Chairperson, welcome to the senior House my two dynamic Ministers. Hon members, colleagues, comrades and friends, when doing our oversight function in provinces, people complain that the crime in our country is very high.
As individual MPs, addressing our own branches in various constituencies, the same question would arise. When attending social gatherings or church services, the question we are always asked is: What are those measures that you are putting in place to fight crime?
The two Bills before this House are a direct response to all those questions. Contrary to what opposition parties want people to believe, these Bills address organised crime in an integrated, co-ordinated, and focused manner. With these Bills we are creating a unit that brings together the best people for the job. In these units we are bringing together people with experience and know-how when it comes to organised crime.
All these ideas came as a result of the intensive process of public hearings and inputs made by various political organisations. During the public hearings there were concerns that were raised by people. My colleagues will address those, but let me, in passing, just touch on a few. There are people who think the Directorate of Special Operations, DSO, or Scorpions as it is commonly known, is a panacea or zifozonke. Hence those concerns that were raised and identified by our people.
There are some members of the DSO who accessed classified information whilst they didn't have clearance certificates or were not vetted. The notorious Hollywood style used when effecting arrests was questioned by our people. The head prosecutors were at the same time investigators. Hence they were compromising the separation of powers between the investigator and the prosecutor. Again, the illegal gathering of intelligence was one of the issues - if people would care to listen.
The notorious plea bargaining with drug lords, as was rightly said by the hon Minister, is one of the issues that was raised by people. All of this proves that the Scorpions were not a sacred cow. As I said, my colleagues will dwell on this one, so let me just leave it at that.
As the committee in this House, unfortunately, we didn't win this one, but our fear is that you cannot have someone who becomes a player and referee at the same time. Hence, in our report we are saying that this must be followed up; it must come back to Parliament again and let's look at this issue.
The directorate we are establishing will be headed by the deputy national commissioner. This will not be just another ordinary directorate. The head of this unit will be appointed by the Minister and the staff that are going to be appointed in this directorate will comprise people of the highest integrity. To make sure we don't appoint unwanted elements in this directorate, those joining it will have to undergo a vetting or security clearance process. Members will remember that there are many officials working in the DSO who were arrested for corruption.
Hence it is also proposed that members of this directorate have to declare their financial interests, together with that of their family members who depend on them or stay in the same household. Those family members must be those who are dependent on them. To avoid having members in this directorate who serve as investigators and prosecutors at the same time, the Bill provides that the directorate can appoint legal officials who will ensure the multidisciplinary approach which other parties would like to portray as having been compromised.
I know opposition parties are gearing up for their election campaigns; hence it is so difficult for them to separate the facts from fairytales. We have been told many a time by opposition parties that the Scorpions are the best crime-fighting unit we have ever had in our country.
Let me give you a few statistics of the job that has been done by our police. What worries some of us is that some parties want to portray a picture of the SAPS as just a bunch of people who cannot think. They were ridiculed by some members of the opposition, but guess what? When they encounter any problem in their families, or by their family members, they rush to the same police to ask for help.
Let's remove this myth that the only success story in crime combating can be attributed to the Scorpions. Yes, I am one of those persons who is not shy or ashamed to give credit where credit is due. I want to thank members of the DSO for doing such a good job in many of their cases, except for those mentioned earlier on.
If I wanted to be naughty, I could suggest that we adjourn the debate and ask for all the cases that are before court and those that are still being investigated by SAPS, versus those that are before the Scorpions. You will be shocked. Yes, let the opposition parties make politics, but they must not be economical with the truth. The conviction rate that comes through the police cannot be compared with anything.
To illustrate this point, I asked my colleague in the NA, Anneliz van Wyk, to assist with these statistics that were in her possession. For those in the opposition parties who care to know, we have organised crime units in the SAPS. In the past financial year, a total of 154 leaders of organised crime were identified and, of those, 131 were arrested. In this financial year, R49 million worth of assets were forfeited to the state through investigations by the SAPS.
Just to give a clear picture, let me give this House information on some of the seizures that were done by the SAPS. Vehicles worth R23 million were recovered; R8 million worth of stolen property was recovered; cigarettes to the value of R11 million and abalone worth almost R23 million were recovered by the SAPS.
Let's now look at narcotics. Over 209 kg of narcotics were recovered by the SAPS. Over 5 100 kg of cocaine was recovered. Let's go to dagga - 317 000 kg of dagga was recovered, not by the Scorpions, but by the SAPS. Let's look at Ecstasy - 27 800 kg was recovered by SAPS. Let's now go to Mandrax - 5 500 kg was recovered, not by the Scorpions, but by SAPS. Let's go to Tik - 22 600 kg of Tik was recovered, not by the DSO, but by our SAPS. Now, let's go to heroin - 365 kg of heroin was recovered.
Now, people should not say, simply because they are too lazy to access information and do not know about it, that our SAPS are not doing a good job. That is not true. I am left with five minutes so let me finish, Chairperson. Let me take the opportunity to thank all political parties for participating in this debate and the deliberations. To my colleagues I say well done. If I was to be asked to choose any members to serve on my committee, I wouldn't look for any other persons except you. Well done, colleagues. To the department's officials, we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for your assistance. Thank you very much, and thank you for your kindness, Chairperson. [Time expired.]