Honourable Minister of Police, Mr Nhleko
Ms Kalyani Pillay
Mr Cas Coovadia
Mr Peter Moyo
All other dignitaries and guests present
Ladies and gentlemen:

Warm greetings to you.

Thank you for allowing me to make a few opening remarks by way of introducing the Minister of Police, Mr Nhleko.

You will have heard me say many times since I was appointed National Commissioner, that the South African Police Service (SAPS) is dedicated to building and sustaining partnerships in order to wage a coordinated war against crime.

The cooperative relationship between the SAPS and South Africa Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), which has been in existence for some time, is very important.  It is key to tackling various crime trends such as cash-in-transit heists, armed robberies, ATM attacks and economic crimes.

We have great faith in the non-profit company SABRIC, and view the inputs they have made in bringing the banking and related industries together to fight crime in a collective manner with the SAPS as being of great strategic and tactical value.

Partnerships form the cornerstone of the policing philosophy which we follow in South Africa, being community policing. This starts, as the name implies, by involving the citizens in crime prevention and combating initiatives at local level through Community Police Forums (CPF). CPF’s have been established throughout the country and are a means for the police to listen to what the community has to say, to share information with the community and to tap into their knowledge and expertise.

In the same way, partnerships and relationships with stakeholders in the business sector is allowing us to tap into your expertise and intelligence at your disposal.  By intelligence I am referring to the information that you are able to gather through your various networks and business partners.

In addition to our excellent working relationship with SABRIC, we also interact regularly with the Consumer Goods Industry, Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA), as well as stakeholders in the mining and tobacco industry and many others. I believe that these interactive and mutually beneficial relationships are bearing fruit and dealing a blow to organised crime and other groupings threatening the stability of our country.

For example, the Mine Crime Combating Forum established in the North West, particularly the Marikana/Rustenburg area, has seen the launch of the Platinum Belt Operations in mid-June this year and, already, over 1000 suspects have been arrested with dozens of firearms and dangerous weapons having been seized.

We have also recently renewed the memorandum of understanding between BACSA and the SAPS and we look forward to their support on various projects, including the important Frontline Service Delivery Programme.

This programme is part of our ongoing efforts to professionalise the police service and its employees so that a top quality service is rendered to all our clients and citizens.

We are addressing this issue of professionalizing the SAPS on many fronts, in fact right from the stage of the recruitment of trainees. Before we even allow new recruits to start their basic training, they now have to complete a Grooming Camp during which they undergo rigorous testing which, as of this intake, includes integrity testing. If a candidate fails the integrity testing, they will not commence with the two-year training programme to become a member of the SAPS.

In order to attract the will service with diligence and integrity, we are also looking into recruiting young men and women with qualifications who we can then integrate into the police at a higher rank, for example that of warrant officer.

In addition, we have established our own university at our SAPS Academy Paarl, in conjunction with UNISA, and our first year students are on the road to gaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Policing.

There are so many other initiatives that we have and are implementing and I hope that there will be an opportunity to discuss some of them in the near future.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that, as SAPS, we are committed to fighting crime. We are truly appreciative of the efforts made by our present stakeholders and those who are coming on board as partners.

Minister Nhleko has, over the past few months, literally rolled up his sleeves and is working tirelessly to ensure that we are on the right path to achieving the National Development Plan’s vision 2030.