Chairperson 

SAPS / ICD 2008/09 Budgets 

The SAPS budget for 2008/09 increases by about R4 billion to provide mainly for employing more officers, building more police stations and preparing for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Additional specific allocations for these purposes are also made in the current year, and will be increased in the next two financial years. 

The ICD budget for 2008/09 increases by R18 million, mostly for increases in employee compensation and capacity building improvements. 

While the IFP appreciates these increases in the budgets, that unfortunately is where the good news stops.  

Crime Rates 

The fact that violent crime has still not been brought under control is a national disgrace. Billions and billions of rand have been thrown at the high crime levels in our country, but our citizens are still not safe in their homes, businesses, streets and communities. That means that government has failed in its duty to our people to provide them with a safe and secure life, as it is provided for in the Constitution.  

Border Patrols 

The IFP also feels that government made a big mistake when it took border control away from the SANDF and handed it to the SAPS. The police force does not have enough personnel to be in control of our long borders, and their role should be confined to ports of entry only, while the SANDF must return to patrolling our land borders. 

SAPS Performance 

It is a known fact that crime rates are highest in rural areas, but it remains impossible to explain why police stations are not being built in the rural areas where the people are. An example is Nongoma which has a police station, but people live far from the town in rural settlements. If they want to report a crime they must travel tens of kilometres to do so. And, if they phone the police station, the phone is usually not answered or the response time is far too long. 

Minister, it is no good building new police stations just in towns or cities. They have to be built where the people are and where the people need the services of the police. 

The response time in rural areas is shockingly long. Let’s take the example of the forensics unit in Ulundi. This unit is staffed by one person with one vehicle, but he has to cover a very large area that includes Vryheid, Nongoma, Paulpietersburg, Melmoth and Pongola!  

Because of the long distances involved, crime scenes are sometimes visited only 18 hours after a murder or rape was committed, and murder victims have to lie in the sun because they cannot be moved before the crime scene investigator has done his job. 

This is simply not acceptable and represents a shocking instance of neglect by the police force. 

Another example is a lack of vehicle control. Often the excuse for very long response times is that a vehicle is not available, but if you look closely you will see police vehicles parked outside taverns or shebeens, or outside the station commissioner’s home! Sometimes, the excuse is that the vehicle has a flat tyre or a rundown battery and is therefore not available.  

According to the most recent figures, complaints of misconduct made against members of the SAPS are on the increase, while cases involving shootings by police members are also increasing. This shows that the police have still not got a human rights culture ingrained in them and that the motto “To Protect and Serve” have as yet not been achieved. 

2010 Readiness 

The poor performance of the SAPS leads the IFP to conclude that it will not be ready to effectively police the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Yes, police numbers are increasing and more money has been allocated, but we doubt whether sufficient improvements will be made in time to the training and resourcing of the police service. 

National Commissioner / Corruption 

There is a saying that a fish rots from its head down. Never has there been a truer saying when it comes to the SAPS. Let’s consider the facts: The National Commissioner of Police is placed on extended leave because he is or was allegedly involved in criminal activity and will appear in court soon. 

This happens while the Commissioner is also the President of Interpol. Can there be a more embarrassing episode for our country and the police force? Add to that the fact that the Scorpions are being disbanded and we have to ask, who will investigate police corruption at the highest levels? Surely not the police! They will look after their own first and foremost. 

The IFP is convinced that alleged corruption and criminal activity at the highest levels of the SAPS has seriously damaged the credibility and morale of the force. It is then no wonder that the police could not respond quickly enough to the recent wave of xenophobic attacks. Morale was low and leadership was absent.  

But, it was to be expected when a politician was appointed as National Commissioner. It is now time for the leadership of the SAPS to be completely depoliticised and the IFP insists that the next National Commissioner be appointed from the ranks of professional and experienced police officers, and not from the ANC’s pool of political lackeys. 

Xenophobic Attacks 

The recent attacks on foreigners have appalled all South Africans, including the IFP. We have roundly condemned those responsible for the attacks and we do so again today. 

But, we also condemn the SAPS for its slow and inadequate response. They did not seem to have a plan or strategy, and the criminals were one step ahead of them all the time. 

Clearly, the force was not well-informed, ill-prepared and poorly equipped to deal with the situation. Where was the much-vaunted crime intelligence division to alert the SAPS to the potential situation? Why were there insufficient personnel available for deployment? 

And, why did they not have the proper equipment, weapons or even enough ammunition to respond? 

Clearly, government made a massive mistake when it decided to disband the specialised public order policing units that dealt so effectively with crowd unrest in the past. The IFP wants this decision reversed immediately as the potential for more large-scale unrest still exists and an effective and properly trained and equipped unit is needed to deal with that.  

ICD Lack of Capacity 

Chairperson, 

The IFP has long maintained that the ICD is effectively toothless and basically a waste of taxpayers’ money. Nothing that happened in the past year has convinced us differently. The ICD is still under-staffed and under-resourced, it still has no real powers and it can still only make recommendations for action against police officers that are guilty of misconduct. 

Whoever thought that the police would happily turn against their own members, must think again. It is naïve in the extreme to think that a toothless body such as the ICD would be a deterrent to police misconduct. The IFP wants to see the ICD properly resourced with real powers to act against police officers.  

IFP Law and Order Policy

Chairperson, 

When the IFP comes to power next year, we will make the following policing policies our priority:

1.    Upgrading the training system, with a special focus on investigative skills and forensics;

2.    Decentralising police powers, even to the local level;

3.    Involving the community in crime prevention;

4.    Providing adequate resources for effective, efficient and professional policing;

5.    Depoliticise appointments to the SAPS;

6.    Improving the working conditions of police officers; and

7.    Focusing on retributive justice and the rights of victims of crime.

Appreciation for SAPS 

Chairperson, 

I want to finish by expressing the IFP’s appreciation to the tens of thousands of dedicated, professional police officers in South Africa who protect and serve the community with duty and honour. The IFP stands in solidarity with those officers and we trust that their example will rub off on those police officers who give the service a bad name.

Thank you

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Mr Albert Mncwango MP 0834484896