Date: 15/02/2010
Source: The Democratic Alliance
Title: DA: Kohler Barnard: Speech by the Shadow Minister of Police, during the Debate on the State of the Nation Address, Parliament



Mr Speaker - when a country's citizens are crippled by the fear of criminal attack, 36% of it violent, what it seeks is leadership of the highest order. Firstly, empathy must be shown to those hundreds of thousands of victims of crime, to the families of the 50 citizens murdered and the 68 rape victims every single day, and a clear indication that a cohesive direction has been determined, followed by a national strategy to take us forward into a safer future.

Instead, this past Thursday, references to this situation that haunts the nation were made as asides - comprising less than 3% of the speech that is supposed to detail and determine the state of the nation.

Our citizens know that the criminal justice system is dysfunctional - and what we looked for in the State of the Nation address was a date for the release of the long-promised review but instead we got nothing. Police risk their lives to apprehend criminals, but our conviction rates are sickeningly low - just 13% for murder last year. And then we have the situation where innocent citizens languish for years in the most appalling cells, as the courts grind glacially towards an outcome.

Our citizens needed to be assured that if they report crime, their calls will be heard. That the 10-111 call centres, currently rather like the President's hot line in that they're never answered, are not just a gigantic fraud perpetrated to lull them into believing that there is a way to call for help.

What was needed on Thursday evening were mentions of policies, programmes and initiatives at various levels in society aimed at strengthening social cohesion to motivate poorer and marginalised constituencies to feel that they have a greater stake in our society, and an acknowledgement that there is an underreporting of violent crime.

We needed a rock-solid condemnation of violence against women and children. We needed to hear of the importance of acting in accordance with standards of respect and civility towards others.

Where was the condemnation of the plethora of public officials who conduct themselves without a shred of integrity giving rise to the belief that corruption has become the norm in this country?

Indeed, we cannot go on year after year hearing of criminality within the SAPS. It's bad enough that SA is known as both an importer and an exporter of illegal drugs, but what happened to the 75 bags of 1000 Mandrax tablets apiece seized from drug lords, stored at the Nelspruit Police Station, yet which simply disappeared after a R1-million reward was offered by those criminals for their recovery?

Are there police behind bars for their complicity? Not one. This would have been a perfect job for the Scorpions - but of course the ANC shut them down. Where are the specialized units we were told would be reinstated?

Instead, the SAPS now has a reputation for shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic: when criminality within is revealed, the criminals are simply transferred to another station.

Indeed, the SAPS now only comply with 10% of the ICD recommendations - the rest, which relate to proven criminality - from murder to rape to armed robbery gbh, assault - and of course beating ill pensioners to death in the cells, allegedly raping a woman in Knysna, running three students off the road and robbing them at gunpoint in King William's Town...the list goes on and on - the rest, they ignore.

What was needed here was the gravest condemnation of this situation. Suspended members must be removed, tried, and if guilty, jailed - not transferred. We hoped to hear that we could develop a police service that we look up to, that we respect, that serves us as it should, that keeps us safe.

Where was the assurance that the SAPS top structure would cease misinforming the Police Portfolio committee that there are no more equipment shortages, when SAPS members inundate us during station visits jointly and singly, with tales of how they have shortages of virtually everything from guns and bulletproof vests to filing cabinets and working toilets.

Through you, Mr Speaker, I would ask that the National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele, be reminded that he is no longer a politician but an employee. One, in fact, wonders if he is actually capable of that transition. He is not a much-bemedalled General in some tin-pot dictatorship, he is the national police commissioner and he has no right to come before the Police Portfolio committee in his takkies and tracksuit and lambaste us as if we were an illegitimate structure.

Mr Speaker, it is time to tell the National Police commissioner that Parliament will do the work it is mandated to do. His rolling mass media campaign has been most interesting to observe, but he'll only get away with claiming unsubstantiated successes for so long. If the proposed performance management targets are to be at all relevant, and the SAPS do not reach the 7-10% crime reduction target - yet again - the SAPS management must then be removed

As the usual unqualified ANC cadre deployed to do a job a career police person should do, Commissioner Cele is clearly out of his depth - and strikes out at, for example, criticism of his R50-million party in Bloemfontein, where the food ran out, ablutions were non-existent, and those few left in the stations expected to work treble shifts. I believe he ordered those who pointed out the truth about the event - such as me - to "Go die".

Mr Speaker, I know that under his political leadership in KZN the police killed more suspects and citizens than in any other Province, but really, it is time to instruct the National Police Commissioner not to Shoot and Kill the messenger.