Hon Chair, our Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, our Deputy Minister, Fikile Mbalula, and hon House, let me remind you that the Budget Vote of the department is the Budget Vote of the ANC. Therefore, when the Minister talks of objectives as set out in the state of the nation address and targets for the measurement of performance as adopted by the Cabinet lekgotla, it is indeed a confirmation of the movement at work to reduce crime in this country.
The other issue that we picked up in the budget debate, as presented, is that indeed the country is moving towards safety after so many years of a violent society. We are moving towards safety, and the people are beginning to have much more confidence than in previous years. We want to congratulate the Minister in this regard.
Incidnets of crimes like house robberies, business robberies and car hijacking, as well as crimes against women and children, are beginning to decrease in terms of statistics. These are issues that are highly prioritised in the departmental programme. It is thought that this is because of the manner in which the department has improved the investigative capacity of police officers in this department and further that the detectives are also beginning to have that positive attitude that the department has instilled in them.
We would also want to welcome the reintroduction of the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit by the Minister. This will go far beyond making South Africa, as the Deputy Minister said, "a country where everyone can play, especially our children, without fear of anything; without fear of being abducted." And that indeed should be supported.
We also acknowledge the programme of visible policing. However, as a committee we recommend that it should go beyond visible policing. We should not just see cars moving from street to street, from township to township or village to village; we should see beyond that that the police would stop and check as to what is happening when a group of people play dice and jive unnecessarily. They should be searched. It should go beyond that, and also detect planned crimes before they occur, so that criminals should indeed hesitate when they want to commit crimes against our people. We would want to see that happening. Indeed, everyone should see police vans patrolling everywhere, but it should go beyond that and there should be fundamental actions where people are planning, even to sniff out where crooks are hiding and planning crimes so that prevention can take place.
The other issue is that the ANC would want to call upon everyone not to forget that all that we are doing, as this democratic Parliament, is to erase and to fight what has been institutionalised by the apartheid legacy - the issue of where we come from, namely a police system that was so violent and brutal. Even now, after 16 years of democracy, people are still afraid of the police in the context of the past, but we would want to ensure that the police are friendly to the people because other liberal minds would always, in the media and everywhere, say that the police are beginning to be dangerous and militarised. There is no such thing.
When the police respond to a deadly crime, that does not amount to militarisation; it means that the police have got the capacity to respond to any form of crime in this country. Therefore, that idea must be taken out of some liberal minds.
The other issue is the fact that the department is responding to its constitutional obligations of prevention, combating, investigation and making sure that the Republic is protected at all costs. We also want to appeal to the Minister with regard to an issue that is capturing our headlines, namely the terror plot, precisely because next month we are going to host the World Cup. But, there are counter-revolutionaries who would want to frighten the world by saying there is an Al Qaeda presence here; there is no such a thing. Our intelligence is intact and our police are ready. The world must come.
South Africa is a heaven and it will also be a heaven during the 2010 World Cup. There is no such a thing as a threat of Al Qaeda, or the Taliban or whatever. Those are pure lies because it is a counter-revolution to ensure that African-led governments might not have the capacity to protect people. People are welcome. Some of us will be smiling in every airport to ensure that indeed people feel safe in this country.
Our borders will be managed by the SA National Defence Force, SANDF, as well as the support system to the extent of our intelligence. But we would want the department, as they meet the SA National Defence Force, to strengthen our porous borders. Indeed, our borders are not that safe because ever since we came in, there are certain areas where people will get in, and that might be a threat. I think it should be emphasised that as the army will be monitoring the borders and areas where there is porosity, this must be looked into and a mechanism must be developed to make sure that they are strengthened.
The strategy and tactics of the ANC identify strictly that the department needs to be looked into, as the hon Matthews has said, with regard to the war and the principle of that and other things. These are some of the issues that need to be looked at in order to address the attitude of our people who are looking at the crime issue.
With regard to the mind-set that I, of course, alluded to, some of these things are historical. There is still that mind-set of the past wherein people feel that when they see a police officer, they see an enemy. A police officer is a friend; not a friend that will allow people to do crime, but rather a friend that will take you, if you are a criminal, to a place of safety, and you will be safe in prison. That's what we need to emphasise.
The other thing is the historical conditions. Amen. [Time expired.]