The Democratic Alliance (DA) will, at the earliest possible opportunity, call for a Debate in Parliament of Public Importance (Rule 103 of the National Assembly Rules) on the reconstitution of specialised crime fighting units, including the South African Narcotics Bureau, the Commandos, the Anti-Hijacking Unit and the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units. Though the Minister of Police announced earlier in the year that the FCS units will be reconstituted, we are yet to hear of any formal timetable on this process, and there is no sign that the ANC government is seriously considering the reopening of other crucial units that have been shut down.

Of particular concern is that, in response to our call for the reinstatement of the South African Narcotics Bureau, police spokesperson Musa Zondi said that government is winning the drugs war, so it does not need to revisit the issue of a specialised narcotics unit.

All the evidence points to the contrary. We have seen an 87% increase in drug related crime since the shutting down of the South African Narcotics Bureau. The year the unit was disbanded, the SAPS reported 62 689 drug related crimes (2003/2004), but the figure now stands at 117 172. Drug-related crime has increased at a far more rapid rate over the last five years than we have seen at any other time since 1994. The situation is critical, and government's obstinacy on this issue is deeply worrying.

Expert opinion also runs contrary to government's refusal to revisit this decision. Indeed, just yesterday Dr Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies told the Cape Argus: "drug-trafficking...need[s] special attention and should be tackled by teams of experts who dedicate their time and resources to bringing down crime syndicates".

Mr. Zondi would do well to revisit the statement issued by his colleague, Selby Bokaba, in July 2007, in which the SAPS strongly criticised the DA's research report on FCS units. Now, two years later, on the back of independent research studies that verified our findings, the minister has performed a policy u-turn, and decided to reconstitute the specialised FCS units after all. Will it take another two years to wake up to the fact that the Narcotics Bureau should never have been shut down either?

It is high time that this matter comes before Parliament, and that a formal debate is held. As long as the government had its head in the sand on the issue of FCS units, ordinary South Africans suffered. We cannot afford to wait years and years, even while the drugs trade ravishes our communities, for the minister to come around to the realisation that the current policy is hopelessly underperforming, and need to be revisited. The DA believes that we need anti-drug units staffed by teams of experts, and we believe that the Narcotics Bureau was the best model for achieving this.