KwaZulu-Natal Legislature  
PIETERMARITZBURG: 24 July 2009

Madam Speaker

It is an increasingly intolerable fact of life in this province and country that hardly a day passes without us hearing of yet another murder, rape, abduction or burglary. According to a recent study conducted by the Solidarity Union, with which the IFP has had a long and fruitful association, one child is raped every three minutes in South Africa, and every day, three children are murdered. Adjusted for population, our murder rate remains 11 times higher than in the United States, which has one of the highest crime rates in the developed world.

The recently released United Nations 2009 World Drug Report paints an equally grim picture. Drug consumption in South Africa, according to the report, is currently twice the world norm. The Central Drugs Authority, which is a government drug control organisation, concurs by reporting that the use of cocaine and marihuana has increased by 20 percent in two years.

To illustrate these statistics, I will mention the recent drug busts involving South African Airways crews and even the well-publicised drug bust linked to the wife of a very high-ranking politician known to some members of this House. The drug problem in South Africa remains very serious while our authorities do not always inspire confidence in dealing with it adequately.

Unfortunately, our crime problem is only to get worse as the 2010 soccer World Cup approaches. As much as we are looking forward to this international sporting event and the economic opportunities it will provide to our citizens to put South Africa on the global map, the fact remains that the Soccer World Cup will present our police with additional challenges. Tourists tend to attract crime, and the 450,000 of them whom we expect to attend the tournament will be a soft target for criminals.  Our authorities have work cut out for them as they anticipate these challenges and devise suitable preventative measures.

Our recommendation to the Hon. MEC for Community Safety and Liaison is to analyse the successes and deficiencies of our existing crime-prevention measures during the recent Confederations Cup tournament. The 1 000 foreign tourists who came for this tournament are effectively pioneers for the much larger number expected during the 2010 World Cup. Let us use them retrospectively as a focus group and learn from this recent experience.

One of the most obvious solutions to the challenge of minimising crime during the 2010 World Cup is visible policing. We must strive to take away from potential criminals the opportunity to commit the crimes. It is labour-intensive and resource-expensive to do this, but we have to try and establish a solid policing presence in all places identified as crime hotspots.

In some ways, criminals are already one step ahead of the authorities.

Justice Department sources say they have information that with the 2010 soccer World Cup looming, more women are being brought in and kept "underground" in residential areas until closer to the time. The SAPS themselves have estimated that are currently between 800 and 1 100 Thai women in South Africa who have been "trafficked" here for sexual exploitation - and a third of them have been lured here believing they are coming to work in honest jobs.

Similarly, most NGOs predict a significant increase in the number of children drawn to the streets ahead of the tournament, while several have expressed concern about a predicted militant round-up by the authorities.

These are very serious challenges the Department of Community Safety and Liaison has to get involved in, especially as it tightens its fiscal belt following the 7.5 percent reduction in MTEF allocations. The budget cut should, however, not be used by the department as an excuse for the lack of service delivery. Even when its budget increased in the past, this did not necessarily translate into effective crime-combating measures.

One last word about the Hawks. There was much vigorous debate – even in this House - that accompanied the demise of the Directorate of Special Operations, known as the Scorpions. A new unit, the Hawks, was promptly launched on the day the Scorpions ceased to exist, although its structures were far from finalised. Earlier this month, the SAPS conceded that it could take a year before the Hawks had a full staff complement. Despite lavish newspaper advertising singing odes to the Hawks, the new elite unit remained for a long time after its establishment hardly more than a one man show with Anwa Dramat being its only member.

We are told that members of the defunct Scorpions and the police who had applied to join the new organised-crime-fighting unit that are still awaiting finalisation of their clearance process. The police have failed to explain convincingly why vetting 218 former Scorpions, whose security clearance had been routinely updated at their old jobs, is taking so long.

These are only some of the questions the Official Opposition will keep asking in this House and outside of it to ensure that the Department of Community Safety and Liaison and the provincial government in general remain accountable to the members of the public who depend on their services for their safety and security.

I thank you.

Contact:
Dr Lionel Mtshali
078 302 0929