Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, let me acknowledge the presence of the Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr Masondo, the Chief Whip, let me acknowledge the Minister and Deputy Minister of Police, the Minister and Deputy Minister of Justice, hon members, special delegates, the national police commissioner and all the esteemed guests that are here, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in this debate especially on such an important debate on the Police budget. Our premier of Gauteng, hon David Makhura, when he delivered the state of the province address, Sopa on 1 July, he outlined plans of the sixth administration towards growing Gauteng together, more focus
was on building safer communities, reducing crime and mobilising our communities in fighting and the prevention of crime.
The state of policing has changed drastically since the appointment of Gauteng provincial police commissioner, lieutenant general Elias Mawela, who is working tirelessly to turn the tide against crime in our respective communities. Let me also acknowledge the good work done by other law enforcement agencies such as that of the Gauteng Traffic Police as well as our metropolitan and local police departments. I quote our premier;
The policing fraternity must use all suitable weapons to fight crime in our respective areas. Every citizen must feel safe and walk the streets freely at any given time.
Women must enjoy their rights, free from all forms of abuse. Accordingly, this ANC-led sixth provincial administration will work tirelessly to ensure the safety and social cohesion of Gauteng citizens.
In Gauteng we have an operation called O Kae Molao/Buya Mthetho; this is the new crime-fighting plan that is now being implemented in Gauteng. Days of strategies and speaking a lot of English is over.
IsiZulu:
Siyabangena!
English:
Full-time!
IsiZulu:
Sithi, "Slyza Tsotsi!"
English:
The police are everywhere in Gauteng. Every day, it is roadblocks and raids are conducted throughout the province through these operations. Tsotsis - I am 100% sure - are migrating out of Gauteng. They might be coming to your provinces ...
IsiZulu:
... nani nibagade.
English:
As the Gauteng provincial government, we also have the Take Charge campaign; the desire is borne out of the fact that, in this sixth administration, we deemed it necessary and important to intensify the mobilisation of communities against crime in general. The fight
against crime cannot be won by government alone without the central role of the communities that are at the receiving end of crime. Communities are trying, by all means, to fight crime and have over the years have organised themselves to take charge of their safety. It is therefore imperative upon us as a responsive and caring government to support them as much as possible. Therefore, what is going to be of paramount importance is the mobilisation and total support of the efforts of these communities to fight for themselves. There are various sectors in the communities that will be supported to mobilise society to fight crime. We have the community policing forums, the youth organisations that are now part of the youth desks in police stations, the women' organisations which are women safety ambassadors, men as safety promoters, labour formations, faith-based organisations, the entertainment sector, people with disabilities, school-related organisations such as the school governing bodies, SGBs, and the student representative councils, SRCs. The Take Charge campaign is intended to build a stronger network of the above- mentioned sectors to intensify the fight against all criminal elements in our respective communities. We will be hosting a sectoral or corridor dialogues of the various structures either at regional and provincial level culminating into a provincial summit on safety which brings everyone on board in rooting out the criminal elements within our communities and assist in crime prevention.
Included in that we will intensify the Know your Neighbourhood campaign because we believe communities must know who lives amongst them. We will also be rolling out the safety kiosks; its intention is to focus on the far- flung communities to mitigate the distance between the police stations and the communities. We all know that there is a demand for more police stations in our communities but the reality is that, the Minister, even in his speech, you recognised that ...
IsiZulu:
... ayikho imali ...
English:
... so we are trying, by all means, to prioritise and assist the police and the list is long especially in those priority areas. Community policing forums and community patrollers are thus important components towards the realisation of the safety of all residents of our country as directed by the National Developmental Plan, NDP. We will also work hard to re-energise the victim empowerment centres to help the most vulnerable groups in our society such as women and children, through Ikhaya Lethemba, which continues to be a sanctuary to victims of gender-based violence, will continue to support the victims and survivors of gender- based
violence. We will also extend gender-based violence victim support interventions to the institutions of higher learning in our province to support young women on campuses.
I have seen, on Twitter, reports from young women who had reported to the police cases of abuse, assault and gender-based violence but they had not been given case numbers and there was no follow-up from the police on investigating the cases. This cannot continue anymore. The police must be quick in responding and must investigate cases reported to them, more so cases related to gender-based violence. It cannot be correct, Minister, that our focus is only on removing victims and placing them in victim empowerment centres, we must be preoccupied with removing perpetrators from our communities and locking them up in jail. We also intend to establish a toll-free line within the department where communities can report crimes when they feel not safe to report in their local police stations and the 10111 line if it is not assisting them. Policing has over the years been the central role of the SA Police Service, SAPS; we are now reorganising other units within our province including the metro police and the traffic units to respond to crime with the focus being of foot patrols in identified crime spots across the province to give meaning to the notion of "bobby on the beat" program. We
will continue to work hard to rid our society of crime and build safer communities.
The key mandate - I'm sure the Minister has also mentioned it - of the province is monitor police conduct; to oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service including receiving reports from the police and to promote good relations between the police and the community and to access the effectiveness of visible policing. One of the new initiatives is that we will conduct regular performance audits of all 142 police stations and community policing forums and release bi-monthly if not quarterly reports on the performance of every police station to enhance accountability. This will include regular citizen satisfaction surveys on police performance, station by station. We believe that in the next five years, crime should be reduced by 50% in Gauteng and the 40 high priority police stations which were identified as per the crime statistics report which was tabled by the hon Minister in the past year. We will rigorously monitor those police stations and we will monitor them through the Gauteng Information on Police Performance System, Gipps, system. And we will continuously report to the Minister as it is dictated to us by Section 206 (5) (b) of the Constitution. Alcohol and drugs continue to be another crime contributor in our communities. Every street has more shebeens and
taverns than before. In Braamfontein, where there is a lot of student villages and accommodation, every street has a bottle store, a tavern and a shebeen. The majority are owned by foreign nationals. Now, what kind of nation or future leaders are we raising who are fed hubbly bubblies and drugs. This also contributes to lawlessness, housebreaking, and car hijackings, smash and grabs etc. because of trying to feed a habit.
We need to be united and fight this scourge that is ravaging our communities especially the young people. School safety is also going to be a will be a priority in helping the department of education to combat bullying and crime in our schools. We want our children to be safe in all our schools. Regular searches will be conducted by the police in all the problematic schools where drugs are sold as cakes and sweets. In some schools, it's known who is selling dagga cookies. Learners are always high and unruly to teachers and teachers are now even afraid of the learners. And the programme of Adopt-a-Cop will be intensified in ensuring that the police also become friendly to learners at schools and the learners also get used to talking to the police and be able to report all the crimes. I am happy that the police are hard at work to ensure that the perpetrators of most of the crimes are brought to book and dealt with accordingly. We hope that the justice system will also do us
that favour and put them behind bars and throw away the key or make them wear orange overalls. Illegal mining is another problem in Gauteng; a majority of undocumented foreigners are causing havoc in Gauteng. They are wearing blankets and balaclavas and they are conducting reigns of terror in communities and they are carrying ammunition that is dangerous. Our people are living in fear and they are robbed, killed, raped and shootings are happening randomly. Communities are crying and I am requesting the hon Minister to bring in the Minister of Mineral Resources and immigration to come to the rescue
The Minister of Justice also, I am sure he is also listening, that as the police are arresting them, they are also locking them up, giving them longer sentences so that then our communities will feel and we also have confidence in our government. In conclusion, we request this House to pass this budget so that we, in Gauteng, can benefit with more police and we hope that even those that are graduating out of college will also be deployed to Gauteng. More resources will be deployed and definitely hope that we will see more reductions in crime.
IsiZulu:
Siyabonga kakhulu Sihlalo. [Ihlombe.]