31 May 2001
INTRODUCTION:
Honourable Speaker, Premier, Members of the Executive Council, Members of the House, honoured guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. Speaker, the year 2000 was indeed a year full of many challenges. In facing these challenges as the Department, we have achieved significant successes as well as experienced some failures in the process of creating a safe and secure environment for our people. In this regard, we also had to endure painful losses of good men and women fighters against crime and loyal servants of this government.
A special thanks goes to the police management in all seven policing areas including the Provincial Commissioner's office. I also wish to thank each and every member of the various Community Policing Fora and various organisations who have heeded the clarion call to join forces with police because to them, taking responsibility for their own destiny is an article of faith.
In keeping with the approach outlined in the National Crime Prevention Strategy and the White Paper on Safety and Security, this budget advocates a dual approach to safety and security -effective and efficient law enforcement and the provision of crime prevention programs to reduce the occurrence of crime.
Speaker, before I go on with my presentation allow me to refer to the Constitution, which I believe all of us respect and regard as the supreme law of the country. I wish refer to 206(3) which states,
"Each province is entitled-
(a) to monitor police conduct;
(b) to oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service, including receiving reports on the police service;
(c) to promote good relations between the police and the community;
(d) to assess the effectiveness of visible policing; and
(e) to liaise with the Cabinet member responsible for policing with respect to crime and policing in the province.
I am referring to this section so that all of us are very clear about what the role of provinces with is, regard to policing. I have observed that some of the political parties have in the past voted against our budget because they are of the opinion that provinces should have more say with regard to police service. We are all politicians in this house and therefore we will interpret this section in order to suit our political party lines. The fact of the matter is that we from the ANC believe that provinces have a lot to do when it comes to dealing with crime irrespective of what powers we have to command and control the police.
I have already started with an intense monitoring and evaluation exercise of police service within the province by visiting a number of stations. These visits are sometimes unannounced and some are structured and done with the police management and the inspectorate. This approach necessitated that together with police management we implement corrective measures that will ensure proper and efficient service delivery.
Through this monitoring and evaluation exercise we have realised that there is a problem with data gathering, the recruitment policy, utilisation of resources and unavailability of senior officials after hours.
One of the important interventions that we have come up is the clustering of police stations so as to maximize the utilisation of resources and have great impact in terms of crime combating. These stations have initiated joint operations within their precinct and sharing information on various operational matters.
As part of utilizing police personnel at our disposal better, we are going to remove senior officers from performing support services and move them to functional services where their skills are needed most. Currently there are about 4000 members that are currently performing support services and there is a programme to transfer them to functional services. It my belief and that of the ANC that these interventions will help to strengthen the police services and boost the moral of the police.
Speaker, it is no secret that we have made an undertaking that we will better the lives of our people through interaction and partnerships with various stakeholders. In order to achieve this, a number of initiatives have been planned for this year and our emphasis will be mainly on strengthening and capacitating Community Based Organisations including Community Policing Fora, solid productive relations with business entities and coordination of efforts on the implementation of social crime prevention initiati!ves with local authorities.
One of our priorities for this financial year is to ensure that we embark on integrated social crime prevention initiatives. This involves taking into consideration external factors that impact on peace and stability in local communities. These include unemployment, illiteracy, housing infrastructure, health issues and the shortage of recreational facilities. This government has consistently committed itself to ensuring that South Africans are free from want and fear.
Indeed the President has, on behalf government, made a commitment to address the relationship between crime and poverty; we have concretized that symbiotic relationship in our work. We also have a responsibility of ensuring that there is a balance between respect for human life and dignity, and respect for rule of law.
In order to deal with the problem of crime, our priorities and focus areas have not changed. Speaker, after our strategic sessions we have opted to retain our priorities, and they include the following: -
MONITORING AND EVALUATION:
According to the White Paper on Safety and Security the purpose of monitoring at a provincial level is to ensure that government policy is adhered to, government objectives are achieved and that the needs of communities are addressed.
As part of exercising our core constitutional mandate, that is, Monitoring and Evaluating the police, we have developed a Monitoring and Evaluation strategy document. This is in line with the Constitution and the SAPS Act, which gives provinces powers to ensure that police provide service delivery in accordance with national policy and standards.
Since our mandate involves monitoring the police, we have identified a need for monitoring and evaluating all key institutions within the Criminal Justice Cluster at a provincial level. A number of meetings and workshops have been held with political as well as administrative heads of various departments in order to jointly monitor and evaluate the CJS. The monitoring and evaluation programme of the department will also focus on Metropolitan Police. This development illustrates the understanding that an integrated approach to safety and security in the province is critically needed.
For this current financial year we have developed a plan that will see us visiting about 121 police stations within the province in order to look at service delivery and implementation of station plans. The issue of resources within the police has been in most instances used as an excuse not to perform duties as expected. The process of obtaining a full audit of both immovable and movable assets has been initiated. In this regard we will do an inventory of all SAPS assets in the province and then determine the distribution, allocation and usage of such resources.
A complaints tracking system has been developed and staff employed to attend to complaints from members of the public about police inefficiency and negligence when handling their cases. Since this system was established we receive about 80 complaints a month. The nature of complaints ranges from poor investigation, no feedback to complainants and police negligence.
We have established a complaints telephone line that operates on a 24-hour basis and in all the seven policing areas including Provincial Commissioners office we have police officers that are always available to help members of the public with their complaints against police.
In an effort to develop a blueprint for transformation in the SAPS in Gauteng we commissioned a diagnostic audit on the West Rand that will give us a fair idea of the causes of inefficiencies in the system that ultimately translate to poor service delivery. The diagnostic audit report will be presented to me on the 5th June 2001 and a series of feedback meetings have already been scheduled for other stakeholders. It is expected that this audit will provide us with sufficient information that will inform the process of organisational transformation and precisely where change interventions are required within the 11 main police stations and 5 satellite stations.
This process has been hailed as a success because of the involvement of various stakeholders within the area including trade unions, local govt and other components of the criminal justice system. A series of workshops have been planned in order to give feedback on the outcome of the project.
We have developed a comprehensive plan to deal with, not only the containment of crime as a short-term strategy, but a plan which will enable us to prevent crime on a long-term basis with more emphasis on social crime prevention. We have started to implement programmes aimed at changing and improving the lives of our people.
During our visit to police stations a number of problems were identified and recommendations given to police management for implementation. We have vigorously asserted our right to monitor service delivery of the police, and where appropriate, we share their pride and glory when they succeed.
Looking at the broader crime situation within our province and the country as a whole, we can hail police operations that have been put in place and we can state that, in general, the SAPS and other law enforcement agencies are getting on top of the situation.
COORDINATION OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
It is a known fact that the South African Criminal Justice System rests primarily on three pillars: the police, who are responsible for preventing and investigating crime, and apprehending suspected criminals. The prosecuting authority and the courts, which prosecute, convict and punish the accused that are found guilty of the crimes. Correctional Services, which carries out sentences imposed by the courts and seeks to rehabilitate the convicted criminals in its care.
The fact that you have national departments functioning across the three spheres of government creates a problem with regard to co-ordination and co-operation. Last year I reported to this house that the Executive Council has entrusted the Department, with the responsibility to co-ordinate the activities of the Criminal Justice Cluster within the province. Therefore a need for a co-ordination strategy for the cluster exists.
We have identified the following strategic priorities for coordination:
The co-ordination of the Criminal Justice Cluster within the province will receive priority and a number of projects will be implemented. The implementation of the Domestic Violence Act has received a lot of attention and focus is on ensuring that we deal with gaps and problems identified by each sector. A typical example of a co-ordinated effort in dealing with public complaints and attempting to ensure an integrated approach, Ms Ann Ribets who is here with us today and is a victim of domestic violence spanning over many years, was assisted by this department by making sure that she and others in the same situation are given expert advice and service by the CJS value chain.
In this particular case, the court refused to make changes to the conditions of the interdict regarding the removal of the fire-arm, incessant telephone calls and that if she changed domicillum the interdict would not protect her. Through our intervention all of this was changed and the victim sits here today confident that justice will prevail after the defence successfully got a new magistrate to hear the case and was given bail. Each time he contravened the bail conditions we ensured that he got arrested until finally he conceded that all his misdemeanours and pleaded guilty. Another victim of the system who was accused of ratting by his family and disowned sits here with us today confident that the system has its checks and balances to ensure that justice prevails. After more than a year of being on the run from his children and thugs Mr Lawrence Thabethe is now re-united with his family and back at his family home.
In this case, Speaker, Mr Thabethe was denied protection by the witness protection programme after the SAPS had put his life in danger by publicly saying that he had provided them with information that alleges his nephews and sons collusion in a cash heist.
This interaction has assisted us in ensuring that there is co-ordination of activities at provincial and local level especially those that are being driven from national. This approach will make certain that when police investigate; they conduct a thorough job so that when a case is handed over for prosecution, it would have been investigated in a thorough and efficient manner. To this end, the Heads of these components in the province will develop Service Level Agreements.
In this regard Speaker, meetings and workshops have been held with various components of the Criminal Justice System in the province. We have identified the following projects for implementation.
Integrated Justice System; Performance Management Systems, Management Information System to Monitor Court Performance; Feasibility Study in terms of Municipal Courts, Upgrading of jurisdiction of certain courts that have huge backlog and marketing of pre-trial services.
Our ultimate goal is to ensure that when a magistrate passes a sentence, this will be based on a case that has been investigated thoroughly. This will ensure that sentencing is linked to the type of crime that has been committed by the suspect. Prosecution-led and intelligence driven investigations are a key element in the fight against crime.
We have established a structure that will look at, strategic, operational and tactical issues for an effective CJS. Our department will be responsible for ensuring effective co-ordination of the Cluster and this will be done in close co-operation with the lead departments.
COMMUNITY MOBILISATION:
The process of strengthening community police relations in various areas has begun and a number of workshops and meetings were arranged in order to allow a number of community based structures to work with the police. The Secretariat and myself have already started to visit a number of police stations and specialised units in order to ascertain from the police as to what is needed to improve service delivery and ensure that their safety is guaranteed.
The liaison between the Department and other stakeholders is continuing and will be enhanced more as we go along. We have met with various organisations like churches, business, women's groups, youth formations etc. in order to strengthen police community relations. Various Community Police Fora have already started to implement social crime prevention projects funded by the department in their different localities. Our government has since 1994 introduced a policy on community policing with the aim of changing the way police have in the past been dealing with crime.
A number of problems have been encountered both by the police and the community and this has necessitated the government to initiate a process of drafting a policy that will regulate Community Policing Forums. Our view is that there should be a uniform approach throughout the province and that the regulation of these structures should assist in enhancing the relations between the police and the communities they serve.
Whilst we put in place the process of regulating the CPFs, we have on the other hand started a process of capacitating members of these fora with the necessary skills that will help them to implement projects successfully.
About 30 of them have been trained in various skills like Project Management, Financial Management and Fundraising Skills. A number of community-based organisations that are involved in crime prevention project have been identified in the seven policing areas and have already submitted their business plans for consideration.
The projects that will be initiated with these organisations will greatly assist with dealing with crime and violence. These include amongst other things, raising public awareness and initiating sustainable campaigns on various issues that impact on crime situation. Following a workshop that we had with Black Business Leaders last year, progress has been and various companies have made pledges to go into partnership with us and we are looking at getting more resources for the police and also capacitate various community based structures. Companies such as Uthingo are already involved with various CPFs in Soweto and they are looking at expanding to other areas.
IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL CRIME PREVENTION
The department has prioritised the co-ordination and implementation of social crime prevention projects by various departments. In this regard a Cabinet memorandum was submitted to the Executive Council in order to ensure that social crime prevention initiatives are coordinated in a structured way.
To show that we are concerned about various other issues that contribute to crime, we have set aside an amount R5, 5 million for the implementation of social crime prevention projects. These projects will be implemented throughout the province and this will be done in partnership with various Community Police Fora and Community Based Organisations. The implementation will focus mainly on priorities identified by the department together with various stakeholders in each policing area based on crime patterns.
The responsibility of dealing with crime prevention at a local level has been given to provinces and local authorities through the White Paper on Safety and Security. According to the White Paper "Provincial and Local governments have a critical role to play in ensuring safer communities. In particular, provincial government has a key role to play in the monitoring of the police as well as co-ordination of a range of agencies to ensure social crime prevention" (p30).
Since the Local Government elections we have already started to engage Executive Mayors and my public safety counterparts in the three Metros and District Councils. I have already sensitised them about the responsibility of local government in crime prevention and they are in a process of developing their own local crime prevention strategies, of course with the assistance from my department. Such strategies will form part and parcel of their broad Integrated Development Plans. We are also expecting Ward Councillors to integrate their activities and form partnerships with various CPFs sub-forums in order to take into account community needs in the development of their community.
Our ultimate target is to see local government dealing with issues that are within their own competences. It is a known fact by all of us that crime is not caused by one event but rather results from a combination of many factors. Whether or not crime is committed usually depends on three sets of characteristics, which are: those of the offender, those of the potential offender, and those of the environment where crime is likely to be committed.
The establishment of Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department has enhanced visible policing and within a short space of time a number of arrests have been made. We are now busy evaluating the application of establishing Metro police for Ekurhuleni and Tshwane is doing a feasibility study and business plan. We are striving at ensuring that before the end of this fiscal year Metro Police in all the metros will be fully functional subject to the financial viability of their applications.
Our contribution to the implementation of Urban Safety Strategy will mainly focus in Alexandra and Katlehong and the focus on Youth - as victims and as perpetrators of crime. We are also going to support the implementation of existing social crime prevention projects such as the one focusing on substance abuse. We are already interacting with various stakeholders including tavern and shebeen owners in order to have a holistic approach.
The good results achieved after the installation of the CCTV in Johannesburg CBD has necessitated us to put plans to roll out of Close Circuit Television to other areas within Greater Johannesburg. Since its installation crime in the CBD has decreased dramatically. We are also having discussions with other agencies such as Denel in order to implement advanced surveillance equipment within strategic areas within the province, all this in an effort to ensure the safety of our people and visitors to Gauteng.
Various local authorities are in a process of auditing and assessing the usage of Surveillance Technology in their areas. This process would assist in determining the resources as well as comprehensive strategy to be implemented in consultation with various law-enforcement agencies.
The development of a rural safety plan for the province is at an advanced stage and we have identified areas within the West Rand and peri- urban areas near Pretoria for implementation. This is done in partnership with local authorities, police, unions, farm owners and workers. The ultimate aim is to ensure that service delivery in these areas is improved and the rural dwellers enjoy the benefits that the constitution enunciates around ensuring a safe and secure environment for all and deal with issues that contribute to crime. This plan will ultimately be rolled-out throughout the peri-urban areas of Gauteng.
The atrocities committed within the farming communities have necessitated us to make serious interventions. We are looking at educating farm workers about their rights and discouraging the recruitment of illegal immigrants. One of the serious problems that we have to deal with effectively is to make sure that there is no collusion between police, the SANDF and farm owners against helpless farm workers and dwellers. Whilst we emphasised that law enforcement should take place we also have to guard against excessive use of force and that workers and community at large are not being terrorised under the disguise of law enforcement.
Violence Against Women, Children and the Elderly With regard to the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, we have identified a number of shortcomings and efforts to correct the situation we are going to provide further training sessions for police officials and members of Community Police Forums. The training will assist them in ensuring that victims of domestic violence receive proper attention and assistance especially with regard to taking of statements and being more sensitive to victims.
One of the weaknesses that we have identified is that police officials do not adhere to standing orders or the national instructions with regard to the implementation of the domestic violence Act. As part of this project we are going to intensify our monitoring and evaluation to ensure that police provide necessary attention to victims as stipulated in the Act and National Directives.
In order for the department and other agencies to be able to co-ordinate and implement programmes aimed at dealing with violence against women, an audit of existing initiatives has been done. The findings suggest that there are number of initiatives undertaken but coordination is lacking and this therefore compromises impact and service delivery.
Projects aimed at dealing with violence against women are already being implemented in areas such as Alexandra, Soweto, Katlehong, and Sebokeng.
This was done in conjunction with various Non-governmental organisations and community-based structures by conducting educational workshops; raise awareness and also distributing educational material.
The provision of services to victims of rape and any form of abuse has been made possible by opening Trauma Centres in various police stations.
More are being targeted for police stations that are in remote areas. A study to determine the need for such centres to be opened in various areas is currently underway. In this regard we are looking at crime pattern analyses, needs of the police stations and also how to link each of the identified police stations to a support centre.
Upon completion of this study we will be in a position to put the necessary resources in consultation with the Departments of Health, Social Services and the police. The One Stop Centre in Alexandra Clinic which, since its establishment, has assisted a number of victims to have more access on a 24 hours basis to professional help from the district surgeon, police officers and counsellors.
We are currently finalizing the acceptance of a donation of building by Eskom that will be used for sheltering and counselling of raped and abused women. Various organisations under the umbrella of the Gauteng Network on Violence Against Women will provide services and the Department of Social Services will play a significant role in this project. Our approach is to see victims feel more like survivors. In order for such centres to be successful, we will solicit the services of volunteers. In various police stations it has been proved that volunteers could play an important role by explaining various procedures to victims. This will be effective and beneficial if members of the public begin to assume a more visible role within their communities.
Youth Programmes
If we are to deal with crime effectively we must concentrate and coordinate efforts that are aimed at dealing with the young people who are engaged in and or at risk of engaging in criminal activities.
In partnership with Joint Enrichment Project we are in a process implementing a project called REACH OUT PROJECT and we are targeting young men and women who are between the ages of 18 and 25. We have identified a need to develop a programme for young people in conflict with the law and to provide them with constructive alternatives in order to improve the quality of their lives.
Through this project we want our youth to have access to opportunities that will enable them to generate a legal income and sustain healthy relations in their communities.
During December 2000 we took about 60 youths to a youth camp and they were trained in various life skills and empower them with knowledge to identify, initiate, develop and manage community development projects. We are now busy finalizing the implementation plan for the last two phases of this project and the main focus is on drug awareness and community project development with the focus on police stations.
School Based Crime Prevention:
I have reported in this house previously that violence in schools needs our urgent intervention. I am happy to announce that the TIISA THUTO project has been implemented with great success in the 30 schools that were identified within Soweto. Through this project, crime levels in schools have been reduced dramatically and this has allowed the process of effective teaching and learning to take place. This has been achieved through encouraging the full participation of parents and other role players in establishing and managing safety in schools.
In preparation for the rollout of this project to other affected areas, the project is being evaluated in order to rework the conceptual model of the schools project into a model of excellence. Once the external evaluation is completed, the model will be replicated in East Rand, Pretoria, Alexandra and the Vaal. The National Crime Prevention Centre has availed funds for the rollout and they will be working with us and other role-players where we have targeted about 15 schools in each area. For this programme to realise its objectives, there has to be strong co-ordination with the districts offices of the Education Department.
One of the major issues that we want to address through this programme is the proliferation of and the use of firearms. This will add value to the initiatives that we have already started with Gun-Free South Africa and other Community Based Organisations in areas such as Sebokeng and Kathorus.
I therefore wish to thank all the stakeholders and role players that have contributed to the success of this project and hope that community members will carry on with activities to ensure that results gained are not lost.
The Safety Teams that are constituted by the police, parents, teachers and students will continue with ensuring that the environment within these schools is maintained at all times. Police will always be available to maintain high visibility in schools that have been identified as problematic.
The Adopt-A-Cop Programme has been incorporated into the schools programme and this has made it possible for police to help schools during crisis situation and rally learners around crime prevention issues. Over the past few months the Department has been working with two best practice Adopt-A=Cop Units in order to revisit and revive the programme. A manual has been redesigned and work-shopped with the Johannesburg and Soweto policing areas as a pilot phase.
CHALLENGES:
Speaker, we are quite aware that we are faced with a lot of challenges and I wish to assure members of this house and the public at large that we are geared to deal with such challenges head on. One of the key challenges that we have to continuously deal with is the improvement of service delivery.
I have started a process of meeting quarterly with police management in order for us to deal with problems identified in each area. The distribution of resources to stations where they are needed most will remain a challenge.
One of the issues that I am currently dealing with and will continue doing so, is the proper utilisation of the limited resources by police officials.
It is my belief that we have resources at our disposal, but the management thereof is still lacking.
I am already engaged in talks with the National Minister as well the National Commissioner with regard to the allocation of funds for the province. Our view is that allocation of funds should be based on thorough assessment of crime patterns and needs of the community.
The growth of the population will always remain a problem especially here in Gauteng where we are experiencing an influx of people for employment purposes. The process of integrated planning within government is slowly gaining momentum and we still have to improve a lot.
CONCLUSION:
Our department has gone a long way in transforming the SAPS into the custodians of our democracy, and will encourage them to strive towards excellence in serving our communities. While we are responsible for amongst others, promotion of good community police relations, we are not going to compromise our core function of monitoring and evaluation of the SAPS in order to ensure the realization of the policy prerogatives of this government.
In conclusion, Speaker the negative effects of crime in Gauteng impact on the perceptions our country as a whole. Further, it impacts on the lives of Gauteng citizens, to the extent that we can no longer tolerate criminality. I wish to thank each and every member of our society who has contributed positively to reduce the levels of crime in our province and the country and urge them to do so. I also wish to thank each and every staff member from my department who have assisted me in fulfilling the responsibilities given to me by the Premier as well as our Executive Council and members of this house particularly from the ANC.
We are still on course with our vision, irrespective of problems that we encounter on a daily basis. I therefore wish to conclude by saying, all is not lost, and I believe that this budget will strive towards improving the lives of the electorate and further contribute to the realization of a safe and secure environment.
I thank you.
For more enquiries contact: Mongezi Mnyani (Department of Provincial Safety and Liaison) - 082 571 3590