Budget Speech 2005/2006

BUDGET VOTE SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE HONOURABLE MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL FOR SAFETY, SECURITY AND LIAISON, MR. F.K MORULE 0N TUESDAY, 26 APRIL 2005.

26 April 2005

Honourable Speaker
Premier of the Free State Provincial Government
Honourable Members of the Free State Legislature
Mayors and Councillors
Acting Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS
Commissioners and Members of the SAPS
Esteemed Guests

That “There Shall Be Peace and Friendship” in South Africa continues to find practical expression in our approach as we surge ahead with our agenda to uphold the rights, opportunities and status of all our people through development-oriented police service delivery to ensure a better and crime-free life for all.

Honourable Speaker,

When we delivered the Budget Vote Speech for the 2004/2005 financial year, we publicly made an undertaking that the Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison would focus its energy on giving effect to certain core strategic priorities, consciously to ensure:

The prevention of violence and abuse of women and children;
The prevention of corruption and fraud within State institutions in the Free State;
The promotion of an integrated justice system through coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the Criminal Justice System;
The monitoring and evaluation of police service delivery; and
The implementation of social crime prevention projects.

SOCIAL CRIME PREVENTION

As is commonly the case in most parts of the country, the unpleasant effects of the excessive use and abuse of liquor is a matter of grave concern in the province which, in most instances leads to criminal acts particularly against women and children.

It is for that reason that a Provincial Liquor Summit was held in Bloemfontein in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Environmental and Economic Affairs.

Some of the inputs at the Summit highlighted the need for the Department of Tourism, Environmental and Economic Affairs to expedite the introduction of the provincial liquor legislation consistent with the national policy. Furthermore, delegates expressed the demand for community consultation before the granting of liquor licences.

Subsequent to the Summit, the Department jointly with the police conducted inspections in loco around the Mangaung jurisdictional area to determine compliance with the applicable liquor legislation.

The message from the liquor summit was strengthened by holding further seminars on drug and substance abuse at various secondary schools identified per policing district such as Heidedal in Mangaung, Smithfield and Qwaqwa. The said seminars managed to reach one-hundred and seventy (170) learners.

Honourable Speaker,

We need to report to this House that while the Department ranked victim empowerment high on its list of priorities, mutual agreement was reached that the task to establish twenty-one (21) Victim Support Rooms and the Youth Development Centre be transferred to the Department of Social Development which, in terms of the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS), is a lead department.

THE PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION AND FRAUD WITHIN STATE INSTITUTIONS

In line with the provisions of the Constitution to promote high professional ethics within public administration, the Department steadfastly maintains its position to lead an internal campaign to wipe the Free State public administration of any stain of corruption and fraud.

The Department of Public Service and Administration, is in the process of developing and consolidating a National Anti-Corruption Strategy that will uncompromisingly deal with acts unbecoming in the public service in general. It is only thereafter that the provincial approach on corruption and fraud will be finalized.

We will recall that the Anti-Corruption Summit was held in Tshwane from the 22^nd – 23^rd March 2005 to consider ways and means of effectively dealing with corruption and fraud.

THE MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF POLICE SERVICE DELIVERY AND TRANSFORMATION.

Honourable Speaker,

How the police deliver services to the communities remains an integral component of our oversight role. That is why the Department commissioned a Perception Survey Study which was finalized in December 2003. The aim of the Survey was:

To gather information on community members’ perception about SAPS service delivery in the province;
To gather information on community members’ perception of, and involvement in crime prevention projects and community policing;
To get a baseline for future follow-up surveys;
To compare service delivery per policing areas (Northern, Southern-, and Eastern-Free State Areas);
To compare service delivery per station.

The findings of the Public Perception Survey were publicized on 17 June 2004 and they revealed, among other things, that although the functionality of the Community Police Forums (CPFs) raised some concerns, positive responses were gathered in respect of police service delivery.

Furthermore, the optimization of the service delivery capacity of the police was reinforced through infrastructure development which saw the official opening of the Mangaung police station and the renovation of the Odendaalsrus, Tierpoort, Brandfort, Dewetsdorp, Dealesville, Edenburg, Senekal and Excelsior police stations.

As part of our tireless efforts to monitor police service delivery and conduct, the public’s utilization of the Call Centre Number 0800 72 73 74 was popularised. Resultantly, public usage of the said number increased remarkably during the last financial year of 2004/05.

The nature of complaints received by the Department’s Call Centre indicated clearly that the public needed education and awareness on their basic legal and human rights entitlements within the context of the criminal justice system.

Precisely because police service delivery is undeniably linked to police transformation, the department also managed to ensure that through quarterly review meetings between the Provincial Secretariat for Safety and Security and the SAPS Management, sensitive areas were monitored and evaluated to ensure the effective transformation of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The monitored police transformation ensured, amongst others, that matters of police equity were vigorously considered. The 2004/05 financial year witnessed the promotion of exactly 150 police officers to ranks of Captains; 95 to ranks of Superintendents; and 16 to ranks of Senior Superintendents.

The majority of those promoted comprised 155 black men (that is, Africans, Indians and Coloureds), followed by 102 women (Africans, Coloureds, and Whites) and 4 white males.

Furthermore, seven-hundred and forty (740) individuals where recruited into the employ of the South African Police Service.

Today we are more than delighted to announce that, despite our shoestring budget allocation for the past financial year, the developmental task assigned to the Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison was surmountable; and that could be ascribed to effective political direction and strategic leadership.

PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNITY SAFETY AND CRIME PREVENTION

Honourable Speaker,

Democracy is also about giving ‘voice’ to the public through the involvement and participation of communities in public governance and public administration. Most importantly, it is through an intrinsic community involvement and participation that the Department can be able to influence national policing policy.

The bottom-up approach to policy formulation was demonstrated when the department convened a provincial consultative workshop in Bloemfontein primarily to enable role-players and stakeholders to inform the strategic plan of the department on crime prevention and community safety matters.

It is a legislative imperative for the Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison to establish community police forums at all our police stations in the province in order to promote participation in community safety issues. During the previous financial year the department went further to maximize the functionality of those forums by capacitating one-hundred and nine (109) members of the Community Police Forums.

The training sessions focused on the philosophy of community policing and the essential role of the Community Police Forums (CPFs). However, in the 2005/06 financial year, training will cover project management in the context of community policing.

Honourable Speaker,

Interaction with the public and police officers, both uniformed and non-uniformed, was intensified when we led a top departmental and police management delegation to various public meetings and police stations to cater for the morale of the police, receive and respond to concerns and compliments expressed on community policing, community safety and crime prevention.

Police stations and localities visited included Kagisanong, Batho, Selosecha, Botshabelo, Thaba Nchu, Makwane, Tumahole, Smithfield, Sasolburg, Frankfurt, Virginia, Thabong, Koffiefontein, Clocolan, Senekal and Sasolburg.

Some of those events including door-to-door visits where broadcasted live by Lesedi FM. Altogether, more than five hundred thousand (500 000) were reached through that exercise.

THE 2005/2006 FINANCIAL YEAR

Honourable Speaker,

Notwithstanding the above-cited successes, there are challenges that still face us as a province. In his State of the Nation Address, the President voiced concern over the levels of serious and violent crimes that are still ravaging the country. The same sentiments where expressed by the Minister of Safety and Security when he delivered his Budget Vote Speech on the 12th of April 2005 when he said:

“It is important, however, to understand that crime, especially serious and violent crime, threatens our value systems including the sanctity of life and all the freedoms that define our democratic order.”

On the other hand, the Premier in her State of the Province Address expressed as deplorable violence and abuse of women and children. In keeping with public promise of the Deputy Minister of Safety and Security when she delivered her Budget Speech on 12 April 2005, we will endeavour to support national efforts of dealing vigorously with acts of criminality against women and men particularly on Child Protection Week; Youth Day; Drug Awareness Week; Women’s Day; and the 16 Days of No Violence Against Women & Children.

It is critical to note that, contrary to conventional thinking, poor people particularly women and children, are more at risk from personal crime than the affluent and men.

The development of pro-poor and gender-focused crime prevention and community safety strategies that will deal with poverty of access; poverty of power and poverty of asset will contribute quite significantly to the recognition of crime as a development and genderized issue.

Such gender-specific and pro-poor crime prevention approach must be conceptualized within the context of the broader Free State Growth and Development Strategy of job creation, skills development and poverty eradication.

Honourable Speaker,

The 2005/06 financial year will be guided by an enhanced focus on:

The monitoring and evaluation of the effective and efficient performance and conduct of the police;
The prevention of violence and abuse of women and children;
The promotion of an integrated criminal justice system;
The involvement of communities and municipalities in crime prevention and community safety; and
Coordination of social crime programmes and projects in the province.

POLICE TRANSFORMATION AND SERVICE DELIVERY

Monitoring and evaluation will, during the 2005/06 financial year, be taken to higher levels. Police will be required to explain how their procurement policies and procedures give effect to broad Black Economic Empowerment (BEE).
A classic example is the construction of the Meloding police station in Matjhabeng by a wholly black construction company.

Police will be asked to explain how they contribute to the eradication of poverty in the communities that they ‘serve and protect’; and how they impact on accredited training of community members.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) will further be required to account on the extent to which police administration conforms to democratic values and principles enshrined in the Constitution including:

high standard of professional ethics;
effective, economic and efficient use of resources;
impartial, fair, unbiased and equitable provision of services;
responsiveness to community needs including the 10111 Emergency Number;
community participation in policy making;
accountable and transparent police administration;
good human resource management and career development; and
representative police service.

The Department will ceaselessly monitor compliance and develop intervention strategies aimed at improving internal management issues at police station level. We will endeavour to promote interaction between the police and relevant community role players at the Thabong, Phuthaditjhaba and Batho police stations.

In an attempt to deal with troubled labour relations within the SAPS, we will monitor compliance with best labour practices and procedures including the implementation of a fair performance enhancement programme; employment equity; skills development; promotions; grievance and disciplinary procedures.

SOCIAL CRIME PREVENTION

Honourable Speaker,
Gender-based violence remains a deplorable and detestable act of a desensitized mind. As a commitment to women and children, we will intensify our efforts to prevent violence and abuse of women and children by popularizing and monitoring the implementation of the Service Charter for Victims of Crime as per the instruction of the Premier during her State of the Province Address in March 2005.

As a department, we will support and monitor the implementation of nineteen (19) Safer Schools Projects and hold school competitions in honour of the best safer schools projects in the Free State. We will embark upon those school projects in full consultation with the Department of Education.

One of the constitutional obligations of a provincial government is to support local government. Therefore, five (5) district-based workshops will be held in the province to capacitate municipalities in the formulation of social crime prevention strategies.

Three (3) road-shows will be conducted with community police forums (CPFs) to encourage community participation in the development of the provincial liquor legislation. Again, this will be undertaken in consultation with the Department of Tourism, Environmental and Economic Affairs.

INVOLVEMENT OF COMMUNITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES

Honourable Speaker,

In any democracy, ordinary citizens determine how they would like their localities to be policed. To that extent the police become accountable to the people and not vice versa.

Therefore, the Department will establish, sustain and optimize the functional capacity and impact of the Community Police Forums (CPFs), Community Safety Forums (CSFs) and the District Local Committees (DLCs) on urban and rural safety of communities.

Cross-border crimes and rural safety are social issues that cannot be ignored. Therefore, the department will facilitate the training of one-hundred (100) members of the community safety forums (CPFs) along the South Africa-Lesotho border-line towns. Training will cover accredited project development and management courses. That will cater for both their empowerment needs and enhance their employability.

Bi-annual meetings with the community police forums (CPFs) will be held to discuss matters relating to cross border crimes.

Furthermore, Community Safety Forums will be established and piloted at Thabong (Matjhabeng), Mangaung (Mangaung) and Zamdela (Metsimaholo) to earnestly begin the process of engaging a multi-agency approach in local crime prevention and community safety strategies.

Perhaps I need to elaborate on the different yet interrelated roles of the Community Police Forums (CPFs) and Community Safety Forums (CSFs). The idea to establish the Community Safety Forums (CSFs) is in response to requirements outlines in the two documents that have steered government’s crime prevention policy in South Africa: the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) of 1996, and the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security.

The goal of the CSF project is to establish a vehicle for facilitating the implementation of multi-agency crime prevention initiatives at local level. At its initiation, the CSF project has two objectives:

To establish CSFs as a means of facilitating the active participation of primary stakeholders in the planning and implementation of multi-agency crime prevention projects in selected pilot areas;
Through CSFs, to enhance a coordinated response to specified priority crimes by departments of the criminal justice system and other agencies in the pilot areas.

Several concepts which highlight the benefits of the CSFs approach are worth noting:

There is an emphasis on a sustained, multi-disciplinary approach to crime prevention, and a holistic approach to community development on a local basis, involving many role-players;
The CSF presents a forum where several levels of government intersect. Local representatives of a national department have the opportunity to bring their own unique circumstances to bear on questions of better service delivery and crime prevention. For officials at national level, the CSF provides a vehicle for implementing policy;

Honourable Speaker,

Allow me to inform the Members and Esteemed Guests that the Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison will host the National Local Crime Strategy Summit in the Free State province during the 2005/06 financial year.

In preparation for that eventuality, two (2) provincial seminars will be held to deliberate on the concept of community safety forums (CSFs). One community safety forum will be piloted in each district municipality.

Although the Community Safety Forums (CSFs) function differently from the Community Police Forums (CPFs), they, however, function in synergy with one another. While the CPFs focus on interacting with the police at station level, the CSFs interact with the broader criminal justice system as well as the public, local government; provincial and national government departments; CBOs and NGOs.

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND AWARENESS PROGRAMME

Honourable Speaker,

It remains our assertion that an informed community leads to a confident and participative society.

Therefore, the Department will promote and encourage crime prevention in the Free State communities by strongly providing factual and relevant information, as well as encouraging community-based crime prevention initiatives. That will resultantly increase knowledge and confidence in our criminal justice system.

Information will therefore be provided by developing forty eight (48) print media columns to disseminate general information and tips on community / personal safety and crime prevention.

We will participate in four radio programmes each week to disseminate general information on crime prevention to the communities as well as issues impacting on and underlying crime. Four (4) newsletters will be produced per annum.

It will also be necessary to identify alternative media and information dissemination sources in the province and encourage their participation in promoting crime prevention information and initiatives. These might include community radio stations.

We will hold twelve (12) public education and awareness meetings throughout the province in order:

to provide information on departmental activities and campaigns;
to encourage the involvement of communities in crime prevention and community safety;
to focus on the prioritization of crime prevention in the municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs);
to concentrate on the role of municipalities in social crime prevention and environmental design; and
to promote a multi-agency approach to crime prevention.

It will equally be critical to cross-publicise crime prevention information via Departmental Website and other avenues.

In order to effectively popularise the Service Charter for Victims of Crime, the Department will, jointly with the SAPS, distribute fifty thousand (50 000) leaflets and pamphlets at selected areas and priority stations to reach vulnerable individuals.

Honourable Speaker,

The need to inform and educate communities was prompted by the type of public complaints and grievances that where gathered by the Department through the Call Centre and previous surveys. Those tools revealed the need to make the communities aware of crime prevention and factors that influenced offending.

BUDGET ALLOCATIONS

The services of the Department will be administered through four programmes: Corporate Service; Civilian Oversight; Crime Prevention and Liaison; and finally the Communications.

The budget allocation for Programme 1: Corporate Services is R15.5 million, 51% of the overall budget. The programme consists of the following sections:

Office of the Member of the Executive Council (MEC)
Office of the Head of Department; and
Corporate Services.

The programme provides political direction and strategic leadership to the Department. It also promotes the effective and efficient management and administration of the resources of the Department.

The budget allocation for Programme 2: Civilian Oversight is R3.1 million, 10% of the overall budget. It comprises the following sub-directorates: Monitoring and Evaluation; and Complaints Registry and Investigations. Its responsibilities include:

Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of police performance; and the degree to which the police comply with national policing policy and prescribed directives.

The budget allocation for Programme 3: Crime Prevention and Liaison is R6.3 million, 21% of the overall budget. The programme is divided into Crime Prevention and Projects and Community Policing sub-directorates. Its responsibilities include:

Initiating, leading and coordinating social crime prevention in the province;
Evaluate and support the social crime prevention programmes of local government;
Design structures to coordinate crime prevention;
Enhance the deterrent preventive effect of the criminal justice system by increasing efficiency and certainty in the system; and
Tackling the multinational dimensions of the crime problem through more effective border security and building strong and developmental relationships with the Majestic Kingdom of Lesotho.

The budget allocation for Programme 4: Communications is R5.4 million, 18% of the overall budget. It comprises the following sub-directorates: Public Education and Corporate Communication. It is charged with the following responsibilities:

Public education and awareness programmes about crime and its prevention
Value influencing aimed at changing the moral climate of the society into one that does not tolerate violence and law-breaking; and
Promotion, enhancement and maintenance of the corporate image of the department.

CONCLUSION

Honourable Speaker,

Let me conclude by thanking all our partners for a magnificent collaborative dedicated exhibited throughout the last financial year including the South African Police Service who, despite political rattling from certain political corners, managed to stabilize the levels of crime in the province.

I would further like to extend words of gratitude to Lesedi FM and Vodacom also for patriotically partnering us in our crime prevention and community safety efforts.

There is an appropriate Sesotho adage that confirms this collective approach; it goes as follows: Ntja pedi ha e hlolwe ke sebata. In a true ubuntu spirit it puts unity and solidarity at the forefront of human endeavours.

Let me express appreciation for the level of diligence exemplified by the staff in the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison under the competent strategic leadership of Mr. Jack Klaas.

Honourable Speaker,

The people of the Free State have spoken and a financial plan for the 2005/06 has been outlined. It remains to be seen how far the implementers will go to ensure that “There shall be equality before the law”

I thank you.