Somlomo, ngibingelele nakumalunga ahloniphekile ale Ndlu yethu. [Speaker, I greet all the hon members of this House.]
The pages of our country's history are decorated with faces of heroic women and men who guided the Freedom Charter and spared neither effort nor strength to ensure the birth of a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
On Tuesday, 21 October 2008, Mama Albertina Sisulu celebrated her 90th birthday. We join the millions of South Africans in saluting this fierce and fearless fighter for our country's freedom, unwavering in her commitment to the cause of peace, justice, and development. Ma' Sisulu triumphed over apartheid arrests, detentions and burnings. During the dark days of apartheid colonialism, Ma' Sisulu was a tower of strength. We wish her a happy birthday. [Applause.]
Standing on the broad shoulders of those who went before us, today we face the challenge to continue the historic task of strengthening democracy and to do all in our power to improve the quality of life of all South Africans. Indeed, we still have a long way to go to reach the day when the legacy of white minority political domination will overcome, and a truly united, democratic, and prosperous South Africa will be born. Our own history bears witness to the fact that if we as people unite in pursuit of a just cause, victory is assured.
Indicators reveal that some crime levels are dropping in South Africa. Nevertheless, levels of crime in our country still remain unacceptably high. Of further concern is the high prevalence of organised crime manifesting itself through organised violent robberies, cash-in-transit heists, hijackings, theft of motor vehicles, drugs and weapon trafficking, fraudulent acquisition of national documents, and in many other ways. Organised crime and crime in general must be defeated.
Crime is a blemish to human society, the clearest demonstration of misdirected energy - like your energy that is misdirected - and a manifestation of the worst form of greed. It dehumanises the victim and the perpetrator. Crime undermines our effort to create a humane society and our struggle to ensure that human rights are realised in practice. It spawns hate and mistrust; it wastes lives; and it undermines our effort to improve the quality of life of all the people.
We must win the battle aimed at the realisation of the safety and security of every South African. The just dispensation we have entrenched is based on the principle of equality, including equal access to peace and security and an aspect of the realisation of the goal for a better life for all. The South African Police Service Amendment Bill of 2008 is a continuation of this effort. It takes our fight against organised crime to higher levels. It will enable us to rectify weaknesses in our system whilst ensuring better organisation and utilisation of our human and material resources.
Despite the progress that has been made in many areas, government's review processes indicated the need to realign state entities mandated to investigate and combat organised crime. We have to address the issue of poor co-operation and co-ordination that has shown itself up in the past. We have to find ways to address cases of duplication and parallel investigations. If we do not, only criminals will benefit from such inaction.
As a country, we have long accepted that because of its nature, organised crime requires to be addressed through a multipronged, well-equipped and resourced unit, better to exercise proper balance in its decision to prosecute or not and to ensure the realisation of the principle of the separation of functions. Prosecutors need to be independent from investigators.
The Bill before us provides a smooth transfer of personnel. Safety and Security is ready to welcome the employees into our ranks as we are preparing to hit the ground running. We must also assure the people of our country that no cases will be lost. Once the Bill is passed, investigations of the Directorate of Special Operations, DSO, shall be dealt with as if the Act had always been in force.
As we journey along the transformation path, we continue to gain more experience and insight about the nature of the reality we seek to change. This applies to all that is the subject of our transformative effort and necessitates continual evolution of our crime-fighting strategies, entities, arsenal and programmes. We have gained considerable experience during the life of the organised crime unit, the DSO, the commercial branch of the South African Police Service and other units. On their own, the units have all contributed positively to fight against organised crime. However, we cannot deny the fact that, because they existed as separate entities, there also existed an element of negative tension arising from the fact that they had intersecting mandates. This situation also allowed some units to operate in a manner that amounted to a narrowing down of their mandate and a preoccupation with certain kinds of crimes, with the result that other crimes were inadvertently ignored. It could, for instance, be argued that not enough work was done to prosecute financial crimes despite the existence of the relevant legislative framework.
The previous arrangements also resulted in a situation where units which did not report their successes to the media were unjustly perceived as poor performers. A situation like this poses many potential dangers. The Johannesburg High Court is currently delivering a judgement on the Jeppestown case. In the pursuit of the alleged robbers, four police officers lost their lives.
Despite this high level of commitment by the SAPS, a false impression persists in some quarters that the Service is less committed. This is also because the SAPS has not stood on rooftops to shout about their successes and actions of outstanding bravery. Accordingly, we must take this opportunity to salute the men and women who, on a daily basis, expose their lives to danger to ensure the safety and security of all South Africans.
Our crime-fighting units are on the same side of the battle against crime. This fact must also be reflected in the manner in which they are generally organised as a team, not in different units.
The enactment of the South African Police Service Amendment Bill will enhance our capacity to prevent, combat and investigate priority crimes. It brings into life a multidisciplinary and integrated approach in the prevention, combating and investigation of organised crime. We need to identify and preserve the positive lessons born of our various experiences. While the initial process of merging our experiences may contain some aspect of pain, there is no doubt that the resultant sense of unity will be in the long-term interest of the fight against crime.
For some reason unbeknown to us, the opposition in our country does tend to back the wrong horse. When we proclaimed the Freedom Charter as a vision that had a promise for long-lasting peace in our country, they remained hesitant to embrace it for many years. Year after year, since the establishment of democracy, we had to weave our way through a barrage of criticism in order to pass progressive transformative policy measures. Floor-crossing is just an example. Today, they stand again on the wrong side of the debate.
Through the establishment of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, DPCI, we established a sharper instrument to stab the heart of organised crime. [Interjections.] Yes, practice will, as it often does, reveal improvement. However, the collective experience, resources, commitment and unity of purpose that already reside in the unit will ensure very firm and effective beginnings.
We must commend the profoundly democratic manner in which the Bills on this matter have been processed. The people of our land from all walks of life had an opportunity to "say their say", as the saying goes, mindful of the fact that they were simply fulfilling their responsibilities. We must still congratulate Parliament and its committees on the thorough effort they put into processing the Bills.
We salute the people of our country on their enthusiastic participation in public hearings. We thank those who spoke in support of the Bill, as well as those who sought to draw the attention of legislators to certain witnesses. The vibrant discussion on the Bill enriched our understanding of the challenges we face. The ideas that emerged have become our national intellectual asset and have enriched the Bill and nourished our capacity to navigate our way into the future.
Some, in our society, have asserted a view that some members of this House should recuse themselves from participating in processes relating to this Bill. We shall leave this to historians to ponder why such moral rectitude never arose when we enacted legislation to outlaw apartheid on the basis that many of the participants had not only benefited from apartheid, but had actually been the architects of some of its legislative framework. [Applause.]
The rejection of Hugh Glenister's applications by our courts is confirmation that the principle of separation of powers is well entrenched in our country. Freedom includes freedom from fear of criminal and criminality. We shall do all we can, and we invite all South Africans in their areas of social activity, to flex our collective muscle and to work with organs of our criminal justice system to bring about better, safe and secure communities. We are progressively giving life to the demand of the Freedom Charter that: "... there shall be peace, security and friendship."
I thank you. [Applause.]