishing neighbourhood watches, providing police with information, report suspicious activity, leave lights on to deter intruders, watch the house of a neighbour who is away, demand street lighting and work with their local Councillors and the staff of my department, they are helping to prevent crime and helping the police to combat crime.

(f) Taking a Long-term view

If we are going to be effective in addressing our challenges with respect to community safety over the next decade, we should take a "long-term" rather than a "snap-shot" approach- one which identifies the potential fault-lines and risk factors, and designs responses proactively.

So for instance, we must analyse and understand the patterns of migration, urbanisation and development in order to anticipate safety issues, which will require attention. This is why it is so important for the police service, working together with the department, to understand the developmental challenges in the province and the government's policy agenda. These are also matters that require attention in the quarterly review, not just the policing plans.

We must also analyse and understand potential risk factors like the penetration of crack cocaine, the relationship between substance abuse, particularly alcohol and violent crime, and the proliferation of guns. The department will therefore introduce new efforts to prevent gun violence in South Africa by monitoring the implementation of the new Fire Arms Control Act.

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) together with MRC and the University of Cape Town's Department of Forensic Pathology carried out a study that showed that South Africa has the highest rate of femicide in the world. The CSVR's research in Gauteng showed that guns were the leading cause of death of women at the hands of their intimate partners and that the vast majority of these guns were legally owned. Therefore, by both encouraging responsible use and stopping the proliferation of illegal firearms, we will go a long way towards reducing incidents of domestic violence where a gun was involved. We also plan to tackle alcohol and drugs as risk factors for criminal violence and road accidents.

B. ROAD SAFETY MANAGEMENT

The Premier set as a target, a 30% reduction of road fatalities over the next five years. What will our strategy be to achieve this target?

The improvement of Road Safety in Gauteng is a major challenge of great importance to all people and all road users in our province. Almost 1 800 people die on our road network in the province annually. These road deaths bring not only losses and pain to their relatives and friends, but also place an enormous strain on our provincial economy to an estimated cost of R9 billion annually.

We plan to achieve the target set by the Premier through the successful implementation of well-planned and co-ordinated road safety programmes. This will include:

* Sustaining and improving provincial coordinating structures, pooling of resources, integration of planning and coordinated implementation of road safety programmes by all agencies in the province on provincial, metropolitan, district and local authority levels.

* The Drive 4 Life campaign executed by all traffic agencies to clamp down on un-roadworthy public and private vehicles, unfit drivers, speeding in excess of speed limits, drivers and pedestrians under the influence, offenders disobeying the rules of the road and those with a disregard for the payment of traffic fines. Road users must expect a significant increase in visible policing; roadblocks and roadside check points over the weeks and months to come.

* Taking the problems currently experienced with the lack of sustainable funding by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) for the National Arrive Alive campaign, we in Gauteng have made the necessary funds available to ensure the effective implementation of our Drive 4 Life (Arrive Alive) campaign 2004/05

* An increased focus on traffic education, combining government's traffic education programmes with private sector initiatives to enhance safe schools, junior and adult pedestrian education and driver education.

* A major emphasis on pedestrian management as pedestrian fatalities comprises 47% of all road fatalities in our province. A wide range of projects will be launched throughout the province at all major pedestrian hazardous corridors and locations combining the enforcement, education and engineering disciplines in an integrated manner to reduce the pedestrian carnage in our province.

* Increased overload control to protect out road infrastructure in our province.

* Our road network is an essential facility for moving goods and services on a daily basis, and plays a crucial role in promoting economic growth and living standards of the people in Gauteng.

* Heavy vehicle overloading continues to be a major problem in Gauteng. It is estimated that the cost of road damage due to overloaded heavy vehicles is in the order of R120 million per annum. In the light of reduced road maintenance budgets and the importance of the road network in terms of economic growth for the province, this type of damage caused largely by unscrupulous transport operators is something that we can ill afford.

* We are committed to combat the problem of overloading and call upon the freight industry to co-operate and show their commitment to solve the problem of overloading. In this way we can together preserve the road infrastructure, which is the lifeblood of our economy.

Apart from the implementation of well-planned, integrated and coordinated road safety programmes by all traffic agencies in all spheres of government and in partnership with the private sector, the following matters will receive our priority attention:

* Empowerment of traffic officers by addressing competency and service delivery through refresher enhanced and specialised training
* Addressing the capacity of traffic law enforcement to enforce the law, to restore the road discipline and change the behaviour of road users to acceptable levels
* Acquisition and application of intelligent traffic management technology and equipment to enhance the effectiveness and productivity of traffic management
* Improved accident information and traffic management systems
* Evaluation of traffic management programmes and operations to ensure continuous improvement and sharing of learning amongst all traffic agencies
* Supporting the National Minister of Transport programmes to improve road safety through sustainable and effective co-operation between all spheres of government and in partnership with the private sector.

CONCLUSION

The politics of socio-economic redistribution is without question, an essential ingredient of an effective approach to the prevention of crime. This requires co-ordination between departments and across spheres of government. Road safety can also be improved through effective co-ordination. Combating crime also requires effective and strategically focused action by our law enforcement agencies. I call upon the Members of this Legislature, of all parties, the public and communities to work with the Department of Community Safety and the agencies of law enforcement to ensure that over the next ten years, Gauteng will become an even better place to live, work and visit.

I would like to thank the Acting Head of my department and the senior management team, the Director of Traffic Management and all the traffic officers I have had the pleasure to meet, the hardworking staff of my department I have been so fortunate to inherit, the chairperson of the standing committee and its members, the Provincial Commissioner and all the Area Commissioners of Gauteng who are so inspiring, and all my colleagues in the Executive Council and the Premier who helped me adjust to my new responsibilities.

For more information contact: Mpone Mangole
Tel: (011) 355 1827
Cell: 082 889 2078
Issued by: Department of Community Safety, Gauteng Provincial Government
30 June 2004

SPONSORED BY

Advanced