The crime being, and I'll open quotes for the vigilantes: "Hoekom is jy so swart en jou hare so kort? Is jy mal?" ["Why are you so black and your hair so short? Are you crazy?"] [Interjections.]
This type of criminality was prevalent everywhere in this country at the time. It therefore stands to reason that this section of the population, who were previously protected, who had their own hospitals, bus stops, restaurants, swimming pools and toilets, would have a skewed understanding and perception of crime and its levels. [Interjections.]
Crime impacts negatively on the country's socioeconomic development and therefore undermines people's wellbeing and their ability to achieve their full potential. This therefore means that the capacity of the developmental state requires immediate enhancement in the areas of forensics, detective investigation and prosecuting services to reduce the high levels of crime and corruption. [Interjections.]
The 2010 to 2014 strategic plan of the department identified, among others, the enhancement of detection services as key operational and organisational priorities. This refers to the effective investigation of crime by improving detection and court-ready case docket rates on serious crimes. This will increase the capacity and professionalism of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations and improve forensic services and, above all, establish specialised units. The specialised units will help to improve crime intelligence relating to serious crime, drug and people-smuggling syndicates and human trafficking. Although there were some problems with this division of the SAPS, the national commissioner has taken the division under her wing in order to stabilise it. We are therefore expecting positive results soon. The specialised units will also address crimes against women and children.
Let me point out, however, that the firearms confiscated in Norwood, Johannesburg, was as a result of work that crime intelligence delivered. The drug bust in KwaZulu-Natal came from information that was provided by crime intelligence. [Applause.] The Crime Intelligence Division generated over 37 000 reports in 2012-13 and 29 000 reports in 2013-14, and will generate another 32 000 operations during 2014-15.
Our Visible Policing Division is the biggest division in the SAPS, with over 106 526 members. We rely on these men and women in blue to do the right thing. Our main expenditure of the police budget is, rightly, on visible policing, at over 50% of the SAPS' budget. For 2014-15, this is over R37 billion. This is an increase of over 5,7% from the 2013-14 financial year. The Visible Policing programme has seen the mobilisation of South Africans against crime through izimbizo.
This budget will go towards the Crime Prevention programme, the Railway Police, K9 units, the mounted police unit, the youth, children and gender- based violence units and the Flying Squad. The role of the SAPS in securing our borders is also funded from this budget. Our special intervention teams, like the Public Order Policing Units that have been policing some of the service delivery protests throughout the country, are also being supported through this budget. This is why we have to invest in resourcing our police to make sure that they have the tools to fight crime effectively anywhere in the country.
The Visible Policing programme is a critical part of the success of the SAPS, when one considers what they deal with, namely over 1,8 million crimes throughout the country; over 175 000 crimes against women and children; and over 49 000 crimes against children. They have dealt with over 206 000 crimes for the unlawful possession of and dealing in drugs. This includes over 76 kg of cocaine, 309 000 mandrax tablets and 178 kg of tik.
As enunciated in the state of the nation address, rural development is a priority of this government. We will make sure that our people in the rural areas in all four corners of this country are safe and feel safe. That is why we have to make sure that rural communities receive support from the Rural Safety Plan and that it is implemented to make them safer. I would like to say to the hon Groenewald, rural safety refers only to the protection of white farmers. He doesn't even think of the villages where our people live. [Interjections.]
The Sector Policing Plan introduced by the SAPS has already started to give us the results we want. To date, sector policing has been implemented in almost all the police precincts around the country. There are only 185 stations left, where we know the SAPS will still implement the strategy. We have no doubt that the work of the Portfolio Committee on Police has demonstrated the accountability-in-action we require from the SAPS to take policing forward.
Our fight against the abuse of women and children continues uninterrupted. We have fought for the reintroduction of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units. We have seen that, in the past financial year, crimes against women and children have been reduced as a result of these units. We cannot stop. We want the SAPS to continue building on these successes. We have seen the number of reported crimes against women decrease by 5%, from 49 550 in 2012-13 to 46 825 in 2013-14.
The opposition always talks about corruption. Let us listen to this, from the horse's mouth, about real corruption within the police force. [Interjections.]
This is a quote from Eugene de Kock:
Late one afternoon in December 1984, C2's Martin Naud and I were summoned to Head Office by Brigadier Willem Schoon. He ordered each of us to file a false claim. As far as I can remember, one claim was for R46 000; the other for R48 000. After we had written out the claims, Schoon took both of them and I didn't hear of them again. However, Schoon mentioned in passing that the Secret Funds budget had to be used in full, otherwise Parliament would not approve it next time.
[Laughter.] [Applause.] [Interjections.]
We expect the SAPS to deal decisively with the corruption in its ranks. [Interjections.] We are already seeing the SAPS arresting their own colleagues who have engaged in corrupt practices. Our National Police Commissioner is already showing that the anti-corruption units are being reprioritised, and we support her all the way. [Interjections.] If we want to be free, we have to fight corruption. If we want to be free, let's clean our police force of the entire corrupt element. [Interjections.]
Let's listen to another quote from Eugene de Kock. [Interjections.]