I think I was referring to the crime statistics circus and, yes, the disillusioned members of the SAPS. Experienced SAPS members are today instructed to mentor 20-year-olds, who are then promoted over their heads, for whom they must still do the job; they must just grit their teeth and salute.
Morale is at rock-bottom, and while this Minister's new department was scoffing R45 million on meals and swanning around in 5-star hotels, comfortable in the reality that their children, lovers and relatives were being bounced up the ranks regardless of their lack of qualifications, our people were dying in increased numbers - forty-five murdered each day.
Indeed, while I give this speech, three people will be murdered and 25 women raped. And the chances of their killers and rapists being apprehended and successfully prosecuted and incarcerated are miniscule, because so few cases make it to court, and so often the cases presented are so weak they're laughed out the door.
Sadly, this Minister has yet to learn of his SAPS members who are so poorly trained that they wreck crime scenes, fail to collect evidence, destroy evidence or even sell it.
It may pay the new Minister to ask why it is that in Gauteng 70 officers have been dismissed recently for corruption, attempted murder, armed robbery, defeating the ends of justice and assault, and why another 173 were fired in KwaZulu-Natal. And they aren't part of the infamous 1 448. They are fresh, new criminals. The question, of course, to ask is: How on earth did they get into the SAPS in the first place?
Needless to say our SAPS needs a comprehensive turnaround strategy. It cannot go on as before, with political appointments, secretaries, drivers, lovers and relatives of various bigwigs being bounced up the ranks to senior positions over the heads of those who have earned the positions through backbreaking hard work.
Chair, this Minister's predecessor shoved through poor, unconstitutional legislation such as the Hawks Bill, rejected now for the third time by the courts, and the xenophobic Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill, which allows for the expropriation of entire private security companies which have head offices elsewhere.
Even if the President decides that South Africa doesn't need to be bogged down in the Constitutional Court and international arbitral tribunals, it is quite obvious that the aim is being achieved through the Home Affairs' immigration regulations, which ensure any permanent residents working in any sector of the private security industry will not be allowed back into the country should he or she pop to Mauritius for a holiday - a neat trick.
I could tell the new Minister that there were zero dismissals in relation to the 13 000 lost SAPS firearms, and that R96 million was spent to send cops to South Sudan and Darfur. I could tell them of the multimillion rand Automatic Vehicle Location, AVL, SAPS car-tracking system contract lapsing, because the now Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries signed the renewal three days after it had expired; of our reservists turned away from SAPS' doors since 2008 and now treated like trash via the new regulations; that 20% of detectives are without the most basic of training; that just 3,3% of cops are trained in respect of sexual offences. There are 27 000 cops with firearms, but no licences; 16 594 cops without driver's licences and as many cops with licences but no vehicles.
This Minister must know that there are heroes in the SAPS, members who will put their lives on the line for us members of the public on a daily basis. But, equally, there are those who use the position to rob and rape. The balance between the good and the bad has begun to tilt towards the bad. The plan to integrate the criminal justice system has been spoken about for a decade, perhaps 14 years, and the most the SAPS have been able to do to date is to spend a huge amount of money and then fail at scanning and sending dockets to court. I have no option but to hope that now that the empty suit has sailed off into the sunset of his career, this new Minister will prove to be more substantial.
Unfortunately, the new Minister has inherited no clear plan of how to tackle the main issue of police brutality, and while I have my reservations about his appointment, I trust his history of abusing his powers to the benefit of the President and his friends will be left behind him as he steps into this fresh new day.
If I have a few moments left, I would like to say one more thing. In other countries, such as Germany, a family prays daily that their children would marry a doctor, and if they fail to marry a doctor, they pray daily that they would marry a police officer. That is how highly they are regarded in so many countries around the world. I think we should all pray daily that our police officers come to be held in such high regard that every parent would want their children to marry one. Thank you, Minister and Chairperson. [Applause.]