Chairperson of the NCOP, I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I'm delivering a speech on behalf of MEC Lennit Max who is unfortunately with the Premier this afternoon. He has asked me to come and speak to you instead.
Hon Minister, Deputy Minister of Police, hon MECs, hon members of the NCOP, and members of the SA Police Service, SAPS - I don't see too many of them here - I want from the outset to congratulate the Minister on the standard of the readiness parade held recently in Cape Town. As with any red-blooded South African, we were all very proud to see both the person power and resources that were on display. We wish you and all members in uniform the best for the very onerous task they are going to have next month in keeping both the citizens and the visitors to South Africa safe during the World Cup. You have our greatest support in that regard.
Recently, the Minister focused on employing the right kind of police officer, a different kind of police officer in the SA Police Service, SAPS. The hon Minister said, and I quote:
In order to fight crime and fight it effectively, we need to recruit the right calibre of police officer. Whilst fitness and the ability to operate firearms are some of the essentials, it is discipline, upholding the Constitution, defending the weak, enforcing the law and being generally upright that should constitute the defining core values of the police.
I concur wholeheartedly in this regard, and would like to applaud the Minister for taking this particularly strong view. It is indeed true that we need men and women in the Police Service who are proud to wear the blue uniform and are willing to serve the people of South Africa irrespective of their rank and stature.
However, the appointment, reappointment and promotion of police officers are largely closed processes which only the national head of police is privileged to perform. I wish to propose that the provincial members of the executive committee and other important stakeholders in the safety, security and justice cluster be granted some, even if limited, say in this process. This will ensure that fit-for-purpose appointments and promotions across the board will be embraced in the SAPS to further ensure the efficient and effective functioning thereof, especially in the provinces where they have to serve.
The hon Minister has also indicated that discipline will be reignited in the force. This is of critical importance, as ill-discipline is rife within the SAPS, especially among junior officers. It is exactly here where a major challenge lies for management as the majority of South African citizens will only ever come into contact with a junior office at a community service centre or while they are patrolling our streets. It is exactly these first contacts within the Police Service that must have the most discipline to render a helpful and friendly service to citizens even though they sometimes do not deserve it. First impressions count.
Discipline at the lowest levels of the Police Service must be reignited and restored, and rightly so, to its former state in order to deliver the kind of service that our people are mandated to uphold in the Constitution of our country. It is at the training academies that the greatest effort in quality and professionalism must be made, as those academies are where the foundation for our officers' future careers is laid.
The SAPS needs more resources, especially infrastructure. Nearly 16 years into our new democratic dispensation, people still walk long distances to their nearest police stations. In a particular case, a woman was recently raped on her way to the police station to report a rape which had just happened to her. This situation is truly unacceptable. We need more satellite stations and more contact points in South Africa, especially in the Western Cape.
I'm particularly shocked to hear that the SAPS spent over R2 billion in the last two years to build just three police stations and to upgrade only six. In Ocean View, which is one of my areas of responsibility, they have had, for the last 18 years, a temporary police station where the 13 store is so overcrowded that it is impossible to catalogue the evidence, and the door cannot open more than half a metre.
Speaking of buildings, it is simply a disgrace that residences for SAPS personnel such as Parkhof in Kenilworth have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that the Cape Town City Council may well condemn the building totally. One realises that maintenance is a Department of Public Works function, but as an employer, the SAPS should not be standing idly by while its personnel are effectively living in squatter conditions which they also have to pay for on a monthly basis. The state cannot afford to become a slumlord.
Also of concern is the formula used to inform the manpower plan at police stations. Does it keep pace with the population increase? I use as an example the Hout Bay Police Station where the 2001 Census was used as a benchmark for the policing plan. The population has almost tripled since then, and yet the station is still at the level at which it was when it was refurbished just after 2001.
Another issue of great concern is the current status of the forensic science laboratory services in South Africa. A report by the Auditor- General completed in November blamed a lack of staff, low staff morale, "a total disregard" for occupational safety laws, and a lack of backup power resulting in spoilt samples for backlogs of several years that set back the fight against crime. The report found that in August 2009, the backlog in routine toxicology cases stretched back six years, in Johannesburg five years in Cape Town and four years in Pretoria.
Much like the controversy surrounding accurate figures and crime statistics, we have no clear picture of the true figure of outstanding cases mounting in a massive backlog for forensic science laboratories. The official figures are somewhere in the region of 12 000. However, some reports suggest that in the Western Cape alone, this backlog may be 18 000 cases. Whichever of these figures are true, whether the former or the latter, it is far too much and truly a crisis.
The hon Minister announced that the forensic science laboratories had decreased their backlog in 2008-09 by 14% and are planning to decrease the backlog by a further 20% this financial year. This is good, but too little. We must understand that these backlogs have a severely negative impact on the whole criminal justice cluster, as well as the broader public morale. These laboratories play a pivotal role in the linking of perpetrators to crime scenes. When forensic labs face protracted delays, this actively hampers police investigations, delays court cases and, in turn, disrupts the effective operation of the criminal justice system.
Victims of violent sexual crimes in particular are entitled to feel that the state will do all in its power to catch the perpetrator and also to reassure them that this particular category is taken seriously through efficient and quick processing of evidence. A question should be asked: Why must victims live in fear for years because the state is dragging its feet and lets the dangerous accused out on bail?
This matter has an especially detrimental effect here in the Western Cape where drugs and gangs go hand in hand. This is more prevalent in this province than anywhere else in the country. The successful prosecution of drug-related cases is solely dependent on evidence proven by forensic science laboratories. Without the effective and efficient functioning of this critical service, the massive challenge posed by drugs in the Western Cape will never be successfully combated. Cases get postponed and eventually thrown out because of a lack of evidence. Therein lies the truism that justice delayed is justice denied.
In conclusion, the South African criminal justice system is in fact in a crisis. The police play a role in that regard. It is characterised by blockages, many of which cause delays in other parts of the criminal justice pipeline. The system, stretching across the department of safety and security and the Departments of Justice and Constitutional Development and of Correctional Services, has never been a unified one. I would suggest in your tenure that one of your single most successful benchmarks should be to try and unify those three departments. The links between the various departments are weak, and the involvement by any other department, such as welfare, national education and health, that has to play a key role in the prevention of crime is minimised as a result of this logjam.
The SAPS, as well as the South African justice system, need to have a serious rethink in this regard. The game needs to be stepped up, and service delivery must be improved if we want to give effect to the vision of the President of this country, to make South Africa a better, happier and safer place to live in. I thank you. [Applause.]