Speaker, when a country's citizens are crippled by the fear of criminal attack, 36% of it violent, what it seeks is leadership of the highest order. Firstly, empathy must be shown to those hundreds of thousands of victims of crime; to the families of the 50 citizens murdered every single day; to the 68 citizens raped every single day; and there must be a clear indication that a cohesive direction has been determined, followed by a national strategy to take us forward to a safer future.
Instead, this past Thursday references to this situation that haunts the nation were made as asides, comprising less than 3% of the speech that is supposed to detail and determine the state of the nation.
Now our citizens know that the criminal justice system is dysfunctional, and what we looked for in the state of the nation address was a date for the release of the long-promised review, but instead, we got nothing.
Police risk their lives to apprehend criminals, but our conviction rates are sickeningly low - just 13% for murder last year. And then we have the situation where innocent citizens languish for years in the most appalling cells, as the courts grind glacially towards an outcome.
Our citizens need to be assured that, if they report crime, their calls will be heard. Now the 10111 call centres - currently, rather like the President's hotline in that they are never answered - are a gigantic fraud perpetrated to lull the citizens into believing that there is a way to call for help.
What was needed on Thursday evening were mentions of policies, programmes and initiatives at various levels of society, aimed at strengthening social cohesion to motivate poorer and marginalised constituencies to feel that they have a greater stake in our society, and an acknowledgement that there is an underreporting of violent crime.
We needed rock-solid condemnation of violence against women and children. We needed to hear that the importance of acting in accordance with standards of respect and civility was a high priority in South Africa.
Where was the condemnation of the plethora of public officials who conduct themselves without a shred of integrity, giving rise to the belief that corruption has become the norm in this country?
Indeed, we cannot go on year after year hearing of criminality within the SAPS. It's bad enough that South Africa is known as both an importer and an exporter of illegal drugs, but what happened to the 75 bags of 1 000 mandrax tablets apiece seized from druglords and stored at the Nelspruit Police Station, which simply disappeared after a R1 million reward was offered by those criminals for their recovery? Are there police officers behind bars for their complicity? Not even one! This would have been a perfect job for the Scorpions, but of course, the ANC shut them down.
Where are the specialised units we were told would be reinstated? Not a word has been breathed. Instead we have a SAPS with a reputation for shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic: When criminality within is revealed, the criminals are simply transferred to another station.
Indeed, the SAPS now only complies with 10% of the Independent Complaints Directorate recommendations. The rest of the cases - which relate to proven criminality, from murder to rape to armed robbery; grievous bodily harm; assault and, of course, beating ill pensioners to death in the cells; allegedly raping a woman in Knysna; running three students off the road and robbing them at gunpoint in King Williams Town; and the list goes on and on - they ignore.
What was needed here was the gravest condemnation of this situation. Suspended members must be removed, tried, and, if guilty, jailed - not transferred. We had hoped to hear that we would develop a police service we could look up to and respect, that would serve us as it should and keep us safe. Where was the assurance that the SAPS' top structure would cease misinforming the Portfolio Committee on Police that there are no longer any equipment shortages, when SAPS members inundate us during station visits, jointly and singly, with tales of how they have shortages of virtually everything?
Through you, Mr Speaker, I would like to ask that the National Police Commissioner, Bheki Cele, be reminded that he is no longer a politician but an employee. One, in fact, wonders if he is actually capable of making that transition. He is not a much-medaled general in some tinpot dictatorship; he is the National Police Commissioner and he has no right to come before the Portfolio Committee on Police in his tackies and tracksuit to lambaste us as if we were an illegitimate structure.
Mr Speaker, it is time to tell the National Police Commissioner that Parliament will do the work it is mandated to do. His rolling mass media campaign has been most interesting to observe, but he'll only get away with claiming unsubstantiated successes for just so long. If the proposed performance management targets are to be relevant, and the SAPS does not reach the 7% to 10% crime reduction target yet again, the SAPS management must then be removed.
As the usual, unqualified ANC cadre deployed to do a job a career police person should do, Commissioner Cele is clearly out of his depth, and strikes out, for example, at criticism of the R50 million party in Bloemfontein, where even the food ran out!
Mr Speaker, I know that under his political leadership in KwaZulu-Natal, the police killed more suspects and citizens than in any other province, but, really, it is time to instruct the National Police Commissioner not to shoot and kill the messenger. [Applause.]