24 February 2002
Mpumalanga, Sunday 24 February 2002
Director of Ceremonies,
The Premier, Mr Ndaweni Mahlangu,
MEC for Safety and Security, Mr Thabang Makwetla,
Your Excellencies, Mayors of Enkangela District and Emalahleni Municipality
The Provincial Police Commissioner, Mr E Nkabinde,
Representatives of Provincial and Local Government,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very happy to join you in the launch of this exemplary partnership against crime between the community, business and Government.
It is indeed a great pleasure for me to see that the people of Vosman have come together in the fight against crime.
Let me start by congratulating the local ANC leadership for the project that is taking place today. They are reminding us of our responsibility as a community in fighting crime and rooting out what fuels it.
The provincial government has established a sound provincial Multi Agency Mechanism through which it tackles crime, and which requires your active support as the community of Vosman. This mechanism is a welcome response to the needs of the community in this area.
Comrades,
You are all aware of the problems that existed prior to the establishment of the Vosman Police Station in 1999. The police station was based at Witbank, fifteen kilometres away, and it was under-resourced and understaffed.
As you are also well aware, since the inception of the Vosman police station the situation has improved a lot. Now, there are eighty-three police officers and eight civilians stationed at this community service centre.
There is also a new station under construction, which will address the lack of detention facilities. The officers have ten vehicles at their disposal. There is an active and functioning community police forum.
Despite this, there are still enormous challenges to be faced in this area. In 2001, Vosman was rated third on the provincial list of top ten crime priority stations and that shows the urgent need for the type of intervention that is being launched today.
When the President called on all of us to revive the tradition of letsema, volunteerism, many South Africans listed. Already hundreds of people have turned up at police stations to assist in the fight against crime. This is indeed laudable, as we need a community driven approach if we are to build a safer, more peaceful community. Each one of us has a role to play, through a number of ways, as volunteers and reservists, as well as through reporting criminal activity.
Comrades, ladies and gentlemen,
One of the issues we need to tackle, which contributes to the crime in our communities, is the market we as communities provide for stolen goods. I am glad this province has chosen to! focus directly on this problem as it fuels crime.
We call upon all citizens in our country to make a pledge to stop buying stolen goods, no matter how cheap or much needed they may be. We need to remember that in addition to perpetuating crime, a life may have been lost when criminals took possession of the goods. By buying stolen goods, your hands may also be dripping with an innocent person's blood.
Businesses are prime targets of crime, and therefore must co-own, together with the Government and community, the partnership against crime. In this regard, we commend Highveld Steel for their contribution towards the renovation of the Community Service Centre, and the extra police vehicle they have sponsored.
Comrades, Government is already playing its part. We are dealing with crime in a holistic, integrated and cross-sectoral manner. During the Budget speech on Wednesday, the Government announced that it would spend more than five billion rand recruiting sixteen thousand more police.
We will also spend eight hundred and twenty six million rand over three years to make courts more effective. More convictions will overburden our already over-populated prisons. That's why we increased our spending on correctional services from seven to eight billion rand. Together with the many tough laws already in place, our message is clear. The Government is tough on crime.
Comrades, we are also mindful of the fact that the escalation of crime is a result of the moral degeneration of our society, a subject we have spoken about quite a lot recently.
YOU WILL RECALL THAT ON NOVEMBER 14 LAST YEAR, DURING A DEBATE ON THE ALARMING INCIDENCE ON THE RAPE OF CHILDREN IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, WE ANNOUNCED THAT WE WOULD HOLD A CONSULTATIVE SUMMIT ON THE ISSUE OF MORAL RENEWAL IN OUR COUNTRY AS A MATTER OF URGENCY.
I WOULD THEREFORE LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE MORAL REGENERATION SUMMIT WILL BE HELD ON THE 18TH OF APRIL 2002 AT THE WATERKLOOF AIR FORCE BASE IN PRETORIA.
AT THIS SUMMIT, WE WILL ALSO LAUNCH THE COUNTRY'S MORAL REGENERATION MOVEMENT.
We are launching this movement and holding the summit because we believe that our citizens have high moral values and are concerned about the anti-social act, which have engulfed our country recently. This became clear with the reaction that we saw in the country when we faced the shocking reports of rapes of infants. The whole nation was united in its revulsion at the dastardly acts, which depicted moral depravity of the highest order.
The Moral Regeneration Movement is a partnership between government and civil society, and is a framework to encourage, facilitate, sensitise and network the response of every sector of our society.
It envisages a confident community with a strong moral fibre, and its mission is to revive the spirit of ubuntu, and to affirm the noble values expressed in our Constitution.
The main focus will be on empowering local communities to strengthen the moral and spiritual life of the nation. We expect that the Summit will draw up a concrete programme of action on how to approach this historic task.
Representatives of various government and civil society formations will get together to chart the way forward, and lay the foundations for a mass-based movement.
As President Mbeki said in the State of the Nation address on 8 February 2002, "as we were our own liberators in resistance against apartheid so too should we today act as our own liberators in dealing with its legacy".
We call on all South Africans to join in the partnership to stop the ongoing decay of our proud values, ethics and morality.
In the spirit of letsema, join us in the movement towards moral regeneration, and start there, by taking part in the campaign against stolen goods and volunteering in various other campaigns at the level closest to home.
It is never too late to make a contribution to ensuring a better life for all.
I thank you.