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Date : 01/06/2006
Source: Department of Safety and Security
Title: Shabangu: Safety and Security Dept Budget Vote 2006/07


  Budget Vote speech by the Deputy Minister of Safety and Security, Ms Susan Shabangu, MP

There are young people who have come to this House today, Madam Speaker, special invitees of the Ministry for Safety and Security in keeping with our programme in celebration of the 30th anniversary year of the Soweto uprisings.

Nine of them come from our provinces and they are:

a) Siphosethu Ndalasi from the Eastern Cape
b) Sonia Mulaudzi from Gauteng
c) Mamello Octavia Makhatla from Free State
d) Albertina Chueu from Limpopo
e) Esther Masega from North West
f) Unathi Dyani from Western Cape
g) Mary Nokukhanya Hlangu from KwaZulu-Natal
h) Sphiwe Skhosana from Mpumalanga
i) Grace Kokwe from Northern Cape.

Four of the girls, Sphiwe Skhosana, Nokukhanya Hlangu, Grace Kokwe and Unathi Dyani were part of the editorial team that cleaned up my speech. If there continue to be mistakes as I read on don’t blame me, blame them.

The other group of young people sitting in the gallery are 66 children that our Ministry has reintegrated with their families in terms of a programme we launched in July 2004, among others, to assist homeless children. All of the 66 young people come from the Western Cape. They are not only back at home but also back at school as we speak. We commend the South African Police Service (SAPS), communities, parents and schools for the parts they have played in ensuring that these prodigal sons and daughters enjoy the love and care of their families once more.

This year we dedicate our Budget speech and the results of our hard work not only to those children, but also to our youth and South African women. We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising. It was in 1976 that we, the youth, bravely resisted the oppressive yoke of apartheid in general and the inferior education in particular. We pride ourselves in the sterling contribution to our democracy and freedom.

Secondly, I would also want to honour and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Women’s March on the Union Buildings. The women of the 50s were able to confront and identify issues that impacted on their daily lives which were designed to turn them into perpetual slaves. This has inspired the current boldness with which these matters are confronted.

Our policies and strategies continue to focus on crime prevention as part of government’s agenda to provide a better life for all. Social crime prevention becomes the focal point for the creation of a crime free environment in law enforcement and policing.

Youth programme

The context in which the youth programme is currently being run needs to be reviewed in order to include partnerships with police stations and sector policing. The role of the Station Commissioner in co-ordinating cross-cutting matters on schools within their precincts needs to be considered.

Let me appreciate business against crime for their continuous support through the implementation of Tiisa Thuto in order to address safety matters in schools. This enhances our partnership with the Department of Education on an ongoing basis. An illustration of this is that recently a successful drug reduction programme in schools was launched in Gauteng and Western Cape with the assistance of the Tiisa Thsuto programme.

Missing children

Recently a three-year old boy disappeared in Wallaceden while in the company of his uncle. The little boy was not found for days and his mother appealed to communities to help find her son. The boy was found days later in a children’s home in another area. He was found wandering in the streets. A similar incident occurred in the Free State where a two-year old girl from a farm outside Bloemfontein disappeared without trace. The little girl disappeared after she was left with her siblings in the care of neighbours. Her parents had gone to look for wood. The little girl has not been found.

These two incidents are just the tip of the iceberg of the cases of missing children handled by police daily through-out the nine provinces. However, the difference in the Western Cape is that they have a Child Rapid Response Unit, which has high recovery and success rates.

The fact that the child in Wallaceden was found unharmed is proof of the turn around strategy we have piloted and implemented in regard to dealing with missing children and change the perception that these cases can only be reported after 48 hours.

The Western Cape has a child rapid response programme which works hand in hand with Bambanani volunteers in their efforts to deal with issues of missing children. And this has resulted in huge success rates of missing children who were found. Between September 2005 and April 2006, a total of 133 children were reported missing in the Western Cape. Of this total 126 were found alive, three were found dead and four are still missing.

An aspect we have to consider is how best we can employ relevant modern technologies in speedy identification, tracking and securing of these children in order to ensure that early interventions can be implemented to safeguard children.

Children living in the streets programme

The homeless children’s programme was launched in July 2004 following concerns that the situation of children living and working in the streets renders them vulnerable to involvement in crime, either as victims or offenders.

Homeless Children Provincial Capacity Building Workshops for SAPS, aimed at providing the members and other stakeholders with skills to deal with children living in the streets, were conducted and finalised in all provinces by July 2005.

The Social Crime Prevention component is in the process of developing a policy as well as guidelines for the SAPS with regard to children living in streets. A literature review has been done and the data analysis incorporated into the draft report.

Part of the actions conducted to support the homeless children’s programme include Project Childhood in the Western Cape, which focuses on the development of children. This is the project that has yielded results of the 66 children we referred to earlier. An aspect of this programme is to ensure that these children have responsible adult supervision that includes developmental activities such as sport and education. Also the Eastern Cape has a sports programme which involves soccer games with major clubs every June.

Despite the efforts I have already mentioned above, we continue to review our means of addressing matters of children living in streets in order to encourage the partnerships with other relevant institutions. Shelter for children living in streets continues to be a challenge to government and communities.

Also as part of the same project, we have guests of 66 children and their parents who are our guests. These were prodigal sons and daughters of South Africa. It is with pride that we launched the programme to re-integrate these children with their families. They are not only back at home but also went back to school.

Children in conflict with the law

My Ministry and the Department have participated on the Inter-Sectoral Child Justice Committee with the view to addressing challenges faced by the police in ensuring that their constitutional and legal obligations to limit children kept within police custody are addressed. In September 2005, the police tabled a report on the situation of children being kept in their custody in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West provinces. I am happy to report that the integrated justice system is starting to yield results. Domestic violence

A number of 91 trainers were trained by December 2005 on the reviewed domestic violence training package by the social crime prevention component. Success will be informed by our commitment to training and improving service delivery.

As government, our services to victims of domestic violence would also be greatly improved by a concerted effort in integrated multidisciplinary and preventative services.

Implementation of the anti-rape strategy

The SAPS continues to participate in the interdepartmental management team for the Anti-Rape Strategic Framework. The strategic framework focuses on prevention, the criminal justice process and support to victims. Although the SCP focus is mainly on prevention, the component also co-ordinates the implementation of the responsibilities of the SAPS in terms of the approved strategic framework.

One of the key achievements in Gauteng was the launch of a Women’s Centre at Orange Farm during May 2005. The centre provides for preventative advisory services and victim services to be provided in an integrated fashion.

During women’s month (August), the anti-rape strategy was implemented in different provinces. The continuous intervention of social crime prevention at station level enables a better understanding of the anti-rape programme.

From 25 November to 10 December 2005 with the focus on 16 Days of Activism, provincial, area and station anti-rape reviews, indabas, public awareness campaigns or workshops and road shows were conducted throughout the country.

In KwaZulu-Natal traditional leaders, religious leaders and community members were involved in public mobilisation against offending behaviour. Workshops on rape and domestic violence, aimed at improvement of service delivery and addressing stereotypes in society were conducted.

Part of the preventive actions include review sessions on the anti-rape strategy, public awareness campaigns on rape and sexual offences, workshops with regard to abuse aimed at improvement of service delivery.

We will continue to work with other departments and communities in order to improve services to victims of rape and engage in preventative activities.

Victim empowerment programme

A process for building victim friendly facilities on a national level has begun in terms of uniform standards that will ensure the comfort and acceptable environment for the victims prevails.

This database indicates that at the end of March 2006 victim friendly facilities had been established at 583 police stations, spread all over the country, with 21 more having been established from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006.

About 387 members were trained in victim empowerment. We will continue with this establishment of victim-friendly facilities and training.

Substance abuse

The issue of alcohol and drug abuse comes up often and remains a thorny and contributing factor to contact and violent crimes in our country.

This problem manifests itself in many ways. We might need to revisit the legalisation of taverns and shebeens. They continue to pose a threat to our communities and schools.

The Department of Health has passed a law which regulates smokers. The big challenge for some of our children is that they begin to experiment with smoking especially when they witness their own parents smoking. Children start experimenting with cigarettes at a very early age. As they progress with their experiment, they mix the cigarettes with something stronger like drugs. Before they even realise the consequences of their actions, they already are addicts and lose their soul and touch with communities. We must declare war against peddlers and druglords who kill our communities and destroy our children as future parents.

It is therefore imperative that local authorities also effectively exercise their duties in forcing owners of such establishments in the entertainment and leisure industry to comply with policy and municipal regulations.

The SAPS is participating in the development of the National Drug Master Plan (NDMP) together with other government departments. A Guideline Document for the Demand Reduction Strategy for Drugs (DRSD) has been finalised in order to define the role of the SAPS in reducing the supply and demand for drugs.

Crime reduction programmes

Against Crime Together (ACT)

We are more than ever mindful of the need for an intensive and extensive communication and awareness programme in regard to social crime prevention focusing on our members and communities.

The ACT campaign to be extended to all other provinces later this year seeks to increase public awareness about safeguarding our children during Child Protection Week, Youth Month and indeed throughout the year by focusing attention on crimes in selected public frequented places.

Another important goal is that of strengthening partnerships between the public and law enforcement agencies in ensuring a safe and secure environment. We would be more than satisfied if no other messages imprinted themselves on the memories and hearts of communities that day than the following two;

a) we can no longer afford to have our children living in the streets
b) we can no longer tolerate not responding when crimes are committed against our children. Restorative justice programme There is no time to be resting on our laurels and after the successful pilot of ACT in the Western Cape. We believe restorative justice is a solution in addressing the youth programme.

Operation Basadi
As part of the crime reduction programme focusing on the Reduction of Contact Crimes, Operation Basadi was launched during the 16 Days of Activism which also coincided with the United Nations No Violence against Women campaign, International Day of no violence against women and the International Human Rights Day.

The objective with Operation Basadi was to fast track all cases and ensure all participants work together with detective services. We will soon roll out this operation within the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster in a way to create an environment which is friendly to women and children.

Employee Assistance Service (EAS)

The SAPS works from the premise that our members are our most valuable assets. For this reason the Employee Assistant Service (EAS) programme enjoys a high priority focusing on both proactive and reactive measures. Proactive programmes enhance members’ well being while the reactive programmes serve members who need emotional support. The programmes also provide a telephone counselling service, one-on-one counselling and a referral base to the EAS namely psychologists, social workers and spiritual workers. The EAS offers standby service for SAPS members which include a 24-hour toll free number. A SAPS specific training video has been a valuable tool in alerting peers and commanders to the warning signs of potential suicide victims so that emotional support can be secured. We acknowledge the challenges that our members are facing and therefore we will soon re-visit the current programmes to ensure that members can cope with the complex issues that they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Safety and Security
1 June 2006
   

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