Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, the Minister and the Deputy Minister of Police, Members of Parliament, members of the Portfolio Committee on Police, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Khongolose uyalusekela loluphakelotimali lweLitiko Letemaphoyisa kanye neLuphiko Lwetikhalo Lolutimele, i-ICD. Angitsatse lelitfuba ngihalalisele Indvuna kanye neLisekela layo ngekubekwa kuletikhundla kuleLitiko Letemaphoyisa. LeLitiko lidzinga imicondvo lemisha, lebukhali, lehlakaniphile, lebutako nalevulekile. (Translation of Siswati paragraph follows.)
[The African National Congress supports the budget of the Department of Police and the Independent Complaints Directorate, ICD. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister and his deputy on being appointed to these positions in the Department of Police. This Department needs new minds that are sharp, clever, questioning and open.]
Chairperson, the speech that the Minister has just delivered before this House is comprehensive, it is forward looking, and sets an agenda for the coming year.
The era of renewal should be characterised by efficiency, hard work, participation and an ethical and professional manner of doing things, including the spending of this Budget that we are debating today. There surely must be a relationship between the increased budget allocation and the outcomes. Our support for this Budge Vote will, therefore, not be a blank cheque, but we will closely monitor the department's expenditure and its impact on service delivery.
I am a new chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police. When I was appointed to this critically important portfolio, the question that came to mind was: What is the character and the real extent of crime in South Africa and why? In trying to answer this question, I read many books and research findings. All these documents and their authors agree that South African crime is, in the main, violent.
The data regarding violent crime rates or patterns in other countries is very patchy, unreliable and depends on who is reporting, such as the International Criminal Police Organisation, Interpol, or the World Health Organisation. Be that as it may, the truth is that our violent crime rate, be it murder per capita or robbery, is in the top bracket. In fact, I've learnt that even countries with socioeconomic conditions similar to ours or worse have low violent crimes in comparison to ours. I'm again asking myself, why?
I agree with the Department of Safety and Security Annual Report for 2006- 07 which explains that the generators of crime include poverty and unemployment, urbanisation, alcohol and drugs. Many authors agree with this report. But maybe some authors underestimate the extent of the damage our past history has done to our country and its people. For many of us one thing we find unique to South Africa, is its violent history or past. It seems true that the violent crime that we are witnessing in our democratic and constitutional South Africa mirrors the similar intense violence our country experienced over a long period of time and that actually became a way of life. I think that there is no other country in the world that experienced such legitimised human rights abuse over such a long period of time as in South Africa. I think our violent past is not dead; in fact, it may not even be our past. But change has to come.
Together, we managed to bring about the disappearance of political violence in our country, even during election periods. Nothing should prevent us from stopping criminals holding all of us ransom. It is in this spirit that we'll neither sensationalise nor politicise the issue of crime, because such actions serve to empower criminals rather than all of us.
President Zuma, in his state of the nation address, had a specific vision that the government as well as all of us have to adopt in the fight against crime to achieve a crime-free society. The significance of this noble vision is that it sets the theme for government and all law-enforcement agencies. The government objectives have to aim to achieve a crime-free society. The Department of Police has to incorporate this theme and put more effort into directing its resources towards the achievement of a crime- free society. The yearly target of reducing crime by 7% to 10% is in line with our President's vision.
When announcing his Cabinet on 10 May 2009, the President renamed the department the Department of Police. In doing so, he reassured South Africans about the seriousness and commitment to the fight against crime. He sent a crystal clear message to criminals that government is taking a no- nonsense approach to criminal activities. We believe that in our actions we must never downplay this noble approach.
As has just been stated by the Minister, quoting President Zuma, the 2009 ANC manifesto states that the ANC government will establish a new modernised, efficient and transformed criminal justice system to develop the capacity to fight and reduce crime. The manifesto gives priority to the need to overhaul the criminal justice system in order to combat crime and corruption in the next five years.
To date, the criminal justice system is fragmented, not co-ordinated and the role players function almost in isolation from each other. This leads to victims' dissatisfaction about justice in our courts, chronic overcrowding in prisons and unrehabilitated convicts being released from prisons back into society where they reoffend. This creates a vicious cycle of crime traps. The major outcome expected from the revamping and transformation of the criminal justice system is the increased co- ordination and management of all efforts towards a common goal of fighting crime, leading to a crime-free society.
We are aware that the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster conducted public hearings during the third Parliament. We are encouraged by the fact that a scientific study on the changes required is in progress and the findings will soon be made available. We are keenly looking forward to the speedy finalisation of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill which aims at expanding the police powers to collect and store deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, samples and fingerprints, to establish a national DNA database, and to give police access to the electronic database of the Department of Home Affairs as well as the Department of Transport.
It is, once more, in order and important to commend the staff of the disbanded Directorate of Special Operations, DSO, and, in particular, those staff members who continued to perform their duties ethically and professionally despite the uncertainty which accompanied the process of disbandment. It is also encouraging to learn that other DSO staff members are transferring to the new Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, DPCI. We think that their action displays patriotism in action. The appointment of the Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, in the language of the youth, is "cool". We will monitor closely the undertaking the Minister made during the President's state of the nation address debate to ensure that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation will be fully functional by July 2009. This will be a clear indication of our determination to fight organised crime and corruption.
Corruption is a highly infectious and most fatal disease. The former President Mandela said, "Corruption is a plague that must be erased from every regime in every place in the world." The danger of failing to erase corruption is that it is highly infectious. This may sound too disease- oriented but it is true. Imagine what will happen to an honest officer who works with officers who demand a bribe each time they award a tender and are becoming stinking rich every day. Would that change his behaviour? Maybe this officer will never think that accepting a bribe is correct, but may think that one bribe may very well not make a difference. The chances are that he will do it again. The point I'm making is that if the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation fails to effectively deal with corruption, we may see a real epidemic which will kill all our efforts.
Crime against women and children is a priority crime. It is in this spirit that we say that the Domestic Violence Act should be implemented in its totality. Adequate training of more officers on how to deal with rape victims is of paramount importance. Coupled with capacity-building are the resources necessary to deal with the emotional aspect of rape victims. The introduction of a child protection and sexual offences unit has just been announced by the Minister, and that is most welcome.
President Zuma urged the nation to participate in the fight against crime. He reminded all of us that our rights we so cherish go with responsibilities. A clear programme on capacitating and mobilisation of structures such as community police forums, CPFs, community safety forums, CSFs, street committees, businesses, the youth, churches and all of us will have to be implemented as this will narrow the space for criminals. The establishment of a section dealing with strategic partnership and proper participation will ensure a social contract against crime. Lack of co- operation between police and communities will defeat the objectives of partnerships in the fight against crime. As part of our crime-fighting capacity, the detective and forensic services should be enhanced.
Let us congratulate the department for receiving a clean - that is an unqualified - audit opinion. But the Auditor-General raised important issues, one of them being the unavailability of a policy on sector policing. Since the year 2002, the department has been using a draft policy on sector policing. If communities are an integral part of the fight against crime, the use of the draft policy for about seven years, since the year 2002, is disappointing, to put it mildly. How do you implement, monitor and evaluate any programme without a policy? This needs urgent intervention.
The purpose of crime intelligence in the SAPS is to manage crime intelligence, analyse crime information and provide technical support for investigations and crime prevention operations. Crime intelligence should identify crime-prone areas and suspects. This implies that crime intelligence work must be proactive and preventative in nature.
This programme received 12,25% - the highest percentage real increase in comparison to other programmes. We believe that this indicates the department's focus on the prevention of crime and improvement of crime intelligence services. The portfolio committee will pay close attention to the spending of the crime intelligence budget, together with related outcomes.
The 1992 Ready to Govern document noted that the ANC is committed to the creation of a single police service. The Polokwane conference reaffirmed this principle of a single police service. Under this principle we believe that Metro Police and provincial structures will have to be under the command of the National Police Commissioner in line with the integrated approaches to crime fighting. We will be looking forward to the steps that will ensure the implementation of this principle. The finalisation of the issues around the National Police Commissioner's position within this month, as announced today by the Minister, is welcomed.
The role and mandate of the ICD is critically important. In a country that embraces human rights, the ICD has to be supported. It was recommended, 10 years ago, that for it to function it needs a staff structure of 535; to date, which is more than 10 years later, the ICD still has almost half of the 535 personnel. Clearly, such a severely underresourced entity cannot perform its duties as expected. This needs an urgent comprehensive approach in terms of giving the ICD legislative teeth to bite and resources to perform.
Let me join the Minister in congratulating our soccer team, Bafana Bafana, as well as our policemen and policewomen for work well done during the Fifa Confederations Cup. [Applause.] In fact, we took note of the fact that President Sepp Blatter in the opening press conference was concerned about security, but in the closing press conference his concern was on other issues such as transport and accommodation. Well done to the South African Police Service and other security enforcement agencies. [Applause.]
As a portfolio committee, we'll want to be sure that there will be no security lapses during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup. We will be overseeing the role of the Department of Police quite closely and actively participate in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster JCPS.
Let me take this opportunity to thank our policemen and policewomen who work in dangerous environments on a daily basis to ensure our safety. Their work is highly appreciated by all of us.
We need police officers who conduct themselves ethically and professionally. We need station commissioners who can manage those police stations. We need national and provincial managers who can manage. We have spent a lot of money capacitating our managers with regard to management skills. I think it is time that we expect or even demand results. We can no longer be patient with managers who cannot manage. By the way, as President Zuma puts it, they are appointed in those management positions on the basis that they have the management skills. [Time expired.] Thank you very much. [Applause.]