We Must Better Equip SAPS in the Fight Against Crime

The below speech was delivered by Ofentse Mokae MP during today’s State of the Nation Address Debate:

Honourable Speaker,

Hon. Chairperson of the NCOP,

Mr. President,

Members of the House, and

Fellow South Africans.

Mr President let me start my debate with the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin about crime prevention and I quote “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

In this quote he emphasizes that preventing crime is easier than dealing with the consequences of criminality. It is important that we strive to prevent criminal activities before they even occur, crime prevention is a shared responsibility which includes:

Community building

Activities that strengthen the sense of community, such as support groups and community safety forums, police forums neighbourhood watches.

Early intervention

Intervening early in a person’s life to prevent them from becoming involved in crime.

Public education

Raising awareness about crime and the attitudes towards it.  Visible Policing which plays a huge role in ensuring communities feel and are safe, through various operations such as stop search and seizure, patrols and detecting and deterring criminal activities.

This is severely compromised if there are no sufficient and operational vehicles. It becomes difficult to enforce visible policing when your fleet is crippled as a result of a flawed centralised procurement system.

The DA is especially concerned about stations located in rural and remote areas, such as in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga amongst others. Vehicles are either standing on bricks at the stations or have been in the SAPS garage for more than 30 days awaiting parts, maintenance, or repairs that can only be done once the service provider in Pretoria sends down the necessary parts.

Stations such as Roodepan in the Northern Cape, the province I proudly represent in the NCOP, are currently only utilising nine SAPS vehicles while 20 are awaiting repairs and maintenance. The Kimberley station is no different with 23 vehicles awaiting services and repairs. The Cape Town Flying-Squad here in the Western Cape has close to half of its fleet in the SAPS garage.

At the Postmasburg SAPS station there are only four out of eight vehicles currently mobile. Staff at the station have also expressed their frustration at the lengthy turnaround time of Supply Chain Management processes that continue to negatively hamper their fight against crime. Compounded by lengthy administrative processes and the completion of multiple forms to procure just a single part for a SAPS vehicle, residents will continue to bear the brunt of delayed response times to crime and emergencies by SAPS in the province.

While we welcome the recent handover of new police vehicle to police stations across the province, The new vehicles should bolster the shortage of operational police vehicles to enhance policing in the province. At each station!

Mr. President this is an untenable situation.

The centralisation of procurement to Pretoria must be urgently addressed to allow provinces and particularly police stations to procure parts and repair vehicle in the shortest of time and to their earliest convenience.   The lengthy administrative processes to procure just a single part for a SAPS vehicle is more threatening to the safety of residents than it is following due protocol.

To this end I have already written to the Minister of Police to review this inefficient process that hampers and frustrates our women and men in blue to carry out their responsibilities. Securing parts for vehicles needs to be a swift and seamless process to ensure all vehicles are up and running within 30 days whereby they are returned to SAPS stations so that policing can commence unhindered and without delays.

We know that our officers are already overburdened, over worked and overstretched, let us make every effort to make their work easier. Let us adequately resource our officers.

As I conclude chair.

Mnr. President, dít is presies hoekom die DA aanhou aandring op die devolusie van polisie-bevoegd-hede na bevoegde provinsies. Die Wes-Kaap het bewys dat wanneer provinsies self verantwoordelikheid neem vir misdaadbekamping, daar werklike resultate is. Die Law Enforcement Advancement Programme (LEAP) het meer polisiëring op die grond geplaas, dwelmaanhoudings verdubbel en teruggedruk teen bende-geweld wat nasionale strategieë eenvoudig nie kon beheer nie. Intussen bly die polisie-diens in ander provinsies vasgevang in ‘n verlamde, gesentraliseerde burokrasie, met gemeenskappe wat uitgelewer is aan misdadigers terwyl patrollievoertuie op bakstene staan en onderbefonde polisiestasies sukkel om hul werk te doen. As ons ernstig is oor misdaadbekamping, kan ons nie vasklou aan ‘n mislukte, eenvormige nasionale model nie. Provinsies moet die mag hê om hul eie mense te beskerm – en ons in die DA sal nie ophou veg voordat dit ‘n werklikheid word nie.

Re dira buekelo go wena Mo-Presidente le Tona ya Sepodise go tokafatsa seemo le serodumo sa tirelo ya sepodise sa Afrika Borwa. A re gagametseng ka thaata gore baagi botlhe ba naga ya rona ba nne ba babalesegile ka dinako tsotlhe. Pabalesego ya baagi ba rona e botlhokwa.

Ke a leboga!

I thank you!        Baie dankie