Speaker, Deputy Speaker, members of the House, fellow South Africans, the government of the Republic remains firmly committed to the realisation of the goal of a better life for all. This includes the improvement of the quality of life of all the people of our country in a manner that will ensure enhanced levels of safety and security.
To a large measure, crime in our country has a uniquely random and violent character. A greater proportion of murders, rapes and other crimes take place among acquaintances, particularly in poor communities where living conditions do not allow for decent family and social life. In addition, cross-border criminal networks are involved in a variety of crimes including vehicle hijacking, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
All these factors speak to the continued relevance of a multipronged approach in the fight against crime, combining aspects of crime prevention, crime combating, the improvement of socioeconomic conditions, the strengthening of the spirit of ubuntu and human solidarity among citizens.
Government releases these statistics once a year to provide the public with an indication of the crime situation in the country. More importantly, crime statistics are used daily as a management tool to guide operational plans for the SA Police Service.
The statistics before the House deal with the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. As government, we need to reiterate that the release of statistics is not merely to quantify crime or to create a debate in our society. We believe that this is a call to action for government, business, NGOs and communities at large.
The various breakdowns of crime trends over the past fiscal year reveal that there are areas where we are making progress. At the same time, there are other areas where we are still lagging behind.
Nevertheless, the ANC government remains unmoved in its commitment to securing a better life for all, and the fight against crime is an integral part of ensuring this better life.
Contact crime currently accounts for 32,7% of all crimes. It is this form of crime with which violence is generally associated. We are therefore encouraged by the decrease in five of the seven contact crime types which occurred during the period 2008-09.
Conversely, there are certain types of crime that have increased during the same period. These increases serve to dampen some of our enthusiasm regarding the overall decrease in contact crimes.
In four key areas crime has increased. These areas are: robbery with aggravated circumstances, sexual offences, stock theft and commercial crime.
In assessing aggravated robberies, there are three areas which account for the increase. These are business robberies, house robberies and hijackings.
Of the three areas mentioned, the highest increase was recorded in the area of business robberies. When we analyse these robbery statistics, we find that, in the formal business sector, robberies either declined or, where they did increase, the increase was generally only between 3% and 4%. The area where the biggest increase occurred was in the small and informal business area. This area would include small general dealers and spaza shops.
Over the past few months we have been engaging the business community to assess how we can better work together to reduce these robberies. Arising from these meetings, a number of key areas have been identified that could assist us in dealing more effectively with this form of crime.
The first relates to the type of business being targeted and the fact that almost 70% of all business robberies in fact occur at small and informal businesses.
It is important to recognise that the police need to do more to assist and protect these small businesses. However, we are aware that certain factors make these businesses particularly vulnerable to such robberies.
Issues like the availability of cash - which is often linked to the difficulty these businesses face when it comes to accessing banking services - and the unavailability of resources to implement crime prevention measures, contribute to making these businesses vulnerable. As government and Parliament we need to do more to assist these businesses as they are an important source of job creation and represent the entrepreneurial spirit of our nation.
Over the next few months we will be engaging both large and smaller businesses in an attempt to see how we can support each other to reduce robberies at small business premises. Already, joint SAPS-business initiatives are being piloted in Johannesburg Central and Tembisa, and these focus specifically on robberies at small businesses.
To address business robberies more generally, we are working towards consolidating our partnership with business. A crucial activity in this alignment process is greater information-sharing. We are confident that, as we move forward with this partnership which focuses on a government- directed and government -led strategy supported by business, we will be able to assist in making South Africa a safer place in which to do business.
Cash-in-transit robberies have declined by 2,3%. This, we agree, is not much of a decrease. To address this, the department has, over the last two months, focused considerable attention on the area of cash-in-transit robberies. We have started consulting with businesspeople regarding improvement of standards within the industry. The SAPS has also had a number of successes in the arrest and foiling of such robberies. There is no doubt that the improved standards coupled with the proactive measures taken by the SAPS have dealt a serious blow to cash-in-transit heist criminals. We believe that the increase experienced since the end of the fiscal year is likely to start declining. We are also concerned about the increase in house robberies which, during the last financial year, increased by 27%. It is one of the crimes that is the most intrusive and which personalises the crime experience. We simply cannot tolerate a situation where people do not feel safe in their homes. House robberies affect communities from all walks of life and are not restricted to wealthy areas.
Again, we recognise that the SAPS needs to do more to address this form of crime. To this effect, under the leadership of the National Commissioner of Police, an audit has started which looks in earnest at how we deploy our resources. This includes human and material resources as well as the timing of our deployment.
Equally, we realise that we need greater engagement with affected communities. Communities must ensure that those who represent them on the community police forums are equal partners with the police in establishing the programme of action to address their needs and to monitor the implementation thereof. This engagement assists us in refining our approach to deal with house robberies.
We have recently piloted an initiative in Honeydew involving the SAPS and private security companies active in the area. This initiative is aimed at reducing the risks associated with house robberies. We are evaluating the lessons and successes. Based on this evaluation and if the experience is worth rolling out, we will develop a national approach to these crimes. The final form of aggravated robbery that has increased significantly is that of hijacking. This statistic includes both truck and car hijacking, with truck hijacking increasing by 15% and car hijacking by 5%.
In tackling the illicit trade in vehicles we need to look at both the local and regional markets. The Second-Hand Goods Act - which will be fully implemented in January 2010 - will go some way in curtailing the local market for illicit vehicles. We are also going to make greater use of technology to assist us in tracking and identifying such vehicles. Technology such as automated number plate recognition has already been piloted within the SAPS.
In dealing with the illicit regional trade in vehicles we are further enhancing our co-operation with other regional police agencies to strengthen the implementation of regional protocols and agreements. We anticipate that, with the election of our national commissioner as the head of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation, and the subsequent election of South Africa to chair the SARPCCO Council of Ministers, we will be able to use our positions to advance our tactics regarding cross-border crime.
Over the last year we have implemented a number of policing strategies to address house, business and vehicle robberies. Some of these strategies have yielded considerable success. One such is the introduction, in some provinces, of the war room concept. Through this concept, suspects involved in violent organised crime have been tracked, linked to crimes and arrested.
Going forward, we are now looking to the newly formed Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation to consolidate these efforts. The DPCI is still relatively new, but we are already witnessing successes. The arrest of a number of cash-in-transit robbers, together with the recovery of firearms used in these crimes are examples of some of these successes.
Equally, the DPCI played an integral part in the successful drug seizure here in Durban and in the United Kingdom when they arrested a drug syndicate in Durban and seized drugs worth R500 million.
We are heartened by the slight decline in crimes against women and children. Nevertheless, we are still not entirely satisfied. Violence against women and children is still prevalent in our society. This phenomenon militates against our national effort to create a caring and humane society, underpinned by values of human solidarity, justice, peace and development.
The closure of special units that have focused on some of these crimes against women and children has led to significant debate. We have listened to these debates on the reintroduction of these specialised units, in particular the child protection and sexual offences units. The SAPS are now implementing the reintroduction of these particular units to improve their capacity.
The increase of 2,7% in stock theft also poses a serious challenge. This form of crime negatively impacts on the lives of people living in rural communities and requires our particular attention. Our history is characterised, among others things, by deliberate neglect of rural areas. The birth of democracy saw a shift in approach. Government has now placed the issue of rural development high on the agenda. Once again, the SAPS have begun the process of locating this as a key focal area. Stock theft is another of the areas where we are going to enhance the capacities of our units.
We have started this overview by focusing on the negatives because it is important that we admit our challenges and seek to find concrete means of addressing them. However, we also need to look at some of our successes because these can assist us to identify what has worked and help us to adapt some of our approaches to the challenges we face.
There are four key areas where, we are happy to say, we have seen decreases over the past year.
These areas include, firstly, murder and attempted murder. Both these forms of crime have been steadily declining over the last couple of years. We are pleased to say that they have continued to decline over the last fiscal year. During this period murder declined by 3,4% and attempted murder by 4,3%.
Assault, both common and with grievous bodily harm, has also declined over the last year. Common assault declined by 4,3% and assault with GBH by 4,7%. As with murder, we are encouraged to see that this decline is consistent with previous years.
The dramatic decline in bank robberies is extremely encouraging. During the last financial year the number of bank robberies declined by 29,2%. Some of the key factors contributing to our success in this area include the partnership developed between business and government, resulting in increased arrests of perpetrators; strict bail for offenders; and measures introduced by the banks themselves.
What is equally encouraging is that ATM attacks - which are not listed as a specific category in our crime statistics - also declined by 10%. The picture between January and September of this year would seem to indicate that this 10% decline has now risen to a 75% decrease. Once again, this decrease can be attributed to improved police responses and approaches as well as enhanced co-operation with the banking sector.
One of the largest categories of aggravated robberies is that of street robberies. The decline in both street robberies and common robberies is undoubtedly a positive trend. During this period, street robberies declined by 7,4% and common robberies by 8,9%. Despite this decline, the number of street robberies still remains unacceptably high and we need to ensure that we do not become complacent. We must ensure that we continue to give attention to this form of crime.
In looking forward, there are a number of key areas of focus for the SAPS which we believe will contribute to reducing crime levels in the country.
Some of these measures include a more concerted focus on the role that intelligence can play in supporting our approach to crime. We have recognised that intelligence should act as a nerve centre and has a crucial role to play in all aspects of policing.
We are currently revitalising our intelligence component. Part of this revitalisation includes ensuring the integration of intelligence into all aspects of policing, and this will be anchored by the DPCI.
We have been working with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development on amendments to Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act. We are at the stage of finalising these amendments, which will go before Parliament during the fourth session of this year.
These changes are being made in order to strengthen the hand of the police in dealing with violent criminals. It is important to mention, at this point, that trigger-happy members of the SAPS must not think that this is a licence to kill. It is a measure aimed specifically at dealing with serious violent crime and dangerous criminals.
Alongside these changes, we have strengthened the Independent Complaints Directorate. We see this strengthening of the ICD as an important measure to ensure that changes to Section 49 are not abused.
Government has focused attention on the revamping of the criminal justice system. The basis for this is to ensure a far better integration of the different departmental role players in the criminal justice environment but also to start addressing the root causes of crime.
It is apparent to all of us that the police alone cannot win the fight against crime. Criminals do not live in isolation from communities. Therefore we need to deepen our partnership with communities. The Ministry has established a dedicated unit to focus on deepening the interaction with communities, civil society, business, faith-based organisations and the different spheres of government. [Time expired.]