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27 March 2008

Ms Yvonne Johnson, CEO: International Marketing Council
Ms Margaret Diedricks, Head of Department: Community Safety (Gauteng Province)
Mr Themba Mathe, CEO: Secretariat for Safety and Security
Mr Sibusiso Masuku, The Presidency
Mr Teddy Martins, Orlando Community Policing Forum
Programme Director
Distinguished guests and participants
Ladies and gentlemen

Thank you very much for granting me an opportunity to address this very important gathering. This assembly is significant because it illustrates unity of purpose in our ongoing attempts as a collective - government, civil society, business, academics, researchers, gender-based organisations, religious and traditional leaders - to tackle this cancerous scourge of crime that has befell our country.

This gathering demonstrates our understanding that the challenge to build a safer and more secure South Africa requires joint efforts from government together with all sectors of society. This kind of partnership is central to ensure the full implementation of a National Campaign to intensify the fight against crime.

We owe it to the defenceless women, children and the elderly, who are often victims of crime, as well as the general public to mobilise all stakeholders into an effective partnership with government and its law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime.

Our active engagement with the sectors of society such as business and communities to combat crime is informed by the documented huge successes of partnerships between government and communities to address this scourge.

In this regard, we reiterate our plea to all sectors of society to continuously seek to ask questions as to what can they do to support the National Anti-Crime Campaign, and more specifically, to combat and prevent crime in communities.

I speak here of strong partnerships involving a range of stakeholders, such as communities, women, youth, trade unions, business, sports bodies, and the various faith-based groups and the media which ought to take their rightful place in advancing a national effort to halt crime.

This is in line with the National Anti-Crime Campaign that supports and promotes the mobilisation of all sectors and communities in partnership with government and law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime.

Some of the partnership-oriented Government Anti-Crime Campaigns that gives hope include: the Anti-Crime Leadership Forum; Business Against Crime; Against Crime Together; Take Charge; Bambanani; Primedia Crime Stop; amongst others.

We also have a number of structures in place that attest to the success of strong partnerships. We have roped in business leaders through the Presidential Big Business Working Group (BBWG) motivated in August 2006 as a "step change" anti-crime initiative to deal with crime.

The Anti-Crime Leadership Forum, co-chaired by the Minister for Safety and Security, Mr Charles Nqakula and Mr Derek Cooper on behalf of business has been established and four working groups have been formed.

The first work group focuses on reducing violent organised crime.

This working group functions well, both strategically and operationally, and focuses on prevention and combating house robberies, vehicle hijackings and business robberies. The focus is on four pillars, namely, aggravated robberies including house robberies; social crime prevention; firearms; liquor and borderline operations.

The second work group deals with enhancing delivery effectiveness.

The group focuses its objectives on the improvement of the effectiveness of the criminal and justice system by enhancing the delivery capacity, competence, confidence, accountability and responsibility of leadership and management. A suitable course to build basic management and leadership skills to improve performance and the implementation of programmes has been selected.

The third work group seeks to mobilise society against crime.

The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster is working on an all-encompassing campaign to mobilise all of society to participate in the fight against crime. The national anti-crime campaign for building a safer and more secure South Africa is designed to support and promote the mobilisation of all sectors of society into an effective partnership with government in the fight against crime.

This is why we are here today to consult and interact with all affected citizens so that together we put our hands on deck for faster change of the crime situation.

The fourth work group deals with the review of Criminal Justice System.

This working group conducted a review of the Criminal Justice System, with a view of changing the system. Subsequently, the work group came with seven recommendations to cabinet in order to improve the legitimacy and public confidence in the Criminal and Justice System.

These adopted recommendations are:

* A single vision and mission leading to a single set of objectives for the criminal and justice system as well as adapting or re-aligning structures of the criminal and justice systems.
* Establish legislatively, a new coordinating and management structure for the criminal and justice systems at every level, including the appointment of an executive member as head of the criminal and justice systems structure with only coordinating and management functions.
* Drastic transformation of the court process in criminal matters to enable a focus on trials.
* Implementation of all the proposed key priorities identified for the component parts of the criminal and justice system which impact on the new court process.
* Establishment of an integrated and seamless national criminal and justice system database containing all information relevant to the criminal and justice system.
* Modernisation of systems, including fast-tracking the implementation of present projects and modernisation initiatives such as e-Scheduler, digital recording system, video postponement of cases, inmate tracking etc.
* Introduce major changes to the Community Police Forum, CPFs including expanding its role and providing financial and administrative infrastructure.

Government also launched the Victim's Charter in 2007, while an intensive campaign is being planned for the review of the criminal justice system.

However, crime affects us all and we all have critical roles to play at different levels. As government, we call on ordinary citizens to give their unequivocal support by volunteering in local police stations; joining the police reserve force and desisting from buying stolen goods.

Similarly, reporting of all criminal activities should not be left to the neighbourhood watch group but also be regarded as central to our success in combating crime because crime happens before a cloud of witnesses who opt for silence to the dismay of the victims and the country. We can no longer afford silence at the expense of the hard earned gains of our democracy.

Accordingly, we urge all South Africans to affiliate to the local community police forums or community safety forums and join the band of brave women and men to fight crime and build stable and safer communities. This is indeed part of our priorities and central to the Government's Programme of Action.

Government acknowledges the challenges posed by crime. We recognise the traumatic and painful impact of crime on law-abiding citizens. However, we are also confident that our strategy and programme will sharpen our combined effort in the fight against crime.

It is in this light that all communities and peace-loving citizens need to assume responsibility and become part of the fight against crime and reclaim peacefulness in their streets, parks and homes.

Our resolve to make South Africa a safer place is anchored within the National Crime Prevention Strategy, which has two elements: a national crime combating strategy and an integrated criminal justice system. This approach is certainly making a significant impact on the crime situation.

It must also be noted that government is developing the capacity for the intelligence and security agencies, through the enhancement and introduction of technology to combat and fight crime such as fingerprint identification, forensic technology and closed circuit television (CCTV), amongst others.

In our further attempts to deal with crime, government has introduced the investigative psychology. We are also putting a special focus on serious and violent crime. This includes improving border control and efficiency at points of entry and visible policing.

As Government, we are also paying attention to key issues in the criminal justice system such as repeat offending, management of awaiting trail detainees, corrections and rehabilitation, and partnership with stakeholders and communities.

I trust that this workshop will further come up with concrete suggestions and resolutions to enhance Government's efforts.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Defence
27 March 2008