Speaker, there is something that the ANC has missed in its 15 years of treating crime statistics as something to be held hostage until the last possible moment and then released with great fanfare after its spin doctors have worked overtime for a month or so beforehand. And you've certainly done that this year.
Some 15 months after we last had a look at the crime statistics, and after you reneged on your predecessor's assurance that statistics would be released twice a year, there has been a massive charm offensive by the Ministry. Op-eds, TV-covered busts and reports were given of what a marvellous job you've been doing shooting and killing anyone you've determined is a criminal.
What you've missed is the fact that every murder, rape, beating, act of torture, robbery or fraud, every one of the thousands upon thousands of crimes coldly detailed in this annual report, that is 5 753 serious crimes daily, represents the damage - frequently irreparable - done to another South African citizen.
These are not your statistics, Minister, nor are they the private property of the ANC to be kept from us before an election for fear that the sheer volume of them may cost you votes. These are the statistics of the citizens of South Africa, the statistics that they should be able to access freely at their local SAPS station, so that their tiny neighbourhood watches stay on top of an always fluid situation, and are aware when their neighbourhood is targeted by criminals.
This morning our Chairperson had the unmitigated gall to exclude the very people who report on what we do here in Parliament from witnessing oversight in action. Madam Chair, you broke every rule in the book by ordering this morning's meeting to be held in camera. While you were no doubt merely acting as the obedient ANC cadre, I will ask that the Speaker himself run an investigation into your actions.
Minister, the statistics are dismal and indeed might well have had the ANC losing more than the 4% they did if released before the election.
Business robberies are up by 41,2% and commercial crime is up by 16%. It is little wonder that the latest World Economic Forum's global competitiveness report ranked South Africa as the worst place in which to do business because of crime. House robberies are up by 27,3%. Truck hijackings are up by 15,4% and car hijackings are up by 5%. We have also seen a significant rise in sexual offences. It is up by 10%.
That is, of course, of deep concern to us and highlights just how devastating the ANC's decision to disband the family violence, sexual offences and child protection units was. That decision was taken for political purposes and has come at a high cost to ordinary South Africans.
The DA is not impressed by your antics and manipulation of Parliament today. We are also not impressed by those statistics which by many accounts do not, in fact, reflect the true situation in South Africa at all. Our police have been hiding away and even burning dockets to ensure they receive a ministerial pat on the head.
Even when they are caught red-handed by the Independent Complaints Directorate investigators, as was the case at Mountain Rise in KwaZulu- Natal, the SAPS doesn't expel them and arrest them. No, they tell the ICD to go to hell. My attempts to introduce private member's legislation to give the ICD teeth has been cancelled again today for the second, or the third time, I think. There's no will at all to improve the situation.
The Auditor-General knows this is a problem that you won't clean up yourself. So in future, at my request, all crime statistics will be audited. Of course no one will be able to pick up the unrecorded, burned case files, but at least it's a start to cleaning up a service which has so many members dirtying the reputations of the majority, who wouldn't dream of committing such a crime.
To the families of the 51 people who will be murdered in South Africa today, there are some of us who tell it as it is, and not, obviously, as the ANC would have us believe.
With the 2010 Soccer World Cup around the corner, the usual rhetoric and empty promises will not cut it. We need more police and better training. We need to deal with the backlog of 20 000 forensic laboratory samples. We need the reconstitution of specialised units, and an end to cadre deployment within our police service. Only by dealing with the real problems, can we bring down the crime rate in the future. Thank you. [Applause.]