[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

9 February 2009

Somlomo
UMengameli Ohloniphekileyo
Sekela Mengameli
Sekela Somlomo
Ongqongqoshe bakaHulumeni
Masekela Ongqongqoshe
Mamlungu EsiShayamthetho
Zimenywa Ezihloniphekileyo
Maqabane

Siqala ngokwethula ukubonga kwethu ezinkulungwaneni zabantu bakithi ngeqhaza abalibamba nsukuzonke ukwakha impilo eyimpumelelo. Ngokubamba kwabo iqhaza kulomshikashika, bahambisana nesiqubulo sikaHulumeni waKwaZulu-Natali esithi, Asisukume Sakhe.

Nsuku zonke, lezizinkulungwane zisebenzela intando yeningi eyaqalwa umbuso wenkululeko. Lezizinkulungwane zabantu bakithi zivikela ubunye nobumbano esizweni; zilwela ukuqedwa kokucwasana ngokobuzwe nangokobulili; zisebenzela ubulungiswa ezweni lakithi.

Namuhla sikubeka ngembaba ukuthi ikusasa ngelethu sonke, futhi liqhakazile. Lokhu sikushiswa yizinto esikwazile ukuzenza sibambisene ngeminyaka eyishumi nanhlanu vo yenkululeko.

Ethula inkulumo yakhe esizweni uMongameli wezwe ukhulumile ngesigagayi somzabalazo uSolomon Kalushi Mahlangu. Lenkulumo ingikhumbuze inkondlo yembongi uMzwakhe Mbuli ethi "uma senibusa, nikhululekile, nibokhumbula labo abafela inkululeko."

Ngezwa kunkenteza ezindlebeni amazwi kaKalushi okugcina ekhuluma nomama wakhe, uMama uMartha Mahlangu ethi "Mama utshele abantu bakithi ukuthi ngiyabathanda, nokuthi igazi lami liyochelela isihlahla senkululeko."

Nebala, igazi lakhe aliphalalelanga ubala, umbutho wakhe waze walikhulula lelizwe.

We thank the President on presenting a well balanced evaluation of the state of our nation and pointing the way forward in the long journey towards the realization of the goal of a better life for all.

Building on the achievements we have already scored, the ANC remains firmly committed to work together with the people of our land to improve the quality of life of all South Africans. Cognisant of the stubborn legacy of colonialism and apartheid, and fully appreciative of the scientific reality that the road to social progress is always under construction, however, we are convinced that we will realise the kind of society enshrined in our Constitution and the Freedom Charter.

The improved quality of life we talk about, must also find expression in the improved conditions of safety and security of the people in their homes and in their communities. They must be safe in their places of work, cinemas, stadia, parks and other places of extramural activity.

This past festive season saw a concerted multi-disciplinary approach to the fight against crime. During that short period we achieved good results on the part of crime prevention and combating. This demonstrates that working together we can indeed, do more. We should acknowledge though that the reasons and extent of these successes still require further analysis.

Working together, we have scored great victories since the birth of our democracy. Our criminal justice system has contributed immensely to enhancing the stature of our country and its people.

Right from the birth of our country's democracy, our criminal justice system has been there to contribute to the effort to ensure a law-governed democratisation process. Our peace and stability machinery has ensured the success of many significant events. By now we have held numerous elections. Our country has hosted many important international events and welcomed onto our shores, the Commonwealth Heads of State, the Rugby World Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations, the African Games, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Cricket World Cup and many others.

Our courts have been and still remain an important platform in the process of defining the content of our rights and obligations in a constitutional state. Save for some few areas, we have extinguished the fires of political violence and intolerance. We have ensured that the length and breadth of our country is available to all to exercise their political choices.

For a young democracy like ours, these and many others are no minor successes. And in the light of this, we can only assume that those who claim that we make undertakings but never deliver are people who spend their time in slumber land.

The important contribution of our armed forces in provision and preservation of special and priority skills can never be overemphasised. Our ground army forces, our Air force and the Navy have won the confidence of the people through their capacity to protect the sovereignty of the Republic. These successes demonstrate the time-tested truth that together we can do more.

These successes we have scored do not in any way de-emphasise the fundamental necessity to transform the entire criminal justice system. We have visible evidence of progress made; however, that progress has itself brought about new challenges.

All South Africans share the President's deep concern about crime.
The African National Congress (ANC) and the government of our country are committed to the establishment of a new modernised, efficient, and transformed criminal justice system. This initiative will reduce drastically, the levels of crime and ensure the stamping out of corruption.

The review entails the scrutiny of our performance along the whole value chain, including the functioning of the police, the judiciary, correctional services, with the aim of achieving enhanced level of integration and co-ordination.

We are paying focused attention to the fight against serious and violent crime. We are also acting with added vigour against organised syndicates, and recent events around Durban in particular attest to our commitment in this regard.

We will increase the capacity of the SAPS through recruitment, rigorous training and better remuneration. Steps are being taken to better equip and increase the capacity of detective services, forensics, prosecution and judicial services. In this regard training is earmarked to commence in earnest this year.

The people of our land can be assured that we are going to act with speed in the process of establishing the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI). The architecture of this unit is such that it takes on board the positive aspects of previous units while shedding off their weaknesses. In essence, we are applying the law of negation of negation in our approach to building the DPCI, taking the best and shedding off the worst. The review of the criminal justice system has indeed resulted, among others, in the absorption of the DSO into the DPCI.

Because there are many who skirt around the truth on this matter, we should reiterate some of what we have said before, that is: The DSO was a new and innovative development initiated by the ANC government to strengthen the fight against organised crime. It included prosecutors, detectives and intelligence operatives in one unit. This was indeed a powerful combination which, nevertheless, created its own problems.

All police units are monitored by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), however, the DSO was under the NPA, and could not be investigated by the ICD. Even as we speak, we are faced with the issue of plus or minus one hundred million rand of funds which are unaccounted for by the DSO. The intelligence gathering capacity of our agencies is monitored by the Inspector General of Intelligence; however the DSO was not covered by this framework.

Better to exercise proper balance in their decisions to prosecute or not, and to ensure the realisation of the principle of separation of functions, prosecutors need to be independent from investigators. This was not the case with the DSO. There was also what some referred to as "cherry picking of cases" a preoccupation with certain kinds of crime, with the result that other crimes were inadvertently ignored. For instance, complex and complicated crimes of organised and trans-national nature were left unattended. Ironically, this was the primary mandate that was being ignored.

Within the context of the review, these and many other issues that had arisen in practice had to be given serious consideration in the process of evolving our crime-fighting policies, strategies, entities, arsenal and programmes. Strangely enough, non among our critics seem to appreciate the gravity of these and other challenges. They appear even less interested in finding solutions to the problems. This leads one to suspect that the clamour about the DSO is less about the quality of its work, but more about the usability of such work in the furtherance of the political aspirations of those who directly or indirectly benefited from the racist dispensation of the past.

To these doubting Thomases, the Chinese proverb applies, which states that, "The one who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the one doing it."

We are going to pay added attention to attacks on members of the SAPS. As part of this work, legislative measures will be introduced to protect law-enforcement officials. We shall ensure that unarmed and defenceless people are protected against possible abuse. However, for the scoundrels, who are nothing but beasts in human face, (izinswelaboya), we have no mercy.

The scourge of violence against women and vulnerable members of our society remains a blemish on our democratic order. Accordingly, the capacity of the criminal justice system to combat violence and crimes against women and children will be increased. Aspects of our legislative regime that unintentionally protect perpetrators will be changed in order to drive the point home that the sixteen days of activism is in fact three hundred and sixty five.

In our country, it has by now been widely acknowledged and accepted that a significant part of violent and serious crimes occur among acquaintances. This makes it unlikely that our programmes and operations, including intelligence operations, would have been targeted to families, relatives, friends and acquaintances. Thus, the need for our communities to participate in preventing and combating crime. The view that alone, law-enforcement agencies can in practice defeat crime is incorrect and, we are glad that increasingly, South Africans are becoming alive to this fact.

We shall therefore work consistently to build an enduring people's contract, which will find expression in our unity of purpose and action, with each sector contributing to the common objective of eliminating crime and all forms of criminality.

Since 1994, the transformation of the judiciary has undergone marked improvement. As Honourable Members will know, the first democratic government inherited a judiciary that was dominated by White Males whose prior contribution to the system had been to enforce and implement apartheid rules laws.

Through the efforts of the ANC-led government, programmes were put in place to commence the transformation agenda within the Judiciary. This was done through the Magistrates Commission, an independent body responsible for the processes for the appointment and discipline of magistrates.

The other structure that was used was the Judicial Services Commission which is similarly responsible in respect of judges.

To date, of a total number of 199 judges, 54,3% are black and 45,7% are white. Similarly, we have seen the appointment of women judges to the Constitutional Court of whom two are African.

These statistics reflect that whilst more still needs to be done, government has certainly ensured that there is a progressive agenda to spearhead transformation in the judiciary.

Madam Speaker, recently we have heard a cacophony of voices purporting to protect the judiciary from the so called 'attacks' on that important institution of our democracy.

From where we stand, these modern day defenders of our democracy have offered nothing new, better, nor wiser than what the late Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed said, that, "a viable and credible constitutional culture evolves most effectively within the crucible of vigorous intellectual combat and even moral examination."

Nevertheless, those who seek to shut down this debate, consistently ignore this wise counsel by the late Chief Justice. In this instance, we shall resort to Aristotle, who, when faced with similar circumstances said such people "had better take to heart what Hesiod says:
That man is best who sees the truth himself
Good too is he who hearkens to wise counsel.
But who is neither wise himself nor willing
To ponder wisdom, is not worth a straw."

A line in Tanya Jovanovski's booklet says, "Introduce any negative person who crosses your path to someone else." Surely, our political detractors do deserve to be introduced to bats.

Together we will face crime squarely in the eyes, and destroy it. We will rid our society of rapists. There shall be no place to hide for those who abuse women and children. The introduction to Parliament of amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act necessitating among others, the examination of issues relating to forensics and DNA databases is a positive step forward in the context of the revamping of the criminal justice system.

Another way to improve conviction levels is the integration of IT systems of government departments like Home Affairs, the SAPS, Transport and others. Processes are under way to sharpen our fight against crime using information and technology as a potent weapon. Our motto is work hard, but better still, work smart.

Fellow citizens, rest assured we shall not only be knocking on the doors of the bad. We shall also knock on the doors of the good, to urge each and every one of us to be part of the great wave against crime. We must state this categorically, that in the next five years crime will remain one of the key priorities of the ANC and government.

Because they love peace, security and comfort, we are certain that the great majority of the people of our land, continent and the world will heed our clarion call to join hands and make life difficult for criminals in and outside our borders. Regional integration and cooperation, is a guarantee that in their pursuit for a just world order revolutionaries cannot be confined by national borders.

Jean Toomer said, "We learn the ropes in life by untying the knots." Together we disentangled the riddle of apartheid; together we can and will defeat crime.

As the Chinese proverb says, let the one who says it cannot be done not interrupt the one doing it.

I thank you.

Issued by: Secretariat of Safety and Security
9 February 2009