Honourable Chairperson,

Honourable Minister and Deputy Minister,

Honourable Premiers,

Honourable Members,

and Fellow South Africans, Good afternoon

It is a privilege to speak in this Chamber as a special delegate from the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

More now than ever, and especially following the violent unrest experienced in July, this country needs solutions when it comes to policing.

The devolution of police control to allow for provincial police forces, allows for a differentiated approach and for decision-making to take place as close to the ground as possible; where things happen.

According to the Institute for Security Studies, “Police numbers will drop by a sizable 24 000 posts over the next three years due to public sector budget cuts. The impact will be acute at station level, with nearly 2 000 fewer detectives and 11 000 fewer visible police officials. Yet only 15 posts will be lost at the top level of general and brigadier. This means the expensive and ineffective senior management structure largely remains while thousands of operational posts are slashed.”