Madam Deputy Speaker, studies relating to crime have found that the probability of an individual committing a crime is inversely proportional to the probability of getting caught. In other words, the more likely a person is to get caught committing a crime, the less likely it is that that person is going to commit the crime. In South Africa where the conviction rate for murder is less than 13%, something certainly needs to be done to bolster detective work so that those who commit the crimes are brought to book.
The Criminal Law (Forensic Procedure) Amendment Bill is an attempt to do exactly this. However, in its initial form, it had the potential to be frozen in a quagmire of dissenting voices. In its original format it included the establishment of a DNA database, and numerous organisations, from the Cape Bar Council to the Law Society of SA via the Medical Rights Advocacy Network, had substantial issues which they raised in relation to the creation of such a database.
I take typed notes of all meetings and on 28 October last year I wrote, in despair, "This Bill is becoming a disaster!" There seemed to be no inter- Ministerial co-ordination, budgets were not supplied and sometimes junior members, who were incapable of answering our questions, were sent to come before the portfolio committee.
When budgets did arrive, they were in the hundreds of millions of rands; and rather than simply providing the SAPS with the tools to access fingerprints from other databases such as those in the Transport or Home Affairs Ministries, they were grandiose visions of a massive police database of every fingerprint from any and every person in the country. At one stage the whole process seemed ready to spin out of control.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police deliberated on this Bill for months and finally determined that, in order to achieve proper outcomes, the Bill needed to be split in two, as the chair has outlined. This section before you today relates only to the taking of fingerprints, palm prints, footprints and photographic images, as well as the keeping of relevant databases.
As for the mooted DNA database, there are certainly over 50 countries throughout the world that have already passed DNA databases and DNA database legislation. Each country has had to address similar issues that arose here. It has been agreed that the committee will travel to investigate international best practice before considering the possibility of introducing such legislation here in South Africa.
If there is anyone in this House who believes that the Portfolio Committee on Police is not unified in its attempts to strengthen the hand of law enforcers in this land, they are wrong. Our members across the board were intimately involved in this amendment and certainly, the DA believes implicitly that granting the SAPS the right to access other databases will assist in the tracking down of, as yet, unconvicted criminals whose fingerprints do not yet appear in the police database.
The second issue, the identification of bodies, is an enormous issue that my colleague, the hon Debbie Schafer, will address. We must, as a nation, be highly alert to the integral link between human trafficking, drug dissemination and money laundering, all under the umbrella of organised crime, as well as, in certain cases, terrorism. By allowing our SAPS to run unidentified fingerprints through the other databases in this country, one will, without a shadow of a doubt, see increased conviction rates.
Certainly, we must all agree that the fight against transnational organised crime must be strengthened and intensified so as to foster solutions involving co-operation with sub-Saharan Africa and the Southern African Developmental Community, SADC. Allowing the SAPS to access other national fingerprint databases will allow them, in turn, to assist law enforcement agencies throughout the world to identify South African members of international syndicates.
As a nation, we have for far too long failed to focus on crime prevention from a global perspective. We have become bogged down in the incident of this terrible murder; that rape of a baby; this multi-million rand fraud - single cases hitting the headlines. Yet where we have failed, is in pulling together the causal strands in order to understand the drivers behind the blood-letting.
We are not alone in this lack of vision; indeed the international community has, as a whole, largely failed to anticipate the evolution of transnational organised crime into the strategic threat which it now poses globally. Transnational organised crime is an instrument to generate profit and it is no longer the sole preserve of specialised criminal organisations. It is now an essential strategy for armed groups around the world, and is a source of funding for corrupt politicians as well as warlords and terrorists.
A global survey from the University of Maryland's Centre for International Development and Conflict Management shows that one of the areas at greatest risk of armed conflict is sub-Saharan Africa. The nature of transnational organised crime syndicates allows them to be structured horizontally, and they operate flexibly with a decentralised leadership, while countries such as ours are limited by the silo mentality with vertical, blinkered thinking, which results in poor information-sharing and co-operation.
To transnational organised crime syndicates, borders are irrelevant, while countries are obsessed with formal sovereignty. Transnational organised crime syndicates are incredibly well funded, while our operations are underfunded and frequently ill utilised. The transnationals are at the top when it comes to new technologies, whereas we are slow to adapt, and, in fact, make little use of new technology.
Once we pass this amendment to the Criminal Procedures Act to allow access to fingerprint databases, the public will presume that we have the technology to allow for a quick computer search, but this will not be the case. The big problem here is that the databases of the SAPS, Home Affairs and Transport and Correctional Services all use different technologies, so that these searches will initially be long and laborious. This is something that needs particular attention.
Certainly, I would wish to see the same determination as has been evident in the preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup to be present in the fight against these syndicates, which, for example, see this country both importing and exporting drugs. We have to study this threat to boost our intelligence across regions and shape up our technical ability. This is also pertinent to domestic crime, of course, which is linked in many instances to the transnational organised crime syndicates I have been referring to.
Perhaps the one crime that makes us all feel under siege is house robbery. There has been a 100% increase in house robberies over the last five years, and these crimes are committed by, to quote Professor Rudolph Zinn, "the most callous of criminals." Last year there were 18 000 residential robberies, up from just 9 000 in 2003. In the main, these house robbers are 20 years old and have committed 100 robberies before arrest. They do their homework and they often prepare for up to four months before they strike. They also torture their victims as a means of establishing where valuables are hidden, and they rape and kill without remorse. Currently, the reality is that only 12,5% of robberies with aggravating circumstances end up being prosecuted. We have already fallen behind because of the bad judgement of the previous National Police Commissioner, and statistics have shown shocking increases in crimes in areas affected by the closure of our globally admired specialised units. Consider the 87% increase in drug-related crime since the shutting down of the SA Narcotics Bureau!
Investing in this technology would ramp up our efficacy in relation to the drug crisis in South Africa. The year the bureau was disbanded, the SAPS reported 62 000 drug-related crimes; the figure now stands at 117 000.
Crime must be recognised as the greatest threat to our democracy and to an open society that can be shared and enjoyed by all. Of course, the state has a duty to uphold the Constitution and keep its citizens safe.
Approving this Bill today will give the SAPS a tool that, if efficiently used, will, I have no doubt, assist in pinning down the criminals, not after they have committed 100 crimes, but after they have committed just one. Thank you. [Applause.]