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Building a united front against crime and corruption

House Chair
Deputy Minister of Police
MECs
Chairperson of the Select Committee on Security and Justice
Members of the Select Committee on Security and Justice
Honourable members
The National Commissioner of Police and Provincial Commissioners
Members of the South African Police Service
Esteemed guests
Fellow South Africans
Ladies and Gentlemen

We are enjoined by the Constitution, the supreme law of the Republic “to prevent, combat and investigate crime, to maintain public order, to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, and to uphold and enforce the law”. In their wisdom, our fathers and mothers also inserted this pearl which calls upon the “Minister of Police to promote good relations between the police and the community and to assess the effectiveness of visible policing”.

We recommit ourselves to the spirit of the Constitution. We recognise that even though we have travelled quite a journey, there is still a long way forward and we will continue to try and do better as expected by the people of this republic. Much work of the South African Police Service happens in the provinces, in the districts, municipalities, villages and hamlets. Our report today to the NCOP will reflect this work and what we intend to do to improve on our service.

We are directed by the Freedom Charter, which envisages a state where our people are free, safe and able to raise our children in a stable society.

This found resonance in the African National Congress’s 1992 Ready to Govern document that directed a policy position to ensure that, amongst other things:

• Policing is based on community support and participation;
• Police remain accountable to society and the community it serves through its democratically elected institutions;
• Policing continues to be subjected to public scrutiny and open debate;
• Allegations of police misconduct are dealt with by an independent complaints and investigation mechanisms;
• A police service that continues to strive for high performance standards.

In the discharge of our duties, we are mindful that the battle against crime cannot be divorced from the war on want and that as South African Police Service (SAPS) we are called upon to maintain law and order in the face of extreme poverty. It is for these reasons that we are advocating for an integrated approach to issues of policing and social stability. As the philosopher of note, Plato advanced an argument that “the environment is the main shaper of people and therefore the question of what is just could not simply be a private one, but was necessarily a political one”. For us to succeed in this approach, we need to work with other organs of state, business, non-governmental organisations, research and tertiary institutions.

This ideal of partnerships finds traction in the National Development Plan which envisages a state where police work closely with communities, where real partnerships emerge among the different organs of state to ensure that root causes of crime and criminality are addressed before they pose a major threat to our society.

With this in mind, through the Medium Term Strategic Framework, the SAPS will focus on the following key strategic priorities:

• Reduce the number of serious crimes
• Combat border and cyber crime
• Increase the percentage of trial ready case dockets for serious crimes
• Stabilise public protests
• Enhance local police capability.

Further, in this financial year, we are going to introduce and or reintroduce the following legislative and policy reviews:

• A Comprehensive Review of the SAPS Act to align it with the Constitution
• Research and Policy into reducing the barriers to the reporting of cases of violence against women and children, serial murders and rapes.
• A review on how CPF and CSF can assist the police in the stabilisation of areas affected by Service Delivery Protests
• Research on the assessment of police deployments and how these impact on crime
• Legislative policy and research into the impact of Firearm legislation on Crime and the need to investigate areas of legislation that requires strengthening.

We commit SAPS to community engagement, listening and of being one with the people that we serve. We are also obliged to fight crime and restoring the citizens’ faith and trust in our law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system. For us to achieve this, we should take a cue from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, who have articulated, correctly so, that we need to build a united front against crime and corruption.

In Ndundwini in KZN, Kakamas in Northern Cape, Nobody in Limpopo, Malelane in Mpumalanga, Riversdale in the Western Cape, Parys in the Free State, Elliot in the Eastern Cape, Orange Farm in Gauteng and Taung in the North West, our citizens need to embrace that which is good with our police and reject that which is bad. Citizens should feel the good service and where we fall short, use designated institutions of policing to deal with matters of policing and conduct by the police.

We are extremely concerned by the spate of killings of our policemen and women and call on our communities to mobilise against such a scourge. To this end we appreciate the work that has been done by the Mpumalanga province in highlighting the cost to society around this issue; and for coining the theme: ‘You kill the police, you kill the community”. ‘Wabulala iphoyisa, wabulala umphakathi”.

As part of the process of professionalisation of the police service, we have approved changes to the recruitment strategy of entry level constables to ensure that only the best-suited candidates are recruited into the SAPS. Our new recruits are being taken through rigorous testing for suitability before they start formal training. This Community Based Recruitment Strategy is aimed at addressing challenges such as pending and or previous convictions, fraudulent qualifications and to avoid nepotism. In terms of this strategy, the role of the community in commenting on their suitability will also assist in completing the 360 degree cycle of suitability testing.

We have further put in place mechanisms to build capacity within our crime intelligence units all-over the country. A number of critical senior and middle management positions were filled in the reporting period. This is an important unit that helps the police in the fight against crime and its significance cannot be overemphasised.

We will further ensure that the current members of the police service are taken through rigorous sessions to understand the code of conduct. We are expecting each and every member to acknowledge and understand the contents of the code before signing; in order to make sure that they are accountable.

Our approach on professionalisation of the police service will contribute to the zero-tolerance towards corruption and nepotism; and deliver the calibre of a police official who will serve the people of this country with dignity and pride.

Allow me at this point to reflect on some of the successes that were realised from the utilisation of the resources that our government provided to the department. The effort of the SAPS to fight crime and rid our streets of criminals is evident in the ever-rising entrants to our holding cells and prisons. These are not just filled by criminal walk-ins. Just in the past year, we made 1 392 856 crime prevention arrests which include 818 322 for serious crime and 574 534 for other crimes. A further 1 218 arrests for serious organised crime with the resultant 828 convictions was reported by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, popularly known as the Hawks.

South Africa once more experienced a peaceful process when electing the current administration into power as a result of, among other role-players, the diligent and dedicated service demonstrated by our police that were deployed in all provinces, with minimum incidences reported.

House chair

As a means to encouraging the reporting of cases of a personal nature which may include victims of trauma, sexual violence and vulnerable groups, we have established 947 Victim Friendly Rooms across all provinces: We have 112 in EC, 72 in the FS, 151 in Gauteng, 156 in KZN, 76 in Limpopo, 72 in Mpumalanga, 69 in the Northern Cape, 56 in the North West and 183 in the WC.

As stated earlier, community mobilisation is critical in the fight against crime and corruption. Currently, we have established 1 123 functional CPFs across all provinces and we will ensure that the remaining 13 police stations where they are not functional are addressed jointly with the affected communities. This effort will be complemented with nationally targeted, coordinated and focussed izimbizo/community outreach programmes of which we had 19 such during 2013/14.
Notwithstanding the spike in protests, SAPS still must ensure domestic stability and order. For South Africa to grow economically and otherwise, it requires social stability. We have sought to focus ourselves on capacitating Public Order Policing (POP) unit as directed by his Excellency, President JG Zuma in 2013.

Overall, there were 13 575 recorded public order incidences that were successfully policed in the period under review. Of these, 1 907 were violent. In these violent incidents, there were few brutal incidences reported which is the sign that the SAPS does not have an institutionalised culture of brutality. Notably, although these incidences were stabilised, an increase in these incidents warrants an increase in the deployment of resources and the cost thereof.

We have also ensured that 1 826 members have undergone a successful POP refresher training, 60 members were trained as video camera operators and information managers to capture footage during crowd-related incidents, other members attended a work session relating to statement taking relating to incidents arising from public protests.

Through our investigative capability, we have managed to secure convictions resulting in 1 110 life sentences imposed on 803 suspects across all provinces for serious crime such as murder, rape, business robbery, house robbery and armed robbery. This figure includes 659 life sentences secured by our 176 Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit. Additional to these life sentences, 3 718 persons were convicted to 51 631 years imprisonment for various crimes.

The following milestones were recorded from some of the provinces:

• Eastern Cape - a 39-year-old was convicted and sentenced to 25 life sentences for 29 murders in Butterworth.
• Free State - the arrest of gang members resulting in the following sentences:
  • Eight life sentences
  • 4 x 18 years imprisonment
  • 2 x 15 years imprisonment
• Gauteng: Birthday rapist who lured university girls and raped them got 39 life sentences and 212 additional years of imprisonment. Taxi Rapists would rape women who flagged down their taxi would rape the women and leave them there naked or throw them out while the taxi was moving. One suspect received 51 life sentences and 780 years and the other 49 life sentences and 780 years. .
• KwaZulu-Natal - two suspects who broke into the residential premises of two elderly women and raped one of them received a life sentence for rape and 15 years each for house robbery
• Mpumalanga - 77 year sentence for rhino poaching which attests to seriousness of government in fighting organised crimes
• Serial rapist sentenced to 22 life sentences and 245 years imprisonment and
• Northern Cape - four suspects were arrested and convicted after a Police vehicle was stolen and shots fired at the police. The Police vehicle was recovered together with another hi-jacked vehicle and one suspect received 25 years, another 20 years and the other two each 30 years imprisonment.

We continue to smash drug syndicates and successfully dismantled 36 clandestine drug laboratories in the KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Western Cape.

Stock theft remains a priority crime due to its economic impact and it being a threat to food security and economic development in the rural communities. To stem the tide against this crime, on the 15th of August we are launching a national rural strategy which amongst other things prioritises stock theft. Further we have established 84 Stock Theft Units across all nine Provinces with the result that 49 865 stolen livestock to the value of R280 387 100 was recovered.

Despite the successes that we have herein mentioned, as SAPS and the country we continue to be faced with challenges: Illicit mining, Rapid urbanisation, non-enforcement of municipal by-laws, ritual murders and witchcraft-related crimes, community and labour-related protests, instability in the taxi industry, influx of undocumented foreign nationals, rhino poaching and police killings.

We continue to be seized with these challenges as the SAPS and we are calling upon various sectors of our society – business, NGOs, civic society – to be part of the fight against crime and corruption. Of importance we would like to engage business around the issues of scrap metal and second hand goods industry, its threat to the economic development of the country and their contribution in the fight against crime and corruption.

Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, it should not be forgotten that the quality of a nation arises from the combined attributes of its citizens. In this regard, our combined attribute as South African citizens is our unity of purpose in the fight against crime and corruption.

I thank you