Cape Town, 22 August 2002
In my budget vote speech to Parliament in June, I outlined a number of initiatives and programmes, both organisational and operational, which are underway within the South African Police Service.
I would like this morning to travel with you over some of that ground. I am certain you will appreciate the necessity continuously to assess the work we do, so that we do not lose our focus on our crime combating programmes. I would like to share with you, therefore, what the crime situation at this point looks like and what progress we are making in regard to sector policing, the recruitment drive to increase the capacity of the SAPS and legislative initiatives. I would also like to touch on the security arrangements for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Following the implementation two years ago of the National Crime Combating Strategy (NCCS), crime has been decreasing steadily across the country. The police effort in this regard has benefited tremendously from the President's call for volunteers to come forward and help to secure a better life for all our people from all walks of life. Given that the people are the best repository for intelligence, information received from our communities in recent times has enhanced the capacity for successful investigations and arrests. The breakthroughs we have scored have had a lot to do with the contribution members of the South African population have made and continue to make in the fight against crime.
This is a partnership we want to nurture and consolidate. It is the shield we need to successfully implement the vision to provide an environment of safety and security for all our people.
We continue to apply special focus on the 145 station areas we identified as regions where the highest incidence of crime is recorded. Between March 15 and August 20 the following numbers of arrests and seizures for prioritized crimes in the target areas occurred: 75 166 arrests were effected, 4 963 illegal firearms were seized, and 3 720 stolen vehicles were confiscated.
The statistics we have been able to compile indicate the following situation that some crimes have gone down drastically when compared to last year. The statistics for the first six months of this year show an improvement compared to the figures for the same period last year. For example:
Housebreaking at business premises has decreased by 16,1%, theft of motor vehicles has gone down by 7,5% and commercial crime has dropped by as much as 42,1%.
We must and will maintain the successes that have been achieved over the past two years.
In keeping with what I said in my Budget Vote speech, all Public Order Policing units are being transformed in order to launch intelligence-driven operations aimed at reducing crime. These operations are launched in areas where crime is not decreasing at an adequate pace. The plan, of course, is to stop crime before it happens. Lest we forget: our strategy talks mostly to crime prevention.
The SAPS has purchased nearly 50 high-performance vehicles to pay particular attention to various routes on land that are used to transport stolen vehicles and goods, drugs and other contraband, and where cash-in-transit robberies occur. New helicopters have also been acquired to provide air support to the mobile task teams. The helicopter fleet will also be expanded in the coming years. The Police Service is currently developing an operational plan to deploy an unmanned, aerial surveillance vehicle that will assist in directing the activities of members on the ground.
Police visibility in clearly demarcated sectors has become quite urgent in the Service's crime prevention programme. This approach, known as sector policing, implies that policing will be conducted in smaller, more manageable geographical areas in future.
Initially, we want to target areas where there is a high concentration of crime but, as resources become available, we will implement sector policing nationally. The police, who will be deployed in the new crime sectors, will be highly mobile and able to take proactive action. Based on current successes, reservists will continue to be deployed and communities will form partnerships with the police to enhance and sustain the concept of sector policing. Those who will be deployed in this manner will be carefully chosen and provided with the appropriate resources. We want them, in the end, to stop crime before it happens.
The budget allocation for this year will enable us to enlist approximately 7 100 new police recruits and 8 900 civilian employees. An additional 18 100 police recruits and 6 460 civilian employees will be enlisted in the subsequent two years. After replacing our loss in personnel the police numbers will increase by 16 200 new officials and 12 360 civilian employees. The civilian personnel will be employed to alleviate the administrative burden. By 2005 it is envisaged that the Police Service will have 147 560 employees.
The civilian complement within the SAPS will undertake the administrative functions which some of the trained police personnel fulfil at this time. The police officials will be released for visible policing.
A total of 7 100 entry-level constables have been and are still to be recruited this year. New recruits undergo basic training at police colleges in Pretoria, Oudtshoorn, Bisho, Graaff Reinet and Chatsworth. By tomorrow, 900 new recruits will have completed the first phase of a three-month training programme and will go into the next phase of intense tactical training for a month. When they complete their training they will report for duty at priority station areas. The 1 450 recruits who are receiving training at the Pretoria Training College will complete their course on August 29. On September 9 and 30 respectively, 3 150 new recruits will begin their basic training. Towards the end of the financial year in March 2003 a total of 4 100 additional police officials (after deducting the projected normal losses in personnel) will be deployed in our station areas. The majority of these recruits will eventually be deployed as part of the 100 sector-policing units in areas that exhibit the highest incidence of crime. We have introduced sector policing in 50 priority areas to date. Initial indications are that a noticeable reduction in crime has already taken place in those areas. More than 100 sector managers have already been trained. Other managers are currently undergoing training which they will complete in the course of this year.
The various Metro Police forces will be deployed in support of the sector police officials in the priority areas.
In 2000, Parliament passed the Firearms Control Act. As part of our effort to modernise and tighten our legislative tools to fight crime, I formally introduced to Parliament early this month a new Explosives Bill.
Developments such as a new classification system for explosives by the United Nations, the international law requirements of the United Nations Suppression of Terrorist Bombings Convention, relating to the prevention, prosecution and punishment of acts related to explosions in public places, inadequate penalties in the present Explosives Act of 1956, and the need to align penalties with certain prescribed minimum sentences, are the main factors which called for a review of the present legislation.
Following decisions by the Constitutional Court, the presumptions that inform the present Act were reviewed and were aligned to the prescripts that underpin the Firearms Control Act. The development of new explosives called for a redefinition of explosives. Additional tools to investigate criminal explosions are included in the Bill. For instance, the police will be allowed, under defined circumstances, to obtain fingerprints and other prints or bodily samples from suspects without having to arrest them.
The Bill will also improve control over pyrotechnics and fireworks. The Bill contains novel provisions regarding a databank, the sampling of newly imported and locally manufactured explosives in order to trace the origin of explosives, and their proper labelling and packaging. End-user certificates and brokering are included in the Bill regarding the import and export of and the trade in explosives.
In future, persons found to be in unlawful possession of explosives will have to bear the cost of the destruction of the explosives, if so required. The Bill criminalizes the use of imitations of explosives. Any person who illegally creates, distributes, imports or is found to be in possession of publications that contain methods of synthesizing explosives, or obtains information on such methods with the intent to commit an offence will also be guilty of a crime. The Act will also enforce an improved system of record keeping for better control of explosives, making the reporting of lost or stolen explosives obligatory.
The other day I met with a delegation from Agri-SA. The meeting, in the first instance, was to pick up on previous engagements with my predecessor, Cde Steve Tshwete. In the context of the meeting, many questions and concerns were raised regarding the safety and security of all our people, generally, but especially so the situation of South Africa's farming community.
I want to reiterate what the President has said on a number of occasions; that there will be no land-grab in South Africa. No farmers wil be chased off their farms.
The rural and farming areas of our country will also benefit from our sector-policing strategy.
There is a matter that keeps cropping up in Parliament and elsewhere that I would like to address in regard to farm attacks and murders. On May 15 this year, I received a letter from Advocate Charl du Plessis, who was responding to my communication of May 13, on the enquiry he is conducting on behalf of the Ministry for Safety and Security. The enquiry seeks to understand the reasons for farm attacks and killings in our country.
That enquiry is very difficult, Adv Du Plessis told me. It is going to be longer, therefore, than we had anticipated. We do not expect a report from that enquiry, in the circumstances, until late this year. I want to repeat: We don't have a report yet. Those who believe such a report exists are either victims of misinformation or are blatantly mischievous.
Finally, I would like to deal with the matter of the security of visitors to South Africa to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Development. An integrated security strategy is in place with the objective of creating a safe and secure environment for all the delegates who will participate in the Summit. The South African Police Service will lead the security operation and will be assisted by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Gautrans, the Ekhuruleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg Metro Police, the intelligence community, and the other relevant security agencies.
Thousands of members have already been deployed to conduct general day-to-day crime prevention operations. These include stop and search operations and roadblocks, as determined by tactical intelligence.
The police respect the right of people to express themselves. This right, however, must be read together with the limitations prescribed by the Regulation of Gatherings Act. This requires, among other things, that notification of gatherings and marches must be given in advance to the specific local authority. A large number of Public Order Police members will be deployed to ensure the safety of citizens, demonstrators and property during the Summit. Should an illegal gathering or march take place, the security forces will take the necessary action.
A comprehensive aerial security plan has been developed for the Summit. Security has been stepped up at ports of entry, including all major airports, with special emphasis on Johannesburg International Airport.
All our plans respond to the desire to ensure that the Summit takes place in an atmosphere that will be permeated by peace and stability to allow for unhindered participation in every aspect of the Summit by all the delegates. We also aim to correct the misperceptions about safety and security in South Africa in general and in Gau!, in particular, and hope that our effort will help to attract the attention of foreign tourists and investors alike. The success of the security strategy and the Summit depends on the partnership between the SAPS, the community and other stakeholders.
In conclusion I again want to thank all the people who are investing their time and energy in the fight against crime. They range from business people to reservists and volunteers who answered the Presidents call to lend a hand to build a better life for all. These efforts are addressing crime in a manner that will improve the quality of life of all the people, as Government and people continue to unite against crime.
Finally, many members of the Police Service make arrests in situations of confrontation in which they sustain permanent injury or die at the hands of gun-wielding criminals. They are prepared to lay down their lives in the interest of creating the safe and secure environment we need in order to improve the quality of our lives. In the past week we have again witnessed the callous slaying of police officials. The time has come for all law-abiding people to recognize that the death of police officials threatens our very existence as a democracy, and that they should not hesitate to reveal the identity of the criminals responsible for committing these acts.
Thank you.