I will read it, but it is quite long ... no, no, no, I will go for it. I was just making a comment. The specialised crime unit of the SA Police Service is situated in the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation division, or the Hawks - the division for detective services and the division for crime intelligence. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the special crimes unit or dedicated competent authorities are vital in addressing the issue of serious or complex crimes in our country. Organised crime has developed the capability to penetrate government agencies and institutions, fuelling corruption.
It infiltrates big business, politics and even religious organisations like that of Omotoso, targeting and exploiting systematic vulnerabilities, using sophisticated methods of consignment. Serious crimes include crimes such as drug trafficking, drug distribution, drug manufacturing, trafficking in persons, wildlife crimes, illicit mining as well as associating crosscutting
violent crimes, such as terrorism, gangsterism, corruption and cash- in- transit and house robberies.
The SA Nicotine and Enforcement Bill and the National Bureau for Illegal Firearms Control and Priority Violent Crime were established to address drug-related crime. The proliferation of illegal firearms, priority violent crime and cash-in-transit robberies, and the capacitating and resourcing of these units remain a challenge. Members from existing capacity within the serious organised crime environment have been deployed to conduct these investigations, although the units are not adequately capacitated. We would wish to execute their mandate. They continue to make an impact on serious crime. The SA Nicotine and Enforcement Bill unit focus on the following areas: Drug outlets; illicit drug cultivation; illicit drug production and manufacturing; human couriers; drug trafficking networks and emerging trends.
The National Bureau for Illegal Firearms Control and Priority Violent Crime unit focus on the following areas: criminal linkages through forensic practice, illegal firearms trafficking and networks, criminal abuse and vulnerability of firearms in a state control, criminality in the control of illegal firearms stocks, prioritised violent crimes where firearms are used, cash-in-transit
and house robberies, detective services, specialised crime units are vital in addressing the issue of serious crimes in our country.
In 2006, the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Investigations, FCS, was decentralised at police stations. The effectiveness in the investigation of the FCS related crime decreased due to loss of trust in the system which compromised the Batho Pele principles. In June 2010 the SAPS management re- established the FCS nationally and aligned all the FCS units to the cluster level in order to bring the specialised service closer to the community and to provide a more effective service to the victims of sexual offences and related crimes.
In terms of mandate, the FCS unit are vital in fighting crimes against women and children. There are a total of 185 FCS units countrywide which are placed at the cluster model. These include nine serial and electronic crime investigations, provincial units that are mandated to investigate serial rapes and child pornography cases. The FCS is regarded as a priority by the President as stated in the 2019 state of the nation address and it is also a priority in the police service, as stated in the 2019-20 budget speech since its re-establishment.
The FCS achieved 167 life sentences in 2010-11 - and those are life sentences, not just sentences. In 2011-12 there were 389 life sentences, and in 2012-13, 826 life sentences; in 2013-14, 645 life sentences; 2014- 15, 612 life sentences, in 2015-16 - I don't know what happened - there were only 298 life sentences. In 2016-17 there were 511 life sentences; in 2017-18, 692 life sentences; in 2018-19, 658 life sentences. It is a total of 4 798 life sentences only on sexual abuse, which exclude other sentences. I don't know if I am forward but the head of the FCS of this unit was seated here - Major General Linda, whom I taught in matric at school and recruited from London where he was doing the same job he is doing here. We brought him back to South Africa. [Applause.] So, he is heading this unit. As he complains about the... this is not just ordinary, there are lifers that are filling those prisons and because these lifers are arrested by professional police.
The anticorruption unit in the detective service are vital in the fight against corruption within the work environment of the SA Police Service and justice sector. The units were established according to the public service anticorruption strategy that was introduced in 2002 and the government anticorruption strategy which was introduced on 2017 as renewed, which allows for a certain minimum level of anticorruption capacities. These units at national
and provincial level investigate all corruption related matters against members of the SAPS.
I want to repeat that this anticorruption unit investigate corruption amongst the members of the SAPS - it investigates our own members. Shortcomings in this regard are the lack of posts allocated to these units to enhance the investigative capacity to function effectively as some of the provinces are large. Specialised crime units are important because of the complexity in the investigation of specific crimes. Specialised units focus on the investigation of stock theft and endangered species, they battle crime and high profile cases, within and outside the country, which requires specialised skills. The crimes that are investigated by the specialised unit contribute immensely to the economy of the country.
There are a total of 90 stock theft and endangered species units through out the country and they are responsible for all stock theft and endangered species cases. In 2019-20, a total of 64 suspects were arrested in 28 cases that were successfully prosecuted and sentenced. With regard to endangered species in 2019-20, the following recoveries were made, 12 rhino horns, one elephant tusk and two pangolins, a total of 103 arrests were made in 49 theft cases that were successfully prosecuted and sentenced.
The following livestock that was stolen were recovered, and that is
4 970 cattle, 4 700 sheep, 2 663 goats and 94 horses. Sophisticated type of crimes like cybercrime, commercial crime, narcotics and human trafficking are costing the country billions of rands. It would be unreasonable to accept police station detectives to have the specialised skills expertise and the experience to investigate all of these varied crimes, therefore we will put the specialised unit on that, given that they are often perpetrated by expert criminals and crime syndicate.
This is why police agencies across the globe, from specialised teams of detectives who are trained and equipped to investigate specific types of crime, crime intelligence and specialised crime intelligence collection and analysis capacities at national, provincial and cluster level are a crucial link in the SAPS value chain in addressing serious crimes in South Africa.
The primary role and responsibility of these crime intelligence specialised capacity is to provide intelligence to all operational clients in support of both crime prevention as they are proactive activities and crime detection reactive activities which are related to serious crime. These specialised units are really achieving great
things. Last week in Mpumalanga the underground drug laboratory bus was found with drugs worth 200 million.
What is happening is that they don't bring big bulks of drugs; they bring machinery to manufacture those drugs. For instance, we found two machines there, one machine manufactures 16 mandrax tablets in two seconds, which means in four seconds we have 32 mandrax tablets. As we were working hard, the machine found its way down here. That is the work of the intelligence and specialised units that are keeping people of South Africa safe. [Applause.]
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