Madam Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister of Police, fellow members of the executive councils, chairperson of the Select Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, delegates of the NCOP, it is my honour and privilege to participate in the first policy debate for the Police following the fourth democratic elections of our country.
Two weeks ago, in the Limpopo legislature, we presented an outline of our plans for the 2009-10 financial year, as well as the broad programmes that we would be pursuing during this term of office. Our participation in this debate therefore would seek to highlight issues that we consider fundamental to the realisation of the programme.
It must be stated that the SAPS in Limpopo has recorded a major achievement in reducing crime, even though our police-population ratio is the highest in the country where one police officer serves 526 citizens.
We remain optimistic, Mr Minister, that as you will be recruiting police officials, you will be able to consider this plight that we are putting forward in this august House. We also believe that mobilising young people as volunteers in partnership with the police to fight crime will go a long way in addressing the human resource capacity that we are faced with in the Limpopo province.
We believe that, working in a rural province like ours, the challenges are insurmountable. The farming community needs visible policing. Our rural communities also see visible policing as one of the areas that can ward off crime and criminals. We also believe that if sector policing could be strengthened, it could be one of those policies that can advocate the impact of crime prevention in the rural areas.
Our integrated approach with the Department of Education, the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Department of Arts and Culture is starting to work as we deal with the challenges we are faced with in our schools. Our crime prevention strategy in our Safe Schools programme is starting to take shape.
The SAPS has indeed undergone a serious metamorphosis in the past 15 years in providing services to our communities. The observation that we have made as a province is that most specialised areas are still the preserve of a few. We urge the human resources unit in the Police Service to take this as a challenge. As they shall be dealing with issues of transformation, they should consider that as a province we believe that the specialised unit should be able to project that 97% of Africans work in the Police Service.
One of the areas that need intervention is that transformation in terms of deployment of Africans should be seen as a serious agenda to follow. Given the fact that the Public Service demands that there be gender parity in everything that we are doing, we should be able to see a lot of women police in management areas.
In the course of executing their everyday responsibilities, members of the SAPS are exposed to situations that create trauma and psychological pressure. Through our monitoring and evaluation we should be able to evaluate the impact and the extent to which the Police Service is providing counselling and spiritual services to the members who have been exposed to these challenges. At the same time, we are calling on our people also to provide moral and spiritual support to the members of the Police Service. We may have to criticise the police if we are not happy with the service they are providing, but equally as members of the communities we should compliment them where they have excelled in executing their tasks. As dictated by our manifesto, participation of communities will be key in what we shall be doing in this term of office. Our community policing forums will be strengthened; communities' safety forums, street committees and village committees will be formed. We believe that crime prevention is not only a police responsibility, but our responsibility too.
We owe it to the people of the Republic who have yearned for a safe and secure country. We believe that the ideal of the Freedom Charter will not be a pipe dream.
Over the past 15 years we have been working towards building South Africa into a land of peace and harmony, a land that is full of opportunities. We have built a stable and growing economy. We have created the possibility of releasing more and more resources for social and economic services, while building a modern and competitive economy. We are ready as a province to mobilise our people to participate fully in the legislative processes. This, we believe, is capacity-building in the making and skills development in action.
Working together with this House we believe that we will continue to reflect the challenges that our communities are facing. Working together with this House we believe that as legislation will be developed, we will be taking them to our communities.
We wish to congratulate the police for their sterling work during the Confederations Cup. We believe that in 2010 the police shall have grown from strength to strength and would be able to do their work better as they will be facing the 2010 World Cup.
As Limpopo province, we shall be hosting the Vodacom Challenge in July and we believe that this will be one of those cups that will be able to show that, yes, indeed, the men and women in blue are able to do what they can do best.
Indeed, we must be made wiser by the recollection of our past, but our responsibilities towards the future are the things that we must always dwell on through and through. Working together we shall be able to prevent crime. I thank you. [Applause.]