Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Ministers, hon members, officials of the department, distinguished guests, fellow South Africans, I greet you all.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, crime has always been an area of concern for the ANC. The ANC's 2014 Election Manifesto committed to the promotion of safer communities, and giving special attention to fighting crime. The ANC noted, in its 2012 Strategy and Tactics, that there should be promotion of social cohesion and that there should be a deliberate collective action to promote a positive role by members of the society in promoting a culture of zero crime rate.
The ANC-led government has consolidated partnerships across society to strengthen social cohesion and ensure that our country achieves
its value of a caring society. The war against crime is not the exclusive responsibility of the police, but of every single member of society. Those who commit crime are members of our communities. They are our neighbours, our friends, our siblings, our spouses, yet we choose to be complicit in their crimes by being silent.
Failure to report a crime makes one an accomplice and an enabler of criminal conduct. If we are to succeed in our fight against crime, criminal behaviours in our communities must change. It starts with an individual who must refuse to remain silent, while others are marred, killed and their livelihoods destroyed.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, the National Development Plan, NDP, outcome
3 states that: "In 2030, all people living in South Africa feel safe, have no fear of crime, are properly served by the police and courts, and in which corruption no longer eats away their livelihoods."
In this regard, we call upon all stakeholders to join hands with the South African Police Service, Saps, in our national effort to create a safer and secure South Africa. We urge all our people to assist the police to prevent and combat crime by, among other things,
refraining from buying stolen goods, reporting crime and exposing criminals within their homes and communities.
As we move forward to disarming South Africa and silencing the guns by 2063, in doing so, we have developed a tailored programme for the recovery of stolen and state-owned firearms. Parallel to this programme is the recovery of the stolen and robbed vehicles of the police, including the brutal killings of police officers. This will not be successful if we lack necessary skills in detective services. We should determine, more than ever before, to look acutely in the areas of detection rate, counter intelligence and the reinforcement of informers. We hope this will limit serious crimes against our people, especially crimes like contact crimes, crimes against women and our children.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, our law enforcement agencies must similarly rise to the occasion and find new and innovative ways to combat crime and violence. We, as the ANC-led government, are on record as having called for the resourcing and strengthening of specialised police units to break the stranglehold of criminals and we commend the Minister of Police for heeding our call by establishing specialised police units, which are fighting crimes in the Western Cape, in particular.
The reduction of contact crime remains a challenge, specifically where vulnerable groups such as women, children, people with disabilities and the elderly are involved. The reality is that the underlying causes are deep- rooted in prevailing socioeconomic conditions often beyond the control of the police. The NDP Has identified the need to develop an integrated approach in the combating of crime, through the implementation of various crime combating strategies. Building a safer country requires partnership and open communication with the community to address specific elements of contact crime.
Many of the matters that are in the public domain with regard to the management and competing mandates of institutions in the Peace and Stability Cluster could be solved by a proper overhaul of the South African Police Act. The same applies to the Secretariat and Independent Police Investigative Directorate, IPID.
Matters of governance, reporting lines, institutional arrangements and oversight should be clear and simple. The legislative framework should empower the state to intervene more effectively in dealing with crime. The core business should always be fighting crime, effective policing and community participation in ensuring safer communities.
The Department of Police should re-establish units staffed with highly trained and professional police officers to respond to changing crime trends such as narcotics, cybercrime, human trafficking, crimes against women and children and international crime syndicates. Excellence and professionalism should be the hallmark of our police service.
The Saps Budget Vote 23 is the second largest budget allocation of all government departments. In 2019-20, the allocation is R97,59 billion, which represents a 6,4% or R5,9 billion increase compared to the previous financial year. Most of the budget, 78,1%, is spent on personnel costs. Of the five programmes, administration, visible policing, detective services, crime intelligence and protection and security services, the bulk of this expenditure is located in the Visible Policing Programme which has increased by 51% to R1,32 billion, as it has the largest number of employees.
We welcome the 7,14% increase in the Detective Services Programme, as well as the 7,57% increase in the Crime Intelligence Programme in order to give effect to the turnaround strategy for more effective intelligence driven policing if we are to halve crime in the next 10 years.
The South African Police Service has historically struggled to achieve equity in its resourcing of police stations, especially in communities with the highest crime stations, compared to those in more affluent, predominantly white areas. The Saps is urged to finalise its new resourcing plan to provide basic resources like adequate visible police officers, vehicles suitable for the terrain and bulletproof vests to our communities that need them the most.
We welcome the urgency to address gang violence through the Anti- Gang Unit, which has now been elevated nationally, and the deployment of the South African Defence Force, SANDF, to stabilise the worst affected areas on the Cape Flats. However, the deployment of soldiers is a short-term intervention and the Saps must ensure that it capacitate its members to deal with this type of violent crime wherever it rears its head. The rollout of other specialised units, like the Family and Child Protective Services Units, are also equally important.
We need to move faster with the establishment of the National Policing Board that is provided for the National Development Plan. The board with multisectoral and multidisciplinary expertise should set standards for recruiting, selecting, appointing and promoting of police officers. The board should also develop a code of ethics and
analyse the professional standing of policing, based on international norms and standards.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate, IPID, investigates crimes committed by police, deaths in police custody and deaths as a result of police action for both Saps and the municipal police service. It is encouraging to note the reported marked improvement in the co-operation between the Saps and the IPID. We hope to see the Saps acting on IPID'S recommendations speedily - not only relating to crimes committed by constables and sergeants, but also those committed by high ranking officers in order to root out the bad elements in Saps.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate Budget Vote 20 is R336,7 million in 2019-20, representing an increase of R21,6 million, or a nominal increase of 6,9% compared to the previous financial year. An amount of R228 million is for compensation of employees, mainly investigators.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate has only four programmes; administration, investigation and information management, legal services and compliance monitoring and stakeholder
management. The IPID's core programme is investigation and information management, which received 61,7% of the total Vote.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate has struggled within sufficient funding which resulted in the closing down of four satellite offices in provinces, a decision which needs to be reviewed in the light of IPID's increasing workload and a high volume of backlog cases. The IPID should prioritise eliminating backlogs and provide feedback on the progress of high profile cases in provinces.
In addition, the IPID has not managed to give effect to provisions in the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act that its investigators should earn the same as police detectives. We also note that a permanent executive director and two provincial heads of Mpumalanga and Limpopo need to be appointed, and that the numbers of investigators would need to increase to keep pace with the numerical increase in the number of Saps officers. Despite these stated challenges, the good work done by IPID is commended.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate contributes to building safer communities, as outlined in the National Development Plan, and ensures that all people in South Africa are and feel safe.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act enhances the directorate's investigative capacity and creates an opportunity for a strong, independent oversight body, which will, in consequence, contribute to the achievement of a police service that operates in line with the spirit of the Constitution.
The work of IPID takes place within an environment of increased incidents of public protests. These incidents lead to an increase in the Saps involvement in crowd control management, which in most cases result in unintended consequences. Given these events of public protests, it is clear that these actions significantly influence the overall picture of deaths because of police actions, complaints relating to the discharge of official firearm by a police officer and complaints of torture or assault against police officers in the execution of his or her duties. These developments are likely to further increase pressure on the IPID and its core business as outlined in the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate has achieved significant success in the fight against corruption. It has intensified the fight against corruption, fraud and maladministration conducted by the members of the police service. It also encounters many challenges, which includes amongst other
things, inadequate funding and resources. It has an important mandate to root out any form of transgression within the police service, irrespective of the position of the alleged transgressor. Public confidence and moral is slowly being restored thus enhancing social partnership between the service and the communities
The current lack in human resource capacity and the high staff turnover pose a significant threat in the fulfilment of the directorate's legislative mandate and consequently the achievement of the strategic outcomes and goals. The mandatory reporting and investigation of serious and priority crimes allegedly committed by members of the Saps and the municipal police services has resulted in an increased workload for the directorate.
In order to address the aforesaid pressures and to ensure that the IPID fully complies with its legislative mandate and added reporting responsibilities, additional resources will have to be sourced for this current period. The current economic climate and the allocation of funding might bring about additional challenges in this regard. Nevertheless, the directorate is committed to deliver on its legislative mandate in order to contribute towards the achievement of the ultimate outcome - a police service that is trusted by the community.
The ANC-led government reiterates its support for the functional and operational independence of the directorate as the oversight mechanism to keep criminality within the ranks of the Saps in check.
The Department of Police is the backbone of the developmental state we are building and it is a pillar of the provision of safety and security. The adoption of this year's budget is within the context of prevailing difficult local and global economic conditions. It is in this context that we, as the ANC-led government, unwaveringly support the budget as it is presented. We are of the firm view that it addresses the main spirit of what we believe to be at the centre of transformation of our Police Service. I thank you. [Applause.]