Address by Honourable Thobile Mhlahlo, MEC for Safety, Liaison, Roads and Transport at the presentation of the Annual Report for the Department of Safety and Liaison, Eastern Cape Legislature, Bhisho

Madam Speaker
Honourable Premier
Honourable Members
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

The Department of Safety and Liaison continues to grow in leaps and bounds. The 2006/07 financial year saw this department employing more people and strengthened our capacity at district level. The number of personnel has increased from 47 percent to 90 percent.

This has improved our oversight function to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the department has become more hands on. All districts are well established.

Our main objective is to make a meaningful contribution in the moral regeneration programme of the province and to strengthen social cohesion in support of the Provincial Growth and Development Plan and realise a safe province without crime in the long term.

Programme 1: Management

The appointment of the new Head of Department has enabled us to strengthen our management capacity; as a result, we have managed to spend our budget.
Further to that, our participation in the Criminal Justice System has contributed to better co-ordination.

Programme 2: Facilitation

During this period, we have been able to implement our Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy (PCPS), which is our guiding strategy for multi-agency collaboration against crime.

The PCPS seeks to:

* strengthen the partnership between government, business, the private security industry, civil society and communities in combating crime
* mobilise communities in social crime prevention
* engage the Criminal Justice System to expedite cases
* promote integration of law enforcement agencies during operations
* strengthen our oversight role over SAPS

This year, our main focus is on the building of capacity of all municipalities in the Eastern Cape to ensure that they play their role in crime prevention through the establishment of Community Safety Forums, integrate our work against crime, mobilise all stakeholders who stand to gain from this struggle against crime.

Our approach derives from the principles of co-operative government and intergovernmental relations as highlighted in the Constitution of South Africa.

At the core of our strategy is the extensive mobilisation of our communities against crime through strengthening community and Police relations.

We will now embark on a process of assisting our communities in establishing street committees, which are integrated in our sector crime forums.

All these efforts will contribute to ensure that we have a crime-free Eastern Cape, especially now that we are preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

We have demonstrated our ability to work various stakeholders in the past financial year, especially in areas such as the Wild Coast and today, the tourism industry is thriving in a crime-free environment in that part of our Province.

We will continue to mobilise our people against crime and we have set ourselves a target of training 5 000 community volunteers with a particular focus on crow controlling in preparation for the World Cup and beyond.

The Department is engaged in discussions with the Department of Labour and the Security Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) in preparation for that project.

Programme 3: Financial Management

The year under review saw the department once more receiving an unqualified opinion from the Auditor-General.

Madam Speaker, with those few words, I present the Annual Report of the Department of Safety and Liaison for 2006/07 financial year.

Issued by: Eastern Cape Provincial Government, Department of Safety, Security Liaison, Roads and Transport
2 October 2007