Date: 29/10/2009
Source: The Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Lebenya-Ntanzi, Speech by Inkatha Freedom Party MP, on Performance audit of service delivery at police stations, Cape Town

Mr Speaker,

For a medical practitioner to be able to cure a patient he/she needs
to not only come up with the correct diagnosis, but the doctor must
have the right tools at his disposal to treat the patient. Similarly,
if you take your car to a mechanic he or she needs to be equipped with
the correct tools and the knowledge on how to repair the car.

In similar vein, in a country where crime is rampant, our policemen
and women need to be equipped and skilled to fight crime successfully
and vigorously.

Yet, if we ask the ordinary man on the street whether they believe
that the South African Police Service is adequately equipped and
skilled to protect them; or whether they believe that phoning the
South African Police Services' 10111 call centre will get them the
help they need, you will be greeted with an resounding no.

Today, violent crime is the cancer that erodes the fabric of the
nation and rampant crime prevents us from classifying our country as a
normal democracy or a country at peace with itself. We live in a
country where criminals rob us of our precious lives and property.

A quick look at the findings of the Auditor General's report adds to
this list of woes and does not give one any comfort that our police
force is up to the task of fighting crime successfully.

The report revealed that, due to a lack of an approved policy, there
were inconsistencies in the implementation of sector policing and in
resource allocation between different police stations. Furthermore,
there were instances where operational members did not possess
driver's licences and the report also revealed that there was
non-attendance and non-compliance with regard to training courses
while not all SAPS members were being issued with bullet-proof vests.

With regard to the 10111 call centres, the report found that there is
shockingly, no fully functional 10111 call centre in the Mpumalanga
Province; and with regard to the other call centres there are
deficiencies when it comes to the reaction time between the call
centre and the policing units.

Indeed, this report paints a dismal picture of a police force in
distress. In fact, this report begs the question: how will we ever be
able to beat the criminals at their own game when the SAPS is in such
dire straits?

What, then, must be done to keep us safe and secure and to improve the
effectiveness of the SAPS?

The IFP believes that we need to first and foremost develop a highly
qualified, well paid and highly motivated cadre of crime fighters to
make South Africa safe. We need to upgrade our training system, with a
special focus on investigative skills and forensics. Government must
provide adequate resources for effective, efficient and professional
policing and this must be extended to our 10111 call centre as well.

The report also suggests that sector policing is not working in its
current form. We are therefore calling for policing powers to be
decentralised, even to the local level. Communities must be made equal
partners in the fight against crime; there should be far more
community involvement in crime prevention and in inculcating a culture
of respect for authority; and the police should be made accountable to
communities.

We therefore urge government to look at this report and to recognise
the urgent need to fix the many problems that are current paralysing
and rendering the SAPS ineffective. Only then will we be able to able
start making headway in our fight against rampant crime in South Africa.