Date: 02/06/2010
Source: The Democratic Alliance
Title: DA: Kohler Barnard: Speech by DA shadow deputy minister of police, on the Criminal law Amendment Bill, National Assembly

Studies relating to crime have found that the probability of an individual committing a crime is inversely proportional to the probability of getting caught. The more likely a person is of getting caught for committing a crime, the less likely that this person is going to commit the crime. In South Africa, where the conviction rate for murder is less than 13%, something certainly needs to be done to bolster detective work so that those that commit crimes are brought to book.

The Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill is an attempt to do exactly this. However, in its initial form, it had the potential to be frozen in a quagmire of dissenting voices. In its original format it included the establishment of a DNA Database, and numerous organizations, from the Cape Bar Council to the Law Society of South Africa via the Medical Rights Advocacy Network had substantial issues which they raised in relation to the creation of such a database.

I take typed notes of all meetings and on the 28 October last year I wrote in despair: "This bill is becoming a disaster". There seemed to be no inter-Ministerial co -ordination, budgets weren't supplied, sometimes junior members who were incapable of answering our questions, were sent to come before the Portfolio committee. When budgets did arrive, they were in the hundreds of millions of rands, and rather than simply providing the SAPS with the tools to access fingerprints on other databases - such as those in the Transport or Home Affairs Ministries, there were grandiose visions of a massive Police database of every fingerprint from every person in the country. At one stage the whole process seemed ready to spin out of control.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police deliberated on this bill for months, and finally determined that in order to achieve proper outcomes, the Bill needed to be split in two, with this section before you today relating only to the taking of finger-prints, palm-prints, foot-prints and photographic images, as well as the keeping of data relevant bases.

As for the mooted DNA database, certainly there are over 50 countries throughout the world that have already passed DNA Database legislation and each country has had to address similar issues that arise. It has been agreed that the committee will travel to investigate international best practice before considering the possibility of introducing such legislation here in South Africa.

If there is anyone in this House who believes that the Police Portfolio committee is not unified in their attempts to strengthen the hand of the law enforcers in this land, they are wrong.

Our members across the board were intimately involved in this amendment, and certainly the Democratic Alliance believes implicitly that granting the SAPS the right to access other data bases will assist in the tracking down of as-yet un-convicted criminals whose fingerprints do not yet appear on the Police data base.

The second issue - the identification of bodies is an enormous issue that my colleague, the Hon Debbie Schafer, will address.

We must, as a nation, be highly alert to the integral link between human trafficking, drug dissemination, and money laundering, all under the umbrella of organised crime, as well as, in certain cases, terrorism. By allowing our SAPS to run unidentified fingerprints through the other data bases in this country one will without a shadow of a doubt see increased conviction rates.

Certainly we must all agree that the fight against transnational organised crime must be strengthened and intensified so as to foster solutions involving cooperation within sub-Saharan Africa and SADC. Allowing our SAPS to access other national fingerprint data bases will allow them, in turn, to assist law enforcement agencies throughout the world to identify South African members of international syndicates.

As a nation we have for far too long failed to focus on crime prevention from a global perspective. We have become bogged down in the incident - this terrible murder, this rape of a baby, this multi-million rand fraud - single cases hitting the headlines, yet where we have failed is in pulling together the causal strands in order to understand the drivers behind the bloodletting.

We're not alone in this lack of vision, indeed the international community has as a whole largely failed to anticipate the evolution of transnational organised crime into the strategic threat which it now poses globally.

Transnational organised crime as an instrument to generate profit is no longer the sole preserve of specialist criminal organisations, it is now an essential strategy for armed groups around the world and is a source of funding for corrupt politicians as well as warlords and terrorists.

A global survey from the University of Maryland's Centre for International Development and Conflict Management shows that one of the areas of greatest risk of armed conflict is sub-Saharan Africa.

The nature of transnational organised crime syndicates allows them to be structured horizontally and they operate flexibly with a decentralised leadership, while countries such as ours are limited by the ‘silo' mentality with vertical, blinkered thinking which results in poor information sharing and cooperation.

To a transnational organised crime syndicate, borders are irrelevant, while countries are obsessed with ‘formal sovereignty'; transnational organised crime syndicates are incredibly well funded, while our operations are underfunded and frequently ill-utilised; the transnational organised crime syndicates are at the top when it comes to new technologies, whereas we are slow to adapt and in fact make little use of new technology.

Once we pass this amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act to allow access to fingerprint data bases, the public will presume that we have the technology to allow for a quick computer search - this will not be the case. The big problem here is that the data bases of the SAPS, Home Affairs, Transport, and Correctional Services all use different technology so these searches will initially be long and laborious. This is something that needs particular attention.

Certainly I would wish to see the same determination as has been evident in the preparations for the 2010 Football World Cup to be present in the fight against these syndicates - which, for example, see this country both importing and exporting drugs. We have to study this threat, boost our intelligence across regions, and shape up our technical ability.

This is also pertinent to domestic crime, which is linked to the transnational organised crime syndicates I've been referring to. Perhaps the one crime that makes us all feel under siege is house robbery.

There has been a 100% increase in house robberies over the past five years - and these crimes are committed by, to quote Professor Rudolph Zinn, "the most callous of criminals". Last year there were 18 438 residential robberies, up from just 9 351 in 2003. In the main these house robbers are 20 years old, and have committed 100 robberies before arrest. They do their homework, and often prepare for up to four months before they strike.

They also torture their victims as a means of establishing where valuables are hidden. They rape and kill without remorse.

Currently the reality is that only 12,5% of robbery with aggravating circumstances ends up being prosecuted.

While the implementation of this Bill is going to cost us, and cost us big, underinvestment in policing technology can be catastrophic - and this is in line with my analysis of the fight against transnational organised crime syndicates.

We've already fallen behind because of the bad judgement of the previous National Police Commissioner - and statistics have shown shocking increases in crimes in areas affected by the closure of our globally admired specialist units. Consider the 87% increase in drug related crime since the shutting down of the South African Narcotics Bureau.

Investing in this technology would ramp up our efficacy in relation to the drug crisis in South Africa. The year the Bureau was disbanded, the SAPS reported 62 689 drug related crimes (2003/2004), but the figure now stands at 117 172.

Crime must be recognised as the greatest threat to our democracy - and to an open society which can be shared and enjoyed by all - and of course the State has a duty to uphold the Constitution and keep its citizens safe. Approving this Bill today will give the SAPS a tool that, if efficiently utilised, will, I have no doubt, assist in pinning down the criminals not after they have committed 100 crimes, but after they've committed just one.