Chairperson, I really think this is uncalled for. It happened in the House not long ago, when the Deputy Minister was seen to be supporting barbaric action and that point of order was made in the House and the member from Cope withdrew it. But it is very clear, Chairperson, that there is an intention to undermine the wonderful work that this police Minister and the deputy are doing together with the General. I think we will have to defend that cause in the ANC. In fact, we will never allow this thing to happen.
Let me come back to the hon Mluleki George - just in passing, hon George. You see, when you were Deputy Minister of Defence, you and Mr Terror Lekota decided to withdraw the Defence Force from the border line. You and Terror Lekota decided to withdraw. You see, when you finished doing that you then formed your own party, talking about defending the Constitution. [Laughter.]
We know very well that the responsibility of the Defence Force derives its mandate from the Constitution, which they flouted. Therefore it is a huge challenge that I will deal with when I tackle the issues in my speech as we move forward.
Mhlonishwa Ndlovu, le yaseMgungundlovu yona naKwaNongoma yinto okumele yenzeke, ayenzeki KwaNongoma kuphela, yenzeka kulo lonke izwe. Ukuze sikwazi ukufumana lezi zibhamu esizifunayo ezifihlwe yilezi zigebengu ezindlini.
Mina nje sebengingenele kodwa bayazi ukuthi kumele baxolise uma sebeqede ukusesha bangathola lutho, kodwa-ke umsebenzi wamaphoyisa lowo. Futhi amaphoyisa ngeke ayofuna i-warrant of arrest noma i-search warrant ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Ndlovu, what is happening in Pietermaritzburg and KwaNongoma, does not only happen in KwaNongoma, it's happening in the whole country. The searching is solely conducted without search warrants in order for us to manage to get those guns that we want which are hidden by criminals in the houses.
I for one have been raided but they know that they must apologise when they have finished searching and have found nothing; but then, that is the duty of the police. And police do not always need to go and get a warrant of arrest or a search warrant ...]
... if they were to search a village or a township; therefore I think that is the way in which we have to support them.
Ngakho-ke yindlela okumele sibaseke ngayo. Futhi ngiyajabula ngoba namhlanje lokhu kubonisile ukuthi uyayiqonda indlela amaphoyisa okufanele asebenze ngayo. [Therefore, that is how we should support them. And I'm happy because today this has shown that you understand the way in which the police should operate.]
Chairperson, let me just go back to what it is that we are transforming. Let us go back before 1994. Let us pause a while and look at where we come from. We come from a system where there was a super-SAPS; a SAPS that controlled Pretoria and we had all these other small Bantustan police, your paramilitaries. In Bophuthatswana you had the Bophuthatswana police service, and in the Eastern Cape, etc.
The work of the ANC has been to integrate and transform this force, and that work is what we are discussing here today - all that has been talked about is a process in which we are dealing with issues of transformation. We need to pause and see how far we have travelled. How far have we travelled in the issues of transformation?
You know, before 1994, Mr George, if you were staying in Soweto, police would come and knock on your door at 3 o'clock in the morning and say: Sifuna incwadi yemvume [We want a permit].
If you had a visitor you had to take that visitor to go and report to the municipal office before the visitor could come into your house. And that happened to your uncle or your grandmother who could be coming from somewhere in the so-called Bantustans and you would have to do that.
The same applied in Bophuthatswana. The police were trained to kill and to suppress the democratic forces - you know that very well, hon George, because you were leading the struggle during those days. Therefore, where we are today will be measured by the successes that we gain every day.
So, the issues of transformation become very clear, and the ANC has already made a call that we want one single Police Service in South Africa. It is a process and it is not going to happen overnight.
Therefore, I want to give support to this programme that the Minister and the Deputy Minister have announced. I want to give support to Gen Cele. You may call him a politician deployed there, but I am telling you he is one person who has made such a difference. He is one person who has lifted the morale of the police on the ground, and we need to applaud him. [Applause.]
The point that I want to bring home is that at the national command centre we want the generals to emulate that energy - those who are up there. It is a positive energy that is bringing change to our country.
At the provincial level, sometimes you find yourself having to introduce a provincial commissioner to a community or police station because some of the provincial commissioners do not go to those police stations and don't meet with communities.
Therefore we want to use this debate to make a call to the provincial commissioners to be responsible so that whatever we have given you now - you said you want to be called generals, commanders and all of that - must be emulated in your work on the ground. A level of discipline is expected. We expect to see a particular level of discipline - a discipline that there is respect at the police station.
You don't have to go to a police station and when you arrive at seven o'clock in the morning, you find no work done. In one of the police stations that I visited, I found that they were selling vetkoek, so all the police officers in the morning are busy buying vetkoek and drinking tea, and services had stopped.
Now, the ranks that we have given you go together with the responsibility and discipline. We want to see that level of discipline. We want to see you being exemplary and following in the footsteps of Gen Cele. So, those are some of the issues that I think we need to seriously support.
Chairperson, one of the areas that we will have to deal with, which the ANC has been advocating for some ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]