Hon Deputy Chair, hon Ministers present, hon Deputy Ministers, the chairperson of the Select Committee for Security and Justice and members of the Select Committee, hon members of NCOP, heads of entities, the Ministry of Police, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, National Director of Public Prosecutions, the National Commissioner of the SA Police Service, sanibonani, dumelang, molweni, avuxeni, allow me to greet you this afternoon in the name of safety and security of this country; which indeed remains a fundamental constitutional obligation that His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa and fellow South Africans have entrusted us with in his New Dawn; with clear
marching orders of creating the South Africa that we want and to further half violent crimes in the next decade. The focus of this Budget Vote presentation for the Police and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, will highlight in summary the achievements of the previous financial year and broadly what is in the pipeline for implementation in this current financial year 2019- 2020. The mandate of the SA Police Service, SAPS, has one level of command and control from the national office which cuts across all provinces. It is on that score that we have implemented operational intervention measures in some of the provinces based on provincial specific operational demands.
In the coming months, we will be visiting provinces together with the Deputy Minister of Police and SAPS management; with the main focus of zooming in to the top 30 high crime stations nationally and subsequent to, those provinces with provincial commissioners will do the same and cascade the visits to top 30 high crime stations provincially. All the top 30 crime stations and drug-infested communities will be prioritised with improved resources and extensive deployment. The Tactical Response Unit ...
IsiZulu:
... Amabherethe ...
English:
... and the National Intervention Unit, NIU, members will be deployed in full, in all the top 30 crime stations; these members will not be kept indoors for no reason when our communities are under siege. We will keep them on their boots on the streets and they will have to knock at your doors and if you do not open the doors, we will open the doors. As an immediate response, base camps will be established at crime hotspots in all the top 30 stations. Additional resources will be deployed strategically to support operations. Operation Buya Mthetho/ O Kae Molao ...
IsiZulu:
... Eyi lomuntu! Awuthule yazi ...
English:
... as championed by the Gauteng province will be elevated to a national level; therefore, all provincial commissioners are directed to formulate crime-busting strategies in line with Operation Buya Mthetho every week at crime hotspots areas. Police killings also need to be highlighted. The manner in which our police officers are attacked and killed undermines the authority of the state safety and security of our citizenry. That is why we are calling for those that are killing the police officers to be tried for treason, not just
treason but high treason. Equally, the provincially specific operations which are currently underway are yielding positive results, in particular, the Inter-Ministerial Committee-led task team into political killings in KwaZulu -Natal. To date, the task team has a total number 170 allocated cases, 174 suspects have been arrested, 44 suspects are still in custody, 52 suspects are on bail and 29 convictions have been secured with five of them being life sentences. You would recall that the uprising of cash-in- transit heists last year was drastically reduced through the co-ordinated intelligence-driven operations including that of the three suspects that were arrested yesterday in Mamelodi. Further specialised crime requires a specialised kind of policing approach, in the following areas specialised reaction teams have been deployed, that is in Westbury, Mamelodi, Blybank and the launch of Operation Thunder in the communities of the Western Cape aimed at declaring war against crime and stamping the authority of the state.
In responding directly to the scourge of gangsterism, the Anti-Gang Unit will be elevated to a national unit under Operational Response Services, and other specialised units will be introduced. Moreover, the Western Cape lockdown operation which was announced on 11 July 2019 is also unfolding and being rolled out in crime hotspots in the Cape Flats, notorious townships and surrounding areas. President has
since given the approval of the employment of the SA National Defence Force, SANDF, as requested by both the Minister of Police and the Minister of Defence.
IsiZulu:
Intshonalanga Koloni izobuseka. [Ubuwelewele.]
English:
Yes, definitely. It will be governable. We cannot have criminal underworlds running their own republic in this country. Governments are elected; there are no governments that you can just take over here. We have no parallel government here. [Applause.] We are quite pleased with an active community and stakeholder participation in this regard. To make lives better, for these operations, four weeks ago 77 people were killed, which is one hell of a number. The following week 54 people were killed. Last weekend, 43 were killed and this weekend, 25 were killed. We are heading to zero killings in this province in the not too distant future and that will be achieved.
For some reason, 69 219 members were long overdue for promotion. In, the last financial year, we promoted 28 067 members through grade progression with a budget of R557 million. This year we will further
promote 20 000 members for grade progression with the budget of R773 million. So, next year, we will promote 20 000. We would be done with the overdue promotions and then we will keep the pace going forward so that we never have so many members that are not promoted when they are due to be promoted. The SAPS budget 2019, the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, budget amounts are R97 billion. Though there has been a reduction of R6 million that we have not surrendered on it, we are still with Treasury to say, the dream of making South Africans safe must be followed and must be achieved at all cost. If it needs to, we will have to prioritise but those things that make us be able to work and achieve the safety of the people of South Africa will have to happen at all cost. There is the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations, usually called the Hawks, we have some serious shortcomings that we need to fix and we are fixing them but also, we are beginning to make an impact. As we speak, we have put in front of the prosecution - their head is here - 1 800 cases to be decided and some of them are very serious and you have to remember that the Hawks do not deal with petty things; they deal with big things. Go and check your name to see if it is not among the 1 800. [Interjections.] We are strengthening the relationship and as part of strengthening the relationship between the SAPS and provinces; the National policing policy makes provision for different policies in respect of different provinces after
taking into account the policing needs and priorities of these provinces.
Each province is entitled to monitor police conduct; to oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service, including receiving reports on the police service; to promote good relations between the police and the community; to assess the effectiveness of visible policing; and to liaise with the Cabinet member responsible for policing - that is me - which means you are reminded that policing is a national competence and you treat it as such.
IsiZulu:
Asihlangani nje nawe uwuvanzi nje, uhamba noma yikuphi, siyakhuluma sonke, siyixoxe, sivumelane ukwenzela ukuthi sazi ukuthi izindawo zethu zikuphi.
English:
We are working on Firearm Amnesty; we will be passing it - we hope - soon in the National Assembly so that we can give those that are running with illegal firearms and those that have guns that they do not need anymore to bring them back and after that, if you do not bring back those illegal firearms, we will come and fetch them. When we fetch those firearms, we will knock once, twice, the third time,
it is the door that will wake you up from your bed. So, there will be no love lost there.
We are improving the infrastructure; the geographic distribution of the SAPS is substantial as it is one of few government departments that have a physical presence in virtually every city, town and village across the country. This extensive distribution is essential in order that the services provided by the SAPS in support of safe and secure communities, may be accessed as quickly and conveniently as possible. We will do away with building huge "university" police station and build small to medium size police stations which will be accessible to communities. We want to build them many ... [Inaudible.] so that we don't have big police station somewhere in the corner where people have to take two taxis before they can reach the station but everybody must be able to walk to a police station. That is what we are trying to do. Gender-based violence continues to be a serious challenge engulfing our society. Hence this Budget Vote is dedicated to crimes against women and children. We will be intensifying our monitoring of the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act and the Sexual Offences Act to ensure that all victims receive the appropriate support and assistance at all our police stations. In the next few months, we intend to increase the number of Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences, FCS, units
and to recruit and train more women to work within the environment. There are 108 right now and we want to put more in most of the 1 200 police stations but we also intend to train more female officers that will deal with the abused and raped women. Can you imagine what happens to a woman that is supposed to go and report to a man and explain how she was raped? I think that is further torture to that woman. So if it is to another woman, it is better, and that is what we are trying to do to improve the communication when it comes to that. Crime prevention and environmental design ...
IsiZulu:
... noma bangakuhleka wena. [Uhleko.]
English:
... challenges, we want to make this point, everybody complains about crime, the police and all that, one major problem about the crime is what is called environmental design especially in the big cities including the Western Cape. Yesterday night, very late, I went to Strand, Crossroads, and I went to Browns Farm, it is dark, you just can't see where you are going. So, we are calling for the local and provincial government to work with us to work on the environmental design. What does that mean? Put lights on the streets. Put cameras on the streets. Build houses, people must stop
living like pigs. Put in roads with street numbers so that if we want our clients - the criminals - we will know which number we are going to and all that so that we are able to respond quicker and respond directly. This thing of just calling "police" "police" "police" without doing what you are supposed to do where you are supposed to do it is not going to work. It will only work when people live like people should when their lives are made better.
One other thing that we want to do that has not existed with the police is, we want to create the SAPS medical wing. We want SAPS to have a medical wing. For instance, I am sure you have seen how the SANDF operates; they are followed by the ambulances. When the police are going to tough operations, you need to support them with medical assistance so that the police are not shot there and you cannot find a hospital. So, you are there as they engage, as they find the problem. That is what we are going to do. We will be having a medical wing as the SAPS but also we will be working with our police, when they go to these fake doctors to get these medical certificates that they seek, we will send our doctors - real doctors - to check them so that they do not go on leave with these fake certificates. [Applause.] We will be working on the advisory board as the SAPS. We will be trying to find all the skills. The commissioner has already sent the invite for those members that want
to reapply but there are many resources out there that will be working to bring them back and give us further experience to work with. There will be a civilian secretariat, the process of rationalisation and alignment of laws that possibly hinders service delivery and effective policing must be executed by the civilian secretariat. The civilian secretariat must do the work of supporting the Ministry especially in overseeing and making sure that they work with the police to facilitate a better working relationship.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, we are in the process that by the end of September will be having a head so that it begins to function and help us in a better way. We do want to invite the members to work with us. The South African situation at the moment is not very good when it comes to the protection of South Africans. Yes, it is not the worst in the world but indeed it is not the best in the world. Much can be done. When South Africans work together on these matters especially when it comes to the cluster, that is why the young Minister of Justice is here, the head is here ... [Interjections.] It makes life ... [Interjections.]