Chairperson, Minister and Deputy Minister, hon Chief Whip and members of the NCOP, I'm honoured to be taking part in this debate. I've been instructed by the people's movement to once again air its views and ideas about the safety, security and peaceful living conditions that our forefathers envisaged when they drafted the Freedom Charter in 1955, in Kliptown, which the late President of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, referred to as the "people's document".
Indeed, this document has proved over decades, from generation to generation, that it is embracing the interests of South Africans across colour lines, hence South Africa belongs to all who live in it. [Applause.]
The budgeting that has been reflected by the department should be seen as a political and financial instrument that the ANC government uses. This is to ensure that its policy programmes are operationalised through the allocation of financial resources.
Accelerating transformation in the SAPS is the policy decision as expressed by the resolution of the ANC at the Stellenbosch National Conference. This budget must relate to the objectives of the policy decision because they seek to accelerate democratic and accountable police services to our people.
In line with the 2009 ANC manifesto, President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address reiterated that government will establish a modernised, efficient and transformed criminal justice system to develop capacity for fighting and reducing crime. The President gives priority to the need to revamp the criminal justice system in its totality in order to combat crime and corruption in the next five years. Corruption has become one of the priority areas which needs to be exposed and rooted out.
The 2009 ANC manifesto seeks to eradicate practices that can lead to corruption by way of proposing regulatory measures and limitations of the involvement of politicians in tendering processes. The manifesto is in line with the moratorium on privatisation, outsourcing, and tendering, which was adopted in the Alliance Summit in 2007.
The context of the Independent Complaints Directorate, ICD, needs to be strengthened to ensure the efficiency of its oversight role over the SAPS, but this role should not be seen in a separatist competing manner. The SAPS and ICD must be seen as complementary entities in the fight against crime. This brings me to the advances made in transforming the Police Service over the last 15 years.
There are noticeable strides in ensuring the legitimacy of the police among our communities. The Ready to Govern and the RDP policy documents mapped out the future policing practices in South Africa and their perspectives, taking into account the specific history of the South African police. Above all, their premise is that crime prevention cannot be the task of the police alone. Part of the transformation agenda within the SAPS has to speak to representation involving categories such as gender, race, and disability.
The strategic objective of the ANC is to build a democratic nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous South Africa, free from all forms of discrimination and ensure that we have a caring society guided by the principles of ubuntu. The SAPS budget must ensure that women police swell the managerial positions within the organisations. Such women should ensure that they consciously sensitise their male counterparts. Judging by the SAPS reports, women in key positions are still fewer compared to their male counterparts. We managed to deracialise the police.
Our police are representative of the rainbow nation in line with nation- building. We just need to sustain this achievement to ensure that the principles of nonracialism are upheld through this budget.
It appears that the SAPS has made little progress to attract and retain police with disabilities. Probably we still have militaristic conceptions of the SAPS's roles. This budget needs to provide a broader understanding of the functions of the SAPS which have physical, intellectual and emotional levels.
Certain crimes against certain groups of people in society such as women and people with disabilities can be better addressed by the balanced law- enforcement agency. The ANC regards crimes against women and children as priority crimes. One of the key functions of the ICD is to ensure the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act of 1998. It is important to note that there are unresolved weaknesses in the implementation of the domestic violence and crimes against women and children legislation.
Some male members of the SAPS see crimes against women within their family settings as a domestic matter which does not warrant arrest. Hence, the ANC feels that it is very important to ensure that the participation of women is to sensitise and assist their male counterparts in the SAPS. This mind- set can probably be changed by the ongoing training on gender equality and deployment of female police in key areas and detective work.
This budget must ensure that new police stations are friendly to people with disabilities to enable them to report crimes at charge offices. Furthermore, people living with disabilities must be catered for in this budget. This is to ensure the building of appropriate infrastructure, support systems and other resources.
In conclusion, there's been a lot of progress and good things were mounted by our SAPS members in relation to the transformation agenda. Together we can do more to accelerate transformation in the SAPS through this budget. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. Thank you.