Mr Chairman, I would like to quote.
One of the central features of the brutish society we seek to bring an end to, is the impermissible level of crime and violence. Acting together with the people, we will heighten our efforts radically to improve the safety and security of all our citizens.
These words were uttered last year, on 25 June, just about a year ago, by the President of this country, Mr Thabo Mbeki.
When I listen to the contribution made by the three very critical Ministers - when I say critical, I mean that of the clusters that the Government has created, their cluster is the single most important - I get the impression from the Ministers that there is less of a sense of urgency with regard to their cluster than what the President said last year already. And yet the situation is considerably worse than it was last year, and all the statistics are there to prove it.
National Commissioner Selebi said just yesterday that, as a result of Operation Crackdown, he is going to force upon the Justice department 200 000 dockets in one year. Currently, the single biggest logjam in the criminal justice system is the inability of the Justice department to process dockets. The Minister has said that there was an improvement in the processing of documents, but what he neglected to do was to back it up with statistics.
Every single court in this country says otherwise. My visits to courts tell me that, in fact, we are not processing more dockets; we are processing fewer cases. What is happening is that more and more cases are being withdrawn at police station level, because the police officers say: ``We cannot investigate these crimes because we do not have the capacity to do so,'' and they give one a case number so that one can make an insurance claim. Even in the case of serious crimes, this happens. I had a case yesterday in which a doctor phoned me. His wife is also a doctor, a physician. She was robbed in her surgery, together with one of the patients. Armed robbery in the surgery. He phoned to tell me six hours later that the police had come to take a statement and they said that they were not sending fingerprint people because it really was a useless case. That particular case, may I say, is now subject to an investigation by my department. But that is what is happening at the moment - fewer and fewer cases are going through the process, because people have given up trying to process them.
Then they go to the public prosecutor. The public prosecutor, still with the greatest respect, is so overworked at the moment that, on the slightest technicality, or maybe an inconsistency with regard to a statement, those cases are being withdrawn.
In fact, if the Minister sees an improvement, I hope that the statistics that he has quoted and the inference he is giving to this Parliament that the situation is improving, do not include cases that are being withdrawn, because with regard to the cases that are being withdrawn, where previously they might have been the indication of efficiency, they are now an indication of inefficiency. And this can be proven.
The President went on to speak about a whole series of actions that the Government is going to take to try to improve safety and security - the constitutional role of this country - to create a safe and secure environment with regard to human resource development; and Minister Tshwete has alluded to human resource development.
The most significant human resource development that is taking place at the moment is with regard to a unit that Minister Tshwete reported on now. It does not even reside in his portfolio, but under the Minister of Justice, the so-called Scorpions Unit. Legally, it does not exist. It is still ad hoc. There is no legislation to allow it to exist. [Interjections.]
That is the truth, unfortunately. However, I have no problem ... [Interjections] ... No, I am not going to take a question.