You are lucky that I do not have enough time, because I wanted to deal with you. [Interjections.] Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, Ministers and Members of Parliament, Cope welcomes the additional funding of R1,5 billion for the department to achieve an increase in the number of police officers and to improve police station property management.
Some of this money, however, will be used for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation. Cope still insists that it was a grave error to disband the Directorate of Special Operations. Special crime is far too sophisticated and its resources are too abundant for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation to deal with.
Crime and corruption are the two biggest threats to our young democracy. While it is encouraging that the government is committing more resources to fighting crime, we have to admit that the levels of crime in our country are still unacceptably high. We have not yet turned the tide. The big question is whether police management will use the increased resources allocated to it effectively. Have the approach and priorities of the police been correctly framed to achieve a marked reduction in crime?
I am pleased that the approach of playing to the gallery has died down. Suren Pillay, writing in the Human Sciences Research Council's HSRC Review, Vol 7 No 3 of September 2009, observed that "... fighting fire with fire burns us all". While ordinary citizens seeking a simplistic solution to a complex problem will no doubt cheer the tough Wild West approach to crime that our new national commissioner brings with him, it is sobering to find out what the shoot-to-kill approach in Rio de Janeiro, for example, achieved. In our country, a few innocent citizens were needlessly killed.
We cannot have a simplistic and symptomatic approach to fighting crime. We need to fight the cause of crime, and this requires the intervention of the whole government, not just the Department of Police. Wider issues require a wider intervention, on the one hand. On the other hand, the department itself needs to sort out matters of logistics. Why is it that when we visit police stations, there is this continuous outcry from police officials about not having enough vehicles? While provincial management and its national counterpart play ping-pong, the police are unable to do their work. The national commissioner must not shirk his responsibility. The buck stops with him. We need to know how this problem is going to be addressed, because this is a problem we have had for the last 16 years. [Interjections.] That is the problem of vehicles.
Apart from the shortage of vehicles, there is also a lack of other essential facilities at the police stations for capacitating honest policemen and women. An examination of the strategic plan indicates that no consideration was given to this. People are as effective as the tools they have. The same is true of the police. In our view, it is a matter of strategic importance for issues of logistics to be properly addressed, as the chairperson, indeed, also said.
Once again, a dangerous situation is beginning to rear its ugly head, as citizens, having lost confidence in the police, start to take the law into their own hands. It is an indictment on the department for people to trust mob justice to deal with crime. When and wherever this happens, the department should institute an inquiry, to find out why people were resorting to taking matters into their own hands. Who was it that had failed them? I am fully cognisant of the fact that fighting crime cannot be the responsibility of the police alone. All citizens of this country must assist the police in their fight against crime. The police, however, must demonstrate that they are willing and ready to fight crime with integrity and honesty of purpose. Corruption within the police must be wiped out, as it will otherwise undermine what they are trying to achieve.
In his book, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, Norman Mailer depicts some criminals donning police uniforms to camouflage their crime. We, too, have many policemen and women who are criminals masquerading as police. Just two days ago, National Commissioner Bheki Cele announced that 10 000 police officers were serving time in prisons around the country. The department must encourage whistle-blowing and proper protection for the whistle- blowers to unmask such people.
I now come to the very important issue of criminal attacks on the police. Last year in August, Sergeant Charles Komba, who had pulled over a taxi in Nyanga and was busy issuing a fine, was shot dead by two men who made off with his service pistol. Last week, three police officers were killed in Mpumalanga, and two days ago one police officer was killed in Eldorado Park.
We, in Cope, send our sincerest condolences to the bereaved families, and we ask the government to drive this issue to the top of their agenda. This wanton and routine killing of the police is a danger to our democracy, our economy, our security and our stability. We cannot countenance it.
We will judge this Minister and this new national commissioner on their success in ending this danger to the men and women in blue. Cope hopes that this is an undertaking in the performance contract of the Minister - that he will do everything to stop the killing of police.
Removing guns from criminals must become a national priority, driven with intensity. Crime intelligence must play a pivotal role in this regard. Search and seizure operations must be undertaken routinely and relentlessly. Gun safety measures must be enforced. Communities must be encouraged to provide information with total safety.
We also believe that all police officers should be issued with Smart Guns. Technology has been developed that allows software in the Smart Guns to recognise the grip of an authorised user, measuring not only the size, strength and structure of a person's hand, but also the user's reflex - it will be given to you, Mnyamezeli! Thank you. [Time expired.]