SAPS & Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) 2015/16 Annual Performance & Strategic Plans

Meeting report

Department of Police on its Strategic Plan, Annual Performance Plan and Budget Allocation
General Riah Phiyega, National Commissioner of Police, gave a detailed overview of the South African Police Service (SAPS) strategic direction, priorities and outcomes. She outlined a number of key aspects in the National Development Plan (NDP) that affected SAPS. The Constitution also provided a guideline on how SAPS should deliver its services and this is incorporated in the Strategic Plan. The strategic outcomes included that all people in South Africa feel safe, a better South Africa, a better Africa, a better world; nation building and social cohesion and fighting corruption. When planning, the department took into consideration the State of the Nation Address (SONA). SAPS has a special focus on leadership training in order to modernise and improve itself. The five programmes were Administration, Visible Policing, Detective Service, Crime Intelligence and Security Services.

Lieut Gen Stefanus Johannes Schutte, Deputy National Commissioner: Resource Management, presented the budget. He gave a comparison on the budget growth from the year 2011/12 to 2017/18 which showed growth in the budget. Baseline allocations over the medium term grew from R76.3 billion in 2015/16 to R86.3 billion in 2017/18 at an average annual rate of 6%. He outlined the budget per programme.

Lieut Gen Christabel Nobubela Mbekela, Deputy National Commissioner: Corporate Service Management, gave an outline of the 2015/16 Annual Performance Plan (APP). She focused on the strategic priorities and stated the performance indicators per strategy under the Administration programme.

Lieut Gen Khehla Sithole, Deputy National Commissioner: Policing stated that the department looked at the 2013/14 financial year performance, the 2014/15 estimated performance, the average of the previous years and target based resource planning used to determine some of the targets. He outlined the strategic priorities, performance indicators and the estimated performances for the Visible Policing Programme and the Detective Services Programmes.

Lieut Gen Dr Bongiwe Zulu, Acting Divisional Commissioner: Crime Intelligence, looked at the two sub-programmes of Crime Intelligence Operations as well as Information and Intelligence Management, noting the strategic priorities and performance indicators as well as those for the Protection and Security Services programme, dealing with VIP protection services, static security and government security regulation.
 

Discussion
Mr G Michalakis (DA, Free State) referred to the first strategic objective in the crime intelligence turn-around strategy which talked about declaring “war on crime”. The Times Live newspaper had an article on police officers who tortured witnesses in a criminal case. The officers were arrested. Was this what declaring war against crime meant? It had been indicated in the past that using that specific phrase was worrisome. The use of those kinds of words should perhaps be reconsidered. The police was not supposed to be a force but a service with which the community felt safe to interact with. What steps are you planning to take in dealing with police service employees that resort to that sort of crime? SAPS should go beyond the normal disciplinary steps as these were serious crimes that were jeopardising the trust that the community had in the police. The staffing plan for 2015/16 provided for the appointment of 100 Deputy Station commanders. There are just over 1 134 stations in the country. Therefore why only 100? Is it the beginning phase and was it planning on rolling this out to the other stations as well? There is nothing about the health and wellness of active South African Police Service (SAPS) officers for the coming year. What percentage of operational members have got their K53 driver’s licence? There was an indication that there are over 50 000 active vehicles in the police service yet in provinces such as the Free State one of the challenges in some of the stations is that the police cannot react quickly enough because they do not have vehicles. Why were some police stations experiencing this problem and what are you planning to do to address it? Why were some police stations being downgraded despite the growing population? In 2013/14 there was an indication that 74 000 members were prioritised to be trained for firearm competence. How many of them have been trained and what is the target for this year? All targets under the strategic priority of effective investigation of serious crime have been lowered. The target was based on the estimated performance of the previous financial year. Why have those targets not been met and why were these targets subsequently lowered? It is worrying that VIP protection services has escalated with R105 million this year.

The Chairperson stated that the Commissioner could submit answers in writing to some questions later if she felt that she did not have answers for them at that moment.

Mr M Mhlanga (ANC, Mpumalanga) welcomed the presentation by the department. He referred to public outreach programmes and requested clarity on how the department budgeted to fund them. Are there stipends for the people who voluntarily assist SAPS with crime prevention as they need to be encouraged? There was concern about infrastructure maintenance especially small police stations and that should be looked into. Satellite police stations such as Malahleni kwaGuca have inadequate infrastructure particularly the electronic systems therefore the process to improve on that should be sped up.

Mr L Nzimande (ANC) commended the department on the escalation in statistical target indicators. How will the department monitor and evaluate that the targets will be met? What strategy will be used? What is the status in terms of the managerial vacancies for commissioners and at provincial level? There have been incidents of break-ins particularly in the parliamentary residences. Who is responsible for that under the VIP Protection Programme? The alarm systems are not functional and who is responsible for that? What role does SAPS play in that instance?

The Chairperson asked why the department was silent about disabled employees and asked if SAPS had any. The State Security Agency (SSA) does the vetting of SAPS but who does the vetting of contractors and supply management personnel?

Gen Riah Phiyega replied that the “war on crime” phrase was used appositely. South Africans were impatient with crime and therefore something had to be done about it. The phrase was used when referring to issues such as poverty as well and was meant to show the intensity of engaging an ill that had to be tackled. It was not linked to the matter reported in the newspaper. SAPS acted swiftly and called a press conference to tell the nation about the incident and had the people involved in the matter arrested. It was the duty of the police to deal with that crime and any other such crime. Police criminality is a reportable issue that is tracked not only for statistics but for intervention as well. Policing is a highly defined environment and there is protocol, instructions and standing orders in terms of how the police do their job. For every matter such as that incident, there is a disciplinary process which ensures that the relevant standards are met. Policing of post 1994 cannot be compared to policing of pre 1994 because the current one is doing much more to ensure that these types of incidents are far fewer and are dealt with if they happen. There was immediate suspension of the police involved and the member at large will be suspended when found. The issue of trust is high on the agenda therefore the matter will be handled. She asked for the point of reference for the 100 deputy commanders mentioned.

Mr Michalakis (DA, Free State) stated that he had the information in his notes and not on the slides specifically. How many deputy commanders was SAPS planning to recruit? If his figure was incorrect, what was the correct one?

Gen Phiyega replied that the matter was not addressed in the presentation therefore she was not sure where the figure came from but they were prepared to hand in a submission on how they intended to roll out the deputy commander plan. Indicators on Employee Health and Wellbeing (EHW) were shared in the presentation, contrary to a Member saying that no reference was made to it.

Lieut Gen Mbekela added that they had clearly articulated the targets for the EHW in the presentation. There were proactive programmes and reactive programmes. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) was signed with Old Mutual so that it could train the police in financial management because some suicides of SAPS members were related to managing finances. They were also looking into promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Gen Phiyega added that SAPS had a number of pastors and was looking at extending their role to include after care services in areas where most people are having problems. Within government departments, SAPS had the most robust service and the EHW is highly responsive. There are mandatory debriefing sessions for people who are exposed to trauma.

Ms Mbekela proposed that SAPS submit a full report on the K53 driver’s licence and the firearm competency report in order to present accurate statistics.

Gen Phiyega replied that the police have driver’s licences and they could drive. In terms of firearms competency there was compulsory training that was undertaken. The report will show that there are three types of guns and there is one that all police have to be able to use. There is elective use of the other types of firearms. SAPS does transformational type intervention for driver’s licences whereby at entry point there is provision for people who come from poor areas and rural areas where there may be no means of acquiring a driver’s licence, and who cannot be excluded from policing. There are programmes that ensure that whilst being trained on policing, they are also trained on driving.

Mr Michalakis asked for an indication on how long it would take to compile the report.

Gen Phiyega replied that it would take approximately a week to ten days. There is a 1:4.5 ratio of vehicles to police and SAPS is the largest owner of vehicles in the country. In terms of the indicators, the Free State was not one of the provinces struggling to respond promptly. She asked which data was being referred to come to that conclusion.

Lieut Gen Stefanus Johannes Schutte, Deputy National Commissioner: Resource Management replied that SAPS had identified even in 2013/14 that it should enhance the vehicle ratio of SAPS members to vehicles in two provinces: Mpumalanga and Free State. At the end of 2013 in the Free State the ratio of vehicle to members was 1:1.44 and at the end of 2014 it had improved to 1:4.27. As at the end of the last financial year it had improved to 1:3.97. It was well below the average. 349 vehicles were purchased for the Free State. A province may have enough vehicles but the operational distribution at ground level could mean fewer vehicles in one station and more in another. If there are problems in one area in the same province, vehicles may be taken from one station to another for a time in order to address the problem.

Gen Phiyega added that much had been done by the government on vehicle management. The first priority when cars were bought was to maintain the member to car ratio. There is also a maintenance plan for vehicles. She asked for clarity on the question of downgrading police stations.

Mr Michalakis stated that it would be best if he submitted a written question to the Minister on that issue.

Lieut Gen Sithole indicated that the targets were not below the previous performance. They had been increased by a margin. They had done target based resource planning and taken into consideration the resources that they had and their previous performance and worked out what the resources that they had were, which would allow them to meet the targets. There are proposed interventions for improving on the figures. There was a proposal to reintroduce the uniformed investigation to offload certain categories of less serious crimes from the detectives so that they are able to concentrate on serious ones. They had designed the crime detection strategy where there would be multi-disciplinary investigations.

Gen Phiyega noted that the Protection and Security programme accounted for 3% of the total allocation and the increase it received was about 8.7% therefore the growth was not alarming.

Mr Schutte replied that 8.7% refers to the static and government security regulator. Dignitaries work long hours and there is need for security. Compensation is for all who work significant overtime. There is provision for overtime for the work done by the members to provide security and although the planning is up to date, it is hard to predict the amount of overtime that will be done for example, three months in advance.

Gen Phiyega replied that one of the strategies that resources are allocated for is managing significant national events such as the African Union summit and the World Economic Forum as the people who will attend will require protection. The budget for Community Police Forums (CPF) is not done by SAPS but the Civilian Secretariat for Police but SAPS gives support in terms of transport, accommodation or offices. SAPS is the largest client of the Department of Public Works and is responsible for maintaining only 278 of the stations whereas the bulk of the 900 plus stations are with Public Works. The dependency has to be dealt with because their plan is not always able to attend to the matters. The monitoring and evaluation of the targets is done through the police framework. Performance is looked at multiple levels and an annual report is given. There are certain transversal indicators that have been isolated such as the 30 day payment and how long it takes to fill a position. The managerial vacancies have been filled except for one and at the moment there are no leadership vacancies. Public Works is responsible for vetting its contractors. SAPS uses that which is in the handbook to provide protection in certain areas but not all but they will look into it and raise the issue for others to look into. There is a 2% requirement for disabled employees but SAPS is at 1.6% because of the nature of the work. There is a limited space for non-police duties. Cabinet decided that vetting of senior managing positions should be done by the State Security Agency (SSA) so SAPS does not vet itself and the rest is done by the crime management department in the police.

Ms Zulu replied that when vetting, SAPS prioritises the critical environments based on the risks that come with it.

Afternoon session
Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) on Strategic & Annual Performance Plans
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) was represented by Mr Israel Kgamanyane, Acting Executive Director, Ms Lindokuhle Ngcongo, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ms Nomkhosi Netsianda, Chief Director: Corporate Services, Mr Matthews Sesoko, Chief Director: Investigations and Information Management, among others. IPID gave a detailed presentation on the Strategic Plan 2015-2020, the Annual Performance Plan 2015/16 and the budget for 2015/16. It noted that there was no real increase in the budget and strategic priorities were funded through reprioritisation from Goods and Services to Compensation of Employees. IPID has to come up with measures on how it is going to deal with the cutting of the budget.

Discussion
Mr M Mhlanga (ANC) asked about the provincial heads since IPID intended to improve on its human capacity. Have provincial heads been appointed for all the nine provinces? In 2012, 2013 and 2014 the department underspent. What were the reasons? In 2015/16 in terms of the approved budget of R12.4 million how sure is the department that this money will be spent, since there has been under-spending in previous years? Where is IPID operating from?

Mr L Nzimande (ANC, KwaZulu Natal) stated that there has always been the question of quality assurance and the spread and access to IPID. IPID would not reach people who are in the far flung areas of the country. He gave an example of an incident that happened in the Table View / Blouberg area where somebody was given the contacts of IPID people at a Bellville station who do not work weekends and would only be available on the Monday. If the matter had been serious, then the case would not have been attended to. In terms of the quality and level of service in relation to its goal, IPID has been on the decline. It could be because of the under-spending. What needs to be done and what is in the plan for better performance? How far is the scope of its service and what are the plans for the scope of its service to reach far flung areas? In the past they used to ask SAPS to assist with resources; therefore what is the plan for 2015 as far as that is concerned? Are there new offices that have been opened or will there be more offices to be opened in 2015/16? Where is evidence kept?

Mr Israel Kgamanyane, Acting Executive Director, replied that the posts for the provincial heads were upgraded as per the IPID Act to chief director level. Those posts became vacant when the Act came into effect in April 2012 up until they were all filled in October 2014, which means that they were vacant for about two years. The under-spending for 2012/13 and 2013/14 was as a result of that. At the moment there is full staff capacity as is evidenced by the 99% spending of the budget for 2014/15. For 2015/16 IPID has learnt from past experience and will ensure that the vacancy rate is kept to below 10%. The head office is in Pretoria at 114 City Forum and in all the provinces there are offices. There are nine satellite offices and nine provincial offices. The ideal was to move to district and regional offices where offices would be present in all the municipalities. The proposal was costed but not funded. If IPID got funding, it would be able to implement the proposal. Some of the provincial offices are located in the provincial capital cities such as Bloemfontein for Free State and East London for Eastern Cape.

Mr Matthews Sesoko, Chief Director: Investigations and Information Management, replied on the accessibility of the offices, saying that in each province basically there are two offices. IPID is hoping that the expansion strategy that was proposed will be funded. IPID was looking at having six additional offices in the year 2015/16 and in 2016/17, six additional offices, and in the year 2017/18, five additional offices. IPID experienced a cut in budget therefore that meant there had to be re-prioritisation. One of the strategies was to establish the National Specialised Investigative Team (NSIT) which would ensure that investigation of high profile cases would be done without taking investigators from other provinces and depriving those provinces of the service. IPID has investigators that are on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week so that if somebody wants to make a complaint against the police they can get IPID’s standby number at any police station. The police have an legal obligation in terms of section 29 of the IPID Act that when a report is made to them on criminality by a police officer, they immediately report that to the IPID standby number and an investigator then responds to the call. At the moment IPID cannot move away from using SAPS resources because of the financial constraints and the non-funding of priorities. IPID still has to rely on the police to a large extent in areas such as ballistics until such a time that IPID develops its own capacity. IPID has its own equipment but where it lacks, it turns to the police who are obliged, by legislation, to assist.

The Chairperson asked for an overview of the status of the NSIT in respect of recruiting and training of the personnel specifically. What timeline has been put in place? He asked them to explain in detail how the operations of this team will result in a decrease in deaths in police custody as well as criminal offences and serious misconduct alleged to have been committed by SAPS members.

Mr Mhlanga asked if IPID is happy with what has been allocated. If yes, why and, if not, then what challenges are there?

Mr Nzimande stated that there has always been a backlog and he did not know how IPID was dealing with it. What commitments are there for 2015/16 in terms of dealing with the case load. What is the real situation in terms of the case load backlog? What kind of public awareness activities are done so that IPID is a recognisable and useful service for people?

Ms Lindokuhle Ngcongo, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), replied that the baseline allocations are not adequate. One of the key strategies is the issue of coverage and visibility of IPID services as well as the ability to access crime scenes so that the investigators arrive at the crime scene while the evidence is still available and relevant. IPID needs to reach a stage where it is fully fledged in terms of its investigative capacity. Even though it is a national department, it is not fully fledged in terms of operational support to the investigators. As a result, IPID is very centralised in terms of administrative operations and this strains the ability to be efficient and responsive. In 2012 IPID received the first phase budget support but did not see the roll out of outer phases of budgetary support. The investigation team is envisioned to grow to about 515 staff and it is currently well below that capacity.

Mr Kgamanyane added that when the study was conducted before the institution was established in 1997 it was indicated that it would need 535 personnel to carry out its mandate during that particular time. In 2014/15 staff complement was 393 and 2015/16 the figure proposed is 414 and that is still not close to 535 but IPID has been making use of the available resources.

Mr Sesoko replied that for 2015/16 there was a request by IPID was for an additional R43 million and for 2016/17 an additional R83 million and for 2017/18 an additional R121 million. This gives a picture of the kind of funding that is needed to capacitate IPID. NSIT was conceptualised based on the realities that IPID found itself in and the aim was to have a specialised team that is highly skilled in dealing with cases of systemic corruption, organised crime and to be able to do protection work because there have been situations whereby investigators’ lives were threatened in some high profile cases. In some cases there was need to relocate the investigator as a means of providing protection. NSIT would be able to deal with that. The posts had been advertised and some recruitment processes had taken place. IPID is looking at having a director at national level, a deputy director, 15 assistant directors with six at national office and one in each province. These would deal with the high profile cases but the move would ensure that the other cases that are brought in are dealt with. In terms of its recruitment plan, there are efforts to finalise the entire process so that people would be able to start by 1 July. Their impact would be made mostly in cases of systemic corruption because that that is mainly where their work focus will be.

The budget had been cut but IPID endeavours to profile the work that it does including making arrests, and by branding of taxis that were customised for each province and have contact details for each office location. There were campaigns where IPID advertised at Metrorail train stations. There are also slots on radio and adverts in certain print media. There is a target of 54 Community Police Forum engagements for 2015/16.

Mr Sesoko said that there is a specific target with regards to dealing with the backlog. There is concerted effort in terms of dealing with it so that there is a reduced backlog. There is a 50% target for dealing with backlog cases which will grow to 60% and 70% in the outer years.

Mr Nzimande requested that IPID sends the Committee the expansion strategy. He gave a vote of thanks and the Chairperson adjourned the meeting.