House Chairperson, colleagues, no amount of revolutionary proclamations will adequately articulate the melancholy causing pain to our people as a consequence of crime in our society. Crime subscribes to no ideology or social class. It is a common experience of all members of society from all walks of life. Therefore, all of us have a political and social duty to roll up our sleeves and join in the collective slog to combat the scourge of crime.
A lot of the points that I thought I was going to traverse were covered by colleagues who are members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, who clearly had a very constructive engagement with the Ministry of Police and the National Police Commissioner.
When an audit was undertaken by the Auditor-General in relation to fleet management, there were 13 631 police vehicles that had the so-called automatic vehicle location system.
In terms of this system, the police are able to locate a police vehicle. They are able to determine the speed profile of the car and to know whether it is travelling beyond the boundaries it is supposed to be operating in. When we met with the police, they reported that 24 254 vehicles now have that system. This is progressive improvement. [Applause.] Yet, as Scopa, we feel that more is required, particularly in relation to operational vehicles, so that we are able to track the performance of our deployed police.
We all agree that the police are the front-line guardians of our laws. Therefore, their conduct must epitomise the highest moral rectitude and the National Police Commissioner should be able to act very swiftly against any police officers that are exposed abusing the limited resources for fighting crime in our country.
However, as we engage robustly on the performance of the police, we should also have space in our criticism to acknowledge some of the positive things that happen on the part of the police.
Yesterday, at Orlando Community Hall in Soweto, one former boxing champion, Baby Jake Matlala, was involved in an agonising five-hour training session with the police to make sure that, as our slogan says, Washa Tsotsi, the police on the ground are prepared to engage our enemy, namely crime. [Applause.] This is the duty of everybody.
Lastly, Parliament is the ultimate platform for intellectual combat and in the ANC ... [Interjections.] ... Whatever you call it. That's why ... [Interjections.] ... You see, you are afforded your moment to waffle with little disturbance. [Laughter.] As I was saying, that is the purpose of Parliament, so that there could be clear intercourse between members of society about how to improve their land.
As Scopa, we feel that the bottlenecks that are there have to be dealt with effectively. It is not a lost opportunity that collapses at the feet of lamentations and trying to get a vote for distant elections. Thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.