Western Cape Appropriation Bill: Department of Community Safety

Police Oversight, Community Safety and Cultural Affairs (WCPP)

13 March 2018
Chairperson: Ms M Wenger (DA)
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Meeting Summary

The Chairperson opened the meeting by asking the committee members and the delegates to introduce themselves. The Chairperson communicated the agenda of the meeting.

Mr Dan Plato, Western Cape Minister of Community, said that the DOCS had been doing well in the years and adhered to sound financial practice. He said they would continue to fulfill their financial mandate. He said they supported the South African Police Services (SAPS) as far they can despite many problems in the communities. He said the major problem they were facing were; the unavailability of a Mayor in some arrears and aligning their budget to address these. He said the WCLA has a good working relationship with them and this helped their work significantly.

Mr Gideon Morris, Head of Department (HOD): Department of Community Safety (DOCS), said there was a total increase of R12.4m and that was from Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) conditional grant increase. He said they had achieved so well on the Youth Programme hence the increase and also this looked at the neighborhood structure.

Dr Luzuko Mdunyelwa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Western Cape Liquor Authority (WCLA), said he was pleased with the DOCS support and was starting to firm their internal control. He said there were increases in revenue and they looked at adding stuff to curb illegal distribution of liquor

The members raised concerns on the on how the DOCS make sure the neighborhood watches comply with the standards set

The members asked for information on the Western Cape advisory committee completion.

The department made mention of the significant progress they are making and the commitment to come back to the committee after the amendments to the liquor act has been tabled to the cabinet. The Department committed to delivering all the details requested by the committee members 

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting by asking the Department of Community Safety (DOCS) delegation and the committee members to introduce themselves.

Remarks by the Member of the Executive Council (MEC)   

Mr Dan Plato, Western Cape Minister of Community, said that the DOCS had been doing well in the years and adhered to sound financial practice. He said they would continue to fulfill their financial mandate. He said they supported the South African Police Services (SAPS) as far they can despite many problems in the communities. He said the major problem they were facing were; the unavailability of a Mayor in some arrears and aligning their budget to address these. He said the WCLA has a good working relationship with them and this helped their work significantly.

Mr Gideon Morris, Head of Department (HOD): Department of Community Safety (DOCS), said there was a total increase of R12.4m and that was from Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) conditional grant increase. He said they had achieved so well on the Youth Programme hence the increase and also this looked at the neighborhood structure. He said there was R2.5m given to the anti-gang strategy. They were developing a Western Cape response to anti-gang strategy as a national directive. He said the grants also included money for high level summit that would be conducted in October to increase intellectual muscle around issue of gangs and response to these.

Dr Luzuko Mdunyelwa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Western Cape Liquor Authority (WCLA), said he was pleased with the DOCS support and was starting to firm their internal control. He said there were increases in revenue and they looked at adding stuff to curb illegal distribution of liquor.

Discussion

Mr D Mitchell (DA) asked what the DOCS would do to ensure the neighborhood watches complied. He asked on the Khayelitsa inquiry the recommendations that had been implemented and what the department was doing. He asked what the target strategy was to reach out to the rural area youth that had disadvantages of geographical spread i.e. Maritzburg etc and what the amount of youth targeted was. He asked what exactly the DOCS was doing to assist SAPS.  

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked what form of assistance the MEC had provided in the report. She asked what programmes the DOCs had formed in regards to women and children in the province. She asked if there was evidence base on the piloted Alcohol Harms Reduction Programme (AHRP). She asked what had been done to address the many unlicensed shabeens in Nyanga

Mr Kivedo (DA) asked on the anti-gang strategy how the response strategy would take into account different provincial dynamics in its design.

Ms T Dijana (ANC) asked when the walking bus project would be implemented in the rural areas

Response

The MEC said that all recommendations of Khayelitsa inquiry were being implemented and they were working with all sectors and the SAPs to ensure this. He said the youth focus was major and he had a meeting the previous day on the same focus area. He said he had been going around the communities of rural areas to reach out and he would be going to other areas in the following days to raise awareness focusing on the youngsters. He said the programmes would continue and there was a major focus on youth month to reach out to as many youngsters as possible. He said this was in the region of over a thousand youth per annum.

The MEC said the youth were all taken up in the work placement programme at the Chrysalis Academy. He said that they assisted the police in many ways and the SAPS were part of the academy. He said they had many NGOs involved on the women’s month intervention and they got their message across 15 communities. He emphasized that they needed to plan for the year and get more NGOs and people on board to get message across. He said the drug problem was a national crisis and the new SAPS minister called for a national intervention which the MEC is in to assist. He said the borders have to be more active to stop drugs from coming in. He said the successes of the alcohol harms reduction pilot programme were available but there was need to give it time for success to register. He said the massive success was to close the unlicensed Shabeens in Nyanga. He said there was massive resistance from the people in Nyanga but a strategy was being adopted

The HOD said the neighborhood watches have a legal framework for operation so this helped them on compliance as it also had consensus with police. He said the model they had for community police programme was commendable and the same was with the neighborhood watch. He said the WCLA had collected revenues in excess and they were looking to channel some of that money in rural communities to benefit from the costs of liquor. He said that the number of vigilante killings in Khayelitsa had decreased significantly and that was one of the successes. He said the national anti-gang strategy required the provinces to have a response strategy and not an anti-gang strategy. He said the police was in full support of the response and anti gang units were being briefed. He said the total number for the youth trained was about a thousand.

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked the DOCS on recommendation 12 from the Khayelitsa inquiry why the anti-gang strategy was not in place as stated in the report according to the stipulated need

The Chairperson asked if the police minster had signed the MOU on implementation of the recommendation in Khayelitsa inquiry

Ms T Dijana (ANC) asked on the occurrence in Nelspruit whether the engagement was political or for crime as some ANC members were chased from the community engagement. She also asked for clarity on the wasteful expenditures.

Response

The MEC said that he chased the ANC members because they came in party color and were singing party songs and yet the meeting was not political hence he made the bold decision to keep the project non political. He said the SAPS were present and supported his decision. He said the target for the meeting was the youth and it was wrong for the ANC to taint a development agenda for a community with political intentions. He said the anti gang strategy was difficult for just provinces to handle and the national intervention has come in to support the provinces in this. He said they struggle with proper police intelligence and that was why cutting down crime was very low and this was what was being worked on for communities.

The HOD said the MOU had not yet been signed as there was change of office but the need had been overtaken by the community safety act and the issues of the MOU had been bestowed to the department

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked what message was being sent across if there was no strategy that was going to be implemented instead of the loosely applied strategies in relation to recommendation 12.

The HOD said there was continued implementation of the recommendations and a professor had been appointed to design a response and this process will address the Khayelitsa youth gang. A public document would be available around October 2018.

The Budget Discussion

Ms T Dijana (ANC) asked on the 2017 alcohol reduction policy approved by cabinet if the public participation was conducted in the rural areas and when it would be implemented.

Mr Kivedo (DA) asked on the adverts that make alcohol look appetizing with youngsters being portrayed and what can be done about this as tobacco was targeted in advertisement

Response 

The HOD said there was a legal requirement and comments were received but public consultations were held. He said they needed to redo the liquor act and the issues of the adverts would be debated as they needed to get mandate from parliament first.

The CEO said consultations were conducted around end of 2015 and the policy was advertised as well stakeholders were taken through the policy. They received many comments and these were incorporated in the document. He said when the documentation is ready for a cabinet submission they would solicit more public engagement. He said the proposed amendments to the liquor act were dealing with advertisement. The industry was busy engaging with the ministry on the shift of advertisement on the Television to later at night and not when families were watching television.                                                                                                       
Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked how the DOCs will help the community policing forum (CPF) and she asked on the road map

The HOD said the police fully agreed with Expanded Partnership Programme (EPP) to take the CPFs to their objectives.

MEC said that some CPFs declined help due to political reasons and the many CPFs complaining were in this category hence they only needed to align themselves with CPFs that need and accept their assistance

The Chairperson asked when the process of the Western Cape advisory committee would be completed

Ms T Dijana (ANC) asked for plans for the upcoming year to be given to the committee.

Ms D Lekker (ANC) asked if there was a form of evaluation and monitoring on the religious partners that were in place.

The HOD said that the advisory committee had been appointed and the minister would be making an announcement on his budget speech. He said the liquor board had also been constituted. He said the national anti gang strategy was approved in June 2016 and it was a restricted document especially the parts that which speaks to intelligence an enforcement. He said the partnership between private security and the DOCS needed to continue and would be facilitated through the compulsory quarterly engagements as they had 200 accredited neighborhood watches. He said they also would do a funding model to make sure there was compensation on that. He said there were a number of pilot programmes on schools for provision of security by these watches. He said there was a detailed monitoring programme that was written at the end of the programme which was also evaluated by an independent body. He said the religious fraternities had a sharp understanding even in the gang areas and the gang members did not encroach the religious arena. He said the number of agreements had been increased from 40 to 100.

Mr Kivedo asked when the safety promotion programme started, who was responsible and the results it entailed

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked for a list of the safety promotion programmes. She asked how much the department was spending on these. She also asked if some of the dockets collected that had been placed back on the row had been retrieved from court and had not been handled

Response

The HOD said he would make all details available. He said the review was internal and it did not cost anything. He said that some of the dockets had been referred back to police and followed.  He said they would provide information but their focus was on systemic errors on the dockets

Adv. Y Pillay, Secretariat: Safety and Security: DOCS said they have monthly meetings chaired by the national prosecuting committee. Relevant stakeholders even from forensics department are there and issues are addressed if brought up. Not all the cases were struck off because of the same reasons and the exact number of those brought back on the row was not available.

Mr Kivedo (DA) asked whether there is return on investment on the neighborhood watch members due to the turnover rate. He asked on the complaints management system until recent and the type of complaints in the office of the ombudsman as well as the response time. He commended the DOCS on the walking bus project and the strong M&E mechanism on it.

Ms T Dijana (ANC) commended the increase in accredited neighborhood watches but asked the reason for not providing resources to the other 30 of the 154 neighborhood watches. She asked for list of CPFs that are not being assisted and also the list of programmes in the communities

The HOD said the kind of complaints it is handled by the ombudsman and it was private

Mr Simion George, Programme Lead: Security Risk Management: DOCS said that the resources were given to the accredited neighborhood watches and these were up to 200 at the moment. He said the resources were given after handover ceremony. He said that the process required the watches to be a functional structure and SAPS had input in it hence the M&E was working.

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked for the excess of R1.5m what the money was used for and the list of CPFs

Mr Mitchell (DA) asked the MEC on what the focus areas were and how they were put forward. He asked if the R2.4m was for the entire youth partnership programme or just for December.

Mr Kivedo (DA) asked for a list of the priority schools around the safe zone project

The HOD said the R2.4m was only for December and R5.2m has been earmarked for the current year. He said there were 36 areas for the safe zone and the areas would be provided

The Chairperson asked if the private security were working in terms of the provisions in the community safety act and if there was an effort to get them on bode with these

The HOD said they haven’t had applications from private security to register in terms of the act but they had been engaging with them

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked what the costs were in the advisory committee

The HOD said they had budgeted a million Rand a year but they would only receive a sitting allowance and not a salary

Mr D Mitchell (DA) asked how many neighborhood watches had been trained according to the alcohol reduction game changer and if the Central Karoo and Beaufort West had been trained

Mr Kivedo ask if the personnel had been trained in the event of the day zero occurrence

Ms D Lekker (ANC) asked for access to the list of security providers that have been given contracts in alcohol harms reduction strategy

The Chairperson asked on the large increase in the conditional grant and if it was the only grant covered in the increase. She also asked if the amount on household expenditure covers leave gratuity and what else was covered.

Ms Dijana asked why there was a decrease on provinces and municipality’s allocation and why Prince Albert had more allocated then the rest

Ms Lekker he asked why there was a decrease in funding for programmes provinces

Mitchell asked why there was a decrease in the Non Profit Organizations (NPOs)

The HOD said only security providers trained were in areas where they were running pilot programmes and all would be trained when it is fully rolled out. He said the companies providing security in CBD would be provided. He said it was a three year contract that would end in the December 2018. He said there was a request from disaster management to enhance school safety but there would be no static deployments. He said the increase was only the EPWP grant as it was performance based. He said the salaries had not been determined hence the cost increases planned was 4.9% but were not substantive

He said that household was made up of transfers to transfers to Chrysalis Academy and also the EPP. He said the transfer to municipality was because of the big transfer to LavenderHill school intervention. He said the reduction on NPOs was due o reduction in alcohol harms reduction allocation.

The Chairperson asked for clarity on the transfer to the city of Cape Town

HOD said money to SABC was for the TV licenses and the one to city of Cape Town was subject to negotiating an MOU but would be used to expand the concept of safe zones

Ms T Dijana (ANC) asked why there was a decrease on programme support

The HOD said it was because the programme manager took responsibility to manage game changer funds and this year it would be funded by the over collection of revenue.

Mr D Mitchell (DA) asked why there was an increase in goods and services.

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked for explanation in increase in transfers to NPO

The HOD said the increase was due to increase in the EPWP payment and the crime summit as well as anti gang money. He said the R160m was the transfer on the alcohol harms reduction for establishment of neighborhood watches that were a great highlight of progress

Mr D Mitchell (DA) asked for clarity in the decrease to youth diversion programme and increase in youth religious programme.

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked why the Waterkloof was being discontinued

The HOD said that the national grant money they had for the Waterkloof project stopped and maintaining it was not possible with the money they had. He said they had recruitment targets and modular programmes that were being worked on to rotate according to available facilities for the members in affected areas

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked for the infrastructure plan on the buildings in Waterkloof

The HOD said the property belongs to public works and the DOCS point was to handover when the time comes

Ms T Dijana (ANC) asked for clarity in the decrease on transfers in subsidies

The HOD said that there were two projects being run for resourcing model and also ATM system within CBD but were not being continued in the coming year hence the decrease. There were reports of people being mugged on ATMs during festive period hence there were people deployed to be on the lookout for the syndicate. He said the department of community development was keen to fund this on their side

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked for explanation on decrease in number of personnel and the nature of training that will be undertaken.

 Ms Lekker asked why there was a decrease in interns recruited

The HOD said they had three resignations in the levels and they had filled one post but the other two was in interview level. He said one was due to retiring age and the others were due to other prospects. He said the training to be provided was in different areas run in consultation with line mangers according to available budget. He said the interns reduction was based on organizational need and available budget but fluctuates all the time

Mr D Mitchell (DA) asked on the annexure for a list of levels of the recipients of bursaries and clarity on why there was a significant increase in Prince Albert than other municipalities

The HOD said that the increase was linked to performance of CPF in the EPP and the functionality determined the funds.

Ms P Lekker (ANC) asked why there was a decrease in goods and services as well as legal cost. She asked for clarity on increases in operation payments and administrating fees as well as advertising 

The HOD said the admin fees were for banking costs and agency fee for the travel agents. He said the legal costs were for any anticipated challenges but had not been provided. He said in the catering was driven by the 16 consultative workshops that will be conducted.

Ms Dijana asked why there as a massive increase on the retnal and hiring, as well as on training and development. 

The HOD said the rental and hiring was for renting venues when they have public meetings. He said the training increase was because the departments now pay for programmes they send staff to unlike in the past. He said the other administrative costs were for printing of the training manual for neighborhood watches. He said the Drankerstein cost was because of game changer projects being done there. The HOD said he would table the recruitment details and performance of the CPFs in the municipalities hence the questions for other municipalities’ allocation would be answered after that is seen.

The meeting was adjourned

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