Hon House Chair, hon Members of Parliament of this House, in order for us to achieve our strategic goal of ensuring that the people in South Africa are and feel safe, much depends on the kind of civilian oversight we establish. Section 208 of our Constitution gives effect to the establishment of the civilian secretariat under the direction of the Minister. The White Paper on Safety and Security also required of us to reform this policy to ensure that both policy planning and policy monitoring occurred outside of the department, but within the Ministry.
Over a period of time, we have said that we have a duty to fight crime smartly and toughly, with no mercy for those heartless criminals. At the same time, we depend much on Bills like the one before us today, the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service Bill, to ensure that there are no abuses from that point of view.
We said a few weeks ago when we passed the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Bill here that these kinds of interventions aimed at strengthening the civilian oversight arm are made to ensure that we will never experience a police state. Therefore, the separation of powers and the determination of their implementation have to be the order of the day. This Civilian Secretariat for Police Service Bill seeks to ensure that a few things are observed: one, to ensure that there is strong civilian oversight; two, to ensure that there are partnerships; three, to ensure that proper policy advice is given to the Minister; and, lastly, to ensure that the civilian secretariat becomes a designated department. The co- operation between the civilian secretariat and Independent Police Investigative Directorate is of the utmost importance.
Another key aspect of this Bill relates to the establishment of the provincial secretariat. We are putting more emphasis on ensuring that we strengthen this part of the secretariat to ensure that where things happen, at the coalface in the provinces, the monitoring and evaluation units are working, and working effectively. As we demonstrated before, when we all pull together we succeed. When we focus our energies, our commitment, and walk our talk, we overcome together.
This is a new era, a new way of doing things and a new way of securing our democracy through civilian oversights over police practices, budgets and performance. We remain committed to seeing through our vision of a transformed, accountable, and effective Police Service. Thank you. [Applause.]