Similarly, calls are beginning to emerge, agitating for a boost in the numbers of the Public Order Policing Units to quell the civil unrest that is engulfing the country.
The point being missed here relates to the construct. No amount of cosmetic application can change its outcomes. The proposed civilianisation of the police by the National Police Commissioner will come to naught as this does not speak to the actual causalities of crime, which are socioeconomic by nature. This fallacious belief is further exposed by the levels of corruption in the ranks of the SA Police Service, SAPS, primarily because we believe that they, too, as human beings, continuously yearn for a better life that remains out of their reach. They have dreams too. This reflects itself in the quality of detective work, which has always been a challenge, thus resulting in poor investigative outputs, leading to case dismissals in courts.
Regarding to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, there doesn't seem to have been a proper and adequate handover by the former directorate, as evidenced by the report of the current leadership. In their presentation, they alluded to very critical tools and an enabling capacity as underspent items. The question therefore is: How do they make up for the shortfall? We acknowledge the commitment made by Mr McBride that they would use their spare time to cover the said items. However, we remain sceptical. As a consequence of inadequate resourcing, they may face difficulties.
The other issue relates to staff turnover in the directorate, mainly attributed to low salaries. It seems that once the members of staff have been trained by the directorate, private companies poach them. However, there isn't any meaningful remedy in the offing. We would like the directorate to come up with recommendations on ways to curb this brain drain.
We urge the establishment of specialised units to deal with specific crimes, resourced with adequate skills in their areas of expertise, not only in high-profile cases. We usually see resources thrown into and the best of the police assigned to such cases. We would prefer the establishment of specialised units to serve all citizens so as to facilitate equal treatment.
The fight against crime should be driven by intelligence generated from the crime intelligence division, which is unfortunately mired in controversy. [Time expired.]