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Date : 22/06/2004
Source: Ministry of Safety and Security
Title: C Nqakula: Safety and Security & ICD Dept Budget Vote 2004/2005


ADDRESS BY MINISTER OF SAFETY AND SECURITY, CHARLES NQAKULA, MP, BUDGET VOTE 25 SAFETY AND SECURITY, AND VOTE 23 INDEPENDENT COMPLAINTS DIRECTORATE, 22 June 2004

Madam Speaker &
Honourable Members of the Extended
Parliamentary Committee

The first thing I would like to do today is to register, on behalf of the great majority of our people, sincere appreciation to the members of the South African Police Service, of the sterling work they do to create the conditions that are a prerequisite to make our country safe and secure.

This acknowledgement is appropriate given our full understanding of the difficulties that attend the mandate of the men and women in blue. Since the establishment of the South African Police Service, 1 570 of its members have been killed on- or off-duty. Others have been seriously injured and maimed.

The death of each one of their colleagues has strengthened the resolve of the members of SAPS to discharge the obligations they have to the nation. This has translated into a new sense of urgency to tackle crime vigorously and to act with relentless determination against those who murder members of the service. The mood is palpable. Those who kill our men and women in blue and go into hiding will be hunted down and the full might of the law will be used against them.

Patting the police on the back as we do now is at once a commendation and a challenge. Of course, we must ask the question: What does the democratic state, such as ours, expect of a police service that is part of the crucial organs for the strengthening, consolidation and defence of the people's democracy?

One of the key elements of the strategy and tactics of the South African government, leading to the true liberation of the people and thorough-going democracy, is the vision of peace and stability. Government, therefore, believes that peace and stability should not be defined only in terms of the military and the police, but also as it relates to political, economic, social and environmental questions.

The police, whose function it is to create conditions for safety and security in South Africa, is expected by government to be an effective service in which all citizens can have the fullest confidence. For this to happen the police must be well-trained and competent and work well with members of the communities they serve. In other words, they have to define themselves into the progressive, democratic programmes of the people by word and deed.

What can we say about the policemen and -women who have served this country since the inception of the South African Police Service? Did they transform themselves in the past eight years in ways that have made it possible for us to depict them as the "people's police"?

Many of us will say, correctly I believe, that not every member of the Police Service has been able to match the speed of our democratic transformation agenda. We must accept, though, that this should have been expected given that the development of human beings is by nature uneven. There are some in our Service, consequently, whose mindset has not changed adequately to embrace the new ethos of policing in a democratic South Africa.

Fortunately for us, these are very small pockets and the challenge is to pay more attention to their circumstances and help them transcend the difficulties they have at the present time so that they can appreciate the benefits of democracy. Those, of course, who consciously want to undermine the work we are doing will be defining themselves out of the ranks of the forces for change in our country and will have no place in the South African Police Service, as they will not be part of the measures to consolidate the contract with the people to build better opportunities for all.

Those who have embraced the country's democratic agenda often take centre-stage in service delivery to our communities. They initiate various activities, working together with other role- players within our communities.

The Mdantsane Presidential Police Station, working with the community in the township and together with the Community Policing Forum, organised on June 16 this year a youth event under the banner: "Youth in Sport is Youth against Crime". The celebration of Youth Day was held at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium, which gained notoriety during bantustan leader Sebe's regime when youth were detained and tortured at that arena.

This year, 32 local soccer teams entered that stadium to celebrate Youth Day as part of collaborative work between the police, the Mdantsane Soccer Association, Spoornet, Metrorail and Eskom.

Another example of the unquestionable commitment to the strengthening of our democracy was the manner in which the police secured the recent general election. They relied for this task on the experience they have amassed since the 1994 election. Their confidence has been growing and they will be better next year and subsequent years.

I would like to pay, in this regard, special tribute to our police in KwaZulu-Natal who dedicated time and energy to make that sometimes-volatile province safe for potential voters. Admittedly, there were some instances of violence, but not on the scale of previous elections.

SOCIAL CRIMES

Allow me at this point, Madam Speaker, formally to introduce my colleague, the Deputy Minister for Safety and Security, the Hon Susan Shabangu to whom I have delegated the entire spectrum of social crime prevention. This will entail, among other things, the strengthening of our programme to reduce instances of violence against women and children and the monitoring of the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. She will monitor our victim empowerment programme and guide the establishment of community-based youth development project. Working together with other Cabinet Cluster Committees, especially the social and economic committees, she will do crime and socio-graphic profiles of areas where the poor socio-economic conditions of the people become drivers and generators of crime.

The Deputy Minister will address these matters later today.

FIREARMS CONTROL

Yesterday the Deputy Minister and I were joined at Cape Town's Victoria and Alfred Waterfront by several members of the Portfolio Committee for Safety and Security, to kick-start an awareness campaign on the Firearms Control Act. I would like to register our appreciation to those members, led by the chairperson, the Honourable Maggie Sotyu, who were on hand to help us interact with the shoppers and visitors at the mall. There were many tourists at the Waterfront who found our work there very educational and informative.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the V & A Waterfront management, under chairperson, Hilda Ndude, who allowed us access to the facility. The management work well with the police on questions of security at the Waterfront. This is a partnership we cherish and are keen to maintain.

Guns have become the weapons of choice in the commission of violent crime in South Africa. The Firearms Control Act of 2000 and the Firearms Control Amendment Act of 2003 are instruments that are designed to help the South African Police Service to prevent the proliferation of illegal firearms and to remove them from society. The measures also allow the police to establish a comprehensive control system in order effectively to control legally owned firearms.

South Africa has 2 079 759 registered firearm owners. Those South Africans possess 3 696 089 licensed firearms. The country has 554 firearm dealers, 160 gunsmiths and 19 firearm manufacturers.

In the year 2000, 9 108 firearms were stolen from or lost by owners between January and May of that year. This trend went up to 9 951 in 2002. Between January and May this year, 7 993 firearms were reported stolen or lost. During the same January-May period in 2000, 5 821 firearms were confiscated or recovered. The trend has been going up ever since, indicating 5 960 in 2001, 7 655 in 2002, 9 405 in 2003 and 14 263 this year.

From April 1st last year to March 31st this year, 25 975 illegal firearms and 1 679 940 rounds of ammunition were confiscated under Operation Sethunya, and 5 990 people were arrested for the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The decrease of murder and attempted murder of 8.3% and 17.9% respectively - where firearms were used - indicates the impact that Operation Sethunya has had in our crime-combating exercise.

Honourable Members are aware from pronouncements that the Firearms Control Act was implemented in phases. The Act will be fully in place on July 1 this year.

We have allocated to the firearms control project R63 199 956 to cater, among other things, for the purchase of 458 vehicles, 1 153 desktops, 728 scanners and 573 printers.

We have already trained 640 designated firearms officers, 2 384 additional personnel, including station commissioners and clerks, 32 firearms tracing detectives, 420 firearms test firing personnel and 1 874 persons trained on the Enhanced Firearms Register System.

On 7 May 2004, a notice was published in the Gazette, inviting comments on the intended declaration of all schools as firearm free-zones. The closing date for comments is 31 August 2004.

Allow me this opportunity, Madam Speaker, to commend those South Africans who have handed in voluntarily to the police their licensed firearms for destruction because they no longer need them. It helps to know that there are some among us who support the effort to limit the circulation of firearms in South Africa.

CRIME REDUCTION

The main priority for the police during the current financial year will be to reduce contact crimes. These are crimes that are directed at the physical presence of a human being. Examples are murder and attempted murder, rape and attempted rape, as well as serious and violent assault.

Drug and substance abuse continues to be a serious challenge to the law enforcement agencies. Various trends of drug abuse and drug trafficking came to the fore during the past year. These include:

* an increase in the local manufacturing of Mandrax and of occurrences of smuggling into the country;
* certain crime syndicates from abroad have increased their trafficking of cocaine, as well as amphetamine-type stimulants into South Africa. These groupings have also increased their trafficking of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS); and
* the increase of the manufacture by mixing cannabis and Mandrax of poly-drugs.

During the past year 61 706 persons were arrested on drug-related offences. The SAPS has a two-pronged strategy to reduce the supply of and demand for drugs. I have instructed the police to focus intensely on 65 syndicates that are involved in the illegal trafficking in and distribution of drugs. Our main focus will be on syndicate leaders - both inside South Africa and abroad. This will be done in cooperation with the relevant foreign agencies.

BORDER CONTROL

We indicated last year that the SAPS would take over borderline security from the SANDF over the period 2004 - 2009. The first SAPS deployments for this purpose will commence within two months when special intelligence-driven operations will kick off on both the Namibian and Botswana borders. Similar operations will also be launched in co-operation with the SANDF on all the other borders.

General border security work will be performed eventually by permanent SAPS members, totalling 5 200.

RESERVISTS

By 2009 the police will take charge of the entire rural safety programme by using sector police. Those units will be assisted by reservists. The plan is to deploy 35 000 reservists to the programme.

The rest of the 100 000 reservists we want to recruit will be deployed for urban sector policing (35 000). The remaining 30 000 will be deployed to the community service centres and to the various police divisions. We have recruited already 60 000 reservists.

When we recruit personnel for permanent posts in the SAPS, reservists and volunteers that work with the police will be the first to be considered, if they meet the basic requirements. There have been many problems regarding this matter, which has seen many of the reservists and volunteers omitted from recruitment despite many years of work alongside the police in the fight against crime. This is going to change.

What is also going to change is the attitude regarding recruitment of new members into SAPS. Guidelines regarding this matter were circulated to all our Provincial Commissioners. It would seem that those are not followed to the letter and spirit of the new determinations. For the record, the following is what is supposed to happen and what will happen henceforth:

The total number of new recruits is divided proportionally among the provinces. The Provincial Commissioners then divided their allocation among the various regions of the province, taking into consideration the demographics of the province. The larger portion of the allocation is given to the poorest regions with a view to create job opportunities for the unemployed in those regions as part of government's project to roll back the frontiers of poverty.

TECHNOLOGY

Automated Fingerprint Identification System

The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is now fully operational at national level, as well as at 35 sites throughout the country. It is envisaged that an AFIS Palm Print facility will be introduced and put into use by February 2005. This technology will enable us to read palm prints found at the scenes of crime, along with the current ability to read latent fingerprints.

Forensic Science Laboratories

The SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories are experiencing a rapid growth in casework. Last year 173 697 case entries were made and 163 103 were completed. This represents an increase of 29% in the workload. The Laboratories continue to develop new technology to meet the challenges that are arising consistently.

The Integrated Ballistics Information System (IBIS), which enables the Police to link bullets and cartridge cases to firearms and crime scenes, was upgraded. A total of 24 566 exhibits were placed on the system since its upgrading. There is already evidence that the system is a boon to crime fighting.

An automated forensic DNA typing system will be installed over the next few months. This will make our Forensic Science Laboratories in Pretoria and Cape Town the first such facilities in the world to use the RT-PCR technique which will produce DNA results quicker. The decentralisation of the DNA analysis capacity to KwaZulu-Natal was commissioned recently. A new multi-million rand project for expansion work at the Forensic Science Laboratory in the Western Cape is in its first phase.

The Pretoria and Cape Town laboratories do advanced work like voice comparison and the detection of fraudulent documents, including cheques.

Specialised training will be pursued on a continuous basis to meet the requirements of expert and quality service delivery. Likewise, the Pretoria laboratory will continue to provide training to neighbouring states - as was recently the case regarding DNA training in Mauritius.

BUDGET ALLOCATION

The budget of the South African Police Service has been increasing by an annual average of 10,7% since the financial year 2000/01 where it stood at R15, 6 billion. On this basis it will rise to R28, 7 billion by the 2006/07 financial year. The annual increase between 2003/04 and 2004/05 will be11, 6%.

Additional allocations, excluding inflation adjustments, have increased the Safety and Security vote by R240 million in 2004/05, R490 million in 2005/06 and R800 million in 2006/07. This will enable the department to recruit additional police personnel in 2005/06 and in 2006/07; strengthen the Protection and Security Services Division; continue to modernise and expand the SAPS vehicle fleet; fund SAPS's responsibility to the IT needs of the Integrated Justice System (IJS) and implement the department's ICT Plan.

At the end of the 2004/05 financial year, the department will have achieved an ideal split between personnel and non-personnel expenditure of 75-25 per cent, which will be maintained.

The enlistment process which started in April 2002, has seen the SAPS grow from 119 000 to approximately 140 000 as at the end of March 2004. This will grow to more than 148 000 by the end of the current financial year. This will rise to more than 152 000 by the end of 2006 as we projected in 2002. We said then that our establishment over the Medium Term Expenditure Period would be 131 560 in 2003; 140 560 in 2004; 147 560 in 2005, and 152 560 by March 31, 2006.

These figures change for the better, as additional funds are made available annually.

The enhancement of physical infrastructure will again receive prominence. During the current financial year R345 million will be spent on the establishment of new police stations.

An allocation of R718 million will go to the purchase of new soft body vehicles for the police. We reached a stage during the latter part of the previous financial year of actually expanding the vehicle fleet; a process, which will continue over the next three years. We will buy one helicopter for KwaZulu- Natal, and make one addition to the fixed-wing aircraft establishment. 10 pilots will be trained - three of whom will be women.

An amount of R30 million has been set aside for the purchase of new bulletproof vests.

HR PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Skills development remains a top priority on our agenda to enhance police capacity and effectiveness. An amount of R406 million will be spent in this year on general training programs, while our basic training will be allocated R111 million. Special emphasis will be placed on detective training, especially general detectives.

Career centres will be established in three provinces to avail choices to employees regarding career paths and planning opportunities within the Service, and to promote the principles of job satisfaction and the right person with the right skills for the right job. One career centre has already been opened in Gauteng and two mobile career centres are being established to support rural areas. This will provide a thrust to improve employment equity in the Service.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Our skills development process revolves around the principle of training for reality. The new Basic Training Learning Programme (BTLP), registered with the South African Qualifications Authority as a level 5 qualification and due to be implemented as from 19 July this year, simulates situations that police will face on the streets. A purpose-built role-play centre is nearing completion at the training centre in Pretoria and other such centres are being planned at the other basic training colleges throughout the country. The Detective Learning Programme (DLP) is cast in the same mould.

The new training centre at Phillippi in the Western Cape will open its doors in July. The first shooting range built at Bisho in the Eastern Cape, designed in accordance with the standards set by the South African Bureau of Standards, was officially opened on the 11th of this month. There are other shooting ranges of similar type that are under construction elsewhere in the country.

COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT

The salaries paid to police officials continue to be a source of concern to me. Discussions are taking place in an attempt to improve this situation and I hope that funds can be secured during this and subsequent financial years to address the matter. We will further continue to identify areas where scarcity is being experienced of highly specialised human resources and implement mechanisms to recruit and retain those resources.

In our constant endeavours to improve the conditions of service of our members, the provision of additional death benefits for police officials was implemented during 2003. A death grant of R200 000 is paid to families of those members who have been murdered in the line of duty-whether on- or off-duty.

The Service has implemented performance management systems and has already successfully embarked upon its journey to realise a performance culture in the Service. The compliance rate with performance management systems has been increased to over 90%. This allows the Service to promote the performance culture further this year by providing performance-based compensation through pay progression and individual and team performance bonuses to performing employees.

The Service is also serious about entrenching minimum performance levels. It is in the process of developing profiles for jobs which will have minimum performance standards in terms of which employees will be trained, held accountable and assessed against. The jobs that have been prioritised are those that provide a direct service to the public and I am confident that once the system is in place a certain minimum service standard will be realised.

NATIONAL SECRETARIAT

The National Secretariat for Safety and Security continues to deliver a very good service with respect to the oversight function they have over the police, designed, as it is to ensure the adherence to and the implementation of policy by the SAPS.

Many developed countries have taken interest in the broad framework of and the way the Secretariat does its work. The National Secretary and members of his team have learnt many lessons from international oversight bodies like the British Inspectorate of Constabulary.

The Secretariat has noted the shortcomings of the South African Police Service Act and has recommended to me to consider the drafting and enactment of a Safety and Security Act, in accordance with the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security.

This work is at the initial stage, but an approach will be made to Parliament at the right time for the start of the relevant processes to deal with this.

We will also transform the Secretariat and provide it with the necessary capacity to deal with its ever-expanding work.

INDEPENDENT COMPLAINTS DIRECTORATE

During the current financial year the Independent Complaints Directorate will focus on the implementation of its strategy to reduce the risk of deaths in police custody and the need for an effective custody management system. Further monitoring activities will include detention cell inspections to ensure compliance with standards and instructions.

The increase in the workload of the ICD means a continued increase in the allocation to investigations of more than 12% of the total budget of the Directorate.

Issued by: Ministry of Safety and Security
22 June 2004
Source: South African Police Service (http://www.saps.gov.za)

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