Honourable Speaker
Honourable Members of the House

The bills that are before this house today are a culmination of various discussions that have been taking place at government level, and, at other instances, within the ruling African National Congress. Dominating all of those discussions was the matter of crime, generally, in South Africa and organised crime, specifically, and how to prevent and combat the scourge.

I would like to hazard a guess, Madam speaker, that representatives of the ANC in this or other debates in future, will talk about such engagements in the past, leading up to the ANC's policy conference as well as the Polokwane national conference in December last year. As an ANC member, I know about the earlier discussions. I participated, at government level, in a number of instances where crime was analysed and strategies and tactics were developed to deal with the matter.

The kernel of the discussions was that we needed to evaluate the organs of state that deal with crime and, where weaknesses existed, to rectify the problem through various interventions. The interventions included the allocation to law enforcement agencies of better resources, human and material, better training of personnel, and the restructuring and realignment of the relevant units.

One of the matters that came under focused attention at cabinet level was organised crime, which impacts negatively on the psyche of our nation, given its violent nature and the increased circulation of illegal drugs that are a generator of serious and violent crime.

State institutions that play a crucial role in the fight against organised crime include the South African Police Services Organised Crime Unit and Commercial Branch, the Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions), Special Investigative and Asset Forfeiture Units that resort under Justice, the Department of Home Affairs National Immigration Branch, the Department of Finance, South African Revenue Service and Customs and Excise.

Also critical to the fight against organised crime is the intelligence community which is comprised of the National Intelligence Agency, the South African Secret Service and the National Communication Centre that are under the Ministry for Intelligence Services, Crime and Defence Intelligence and the Financial Intelligence Centre.

Cabinet decided that our response to the strategic and tactical questions that were being thrown up by the changing face of crime and criminality in our country had to be exhaustive and cover, therefore, the entire Criminal Justice System (CJS). The Justice Crime Prevention and Security cluster of cabinet was instructed to articulate a strategy to establish a new, modernised, efficient, effective and transformed Criminal Justice System.

We defined our mandate as the cluster as the project to establish a modernised Criminal Justice System that would include the adoption of a single vision and mission, leading to a single set of objectives, priorities and performance measurement targets, as well as adapting and realigning the operations of relevant departments and agencies to eliminate all manifest weaknesses in the system, including conflict and contradictions.

Review of Criminal Justice System (CJS)

The implementation of some aspects of the modernisation of the CJS has started. Deputy Justice Minister, the Honourable Johnny de Lange, was appointed by the President to convene the CJS co-ordinating and management structure, which will lead the initiatives that will change for the better the entire system. The co-ordinating structure has a set of support units which will provide advice to the Justice Crime Prevention Security (JCPS) and cabinet, formulate strategy going forward and design measures to improve operational output on all questions relating to the integrated CJS.

Some matters that are part of the design will be held in abeyance until we submit them to parliament, given that they relate to our law and may seek, therefore, amendments thereto.

The desire to achieve effectiveness and efficiency pervaded discussions about the state institutions that we have and brought to the fore some of the weaknesses we have to address.

One of the consequences of the strategies we were formulating was the appointment by the President, of the Khampepe Commission, which I shall get back to later in my input.

Amendment Bills

The two bills before this house today, the South African Police Service (SAPS) Amendment Bill and the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill, are part of our response to organised crime.

The SAPS Amendment Bill seeks to enhance the investigative capacity of the South African Police Service with respect to organised and serious crime by establishing a Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation to combat such crimes. It seeks to bring together the units that exist in the police and in the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO) that are responsible for the investigation of those crimes.

The National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill creates the conditions that will allow for the relocation of the special investigators of the DSO to the South African Police Service to allow for the creation of the new Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.

The intention behind the creation of the new organised crime fighting unit is to ensure that we deal effectively with such crime, using the best investigators and crime fighters that are available in the various units.

Organised Crime

The Khampepe Commission, dealing with organised crime in its report, made the following observation. "Despite indications that crime levels are dropping, it is my considered view that organised crime still presents a threat that needs to be addressed through a comprehensive strategy".

"At the relevant point in time, the body of the information and evidence strongly suggested a need by the government to have in place a coherent effective strategy in the fight against organised crime. Foreign jurisdictions that I visited in the course of the commission's work also indicate a global trend towards creating instruments of a specialised nature in addressing and combating or mitigating the effects of organised crime."

Justice Khampepe also reported that there would be established in the United Kingdom a new agency called the Serious Organised Crime Agency which would bring together the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the Home Office's organised immigration crime sectors and the investigation and intelligence responsibilities of HM Customs and Excise, whose core objective would be "to reduce the harm caused to the United Kingdom by organised crime, including the trafficking of drugs and people".

The restructuring and realignment of state institutions to deal with crime, especially organised crime, is happening across the globe including in the older democracies of the world. We are not out of kilter when we do the same, influenced as we are, by the commitment to fight crime in every way possible.

Some commentators have raised the recommendation by the Khampepe Commission that the DSO must remain within the Ministry of Justice. It is true Justice Khampepe did make that recommendation. Of course, the recommendation should be read together with what she defined in the report as "political responsibility" over the DSO.

"Under the present legal regime, the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development is not only responsible for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) but is politically responsible and held accountable for the work of the DSO including the latter's vital 'policing' functions which overlaps with the political responsibility of the Minister of Safety and Security regarding organised crime."

To deal with that matter, the Commission recommended that
"(The) President (should) exercise the power conferred on him in terms of section 97(b) of the Constitution with a view to harmonising this problem. Section 97(b) provides that the President may transfer any power or function conferred upon a member of the Cabinet to another member".

"With the exercise of this power the President may confer political responsibility over the law enforcement component of the DSO entrusted to the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development by the NPA Act to the Minister of Safety and Security. No great alarm would arise concerning the independence of the prosecutors who work for the DSO. They would continue to receive instructions only from and be accountable only to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP). I am fortified that this will ensure that the government's objective to provide effective and efficient law enforcement delivery is attained.

The sentiment by the Khampepe Commission is embraced in what we are doing. In our view, though, it is better to relocate the special investigators of the DSO to the police for better and effective command and control.

The bills before this house are the vehicle we need to strengthen and consolidate the fight against organised crime. We require support as we pilot them through Parliament.

I want to reiterate what I have said in the past, which the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development has also said on a number of occasions, that the special investigators of the DSO that the two bills suggest should be transferred to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, will be affected negatively by the relocation, in terms of their conditions of service. They will retain, therefore, their salaries and benefits.

The SAPS Amendment Bill also talks to the matter of investigations that are ongoing and/or before the court that the DSO is handling. Those matters will not be affected by the relocation. They will continue until finalisation in keeping with our law.

I move, therefore, Madam Speaker, that the Bills be read for the first time.

Thank you.

Issued by: Secretariat of Safety and Security
19 June 2008