African National Congress Statement on the Occasion of the Release of the 2013/14 Annual Report of the Gauteng Department of Community Safety 30 September 2014: The African National Congress Caucus of the Gauteng Legislature welcomes the release of the 2013/14 Annual Report of the Gauteng Department of Community Safety by MEC Nkosi-Malobane. This report together with the crime statistics which were released about two weeks ago must be a platform to engage society to assess the work of government in making Gauteng safe. The ANC Caucus affirms that the war against crime requires partnerships between the law enforcement agencies and active citizens. The ANC Caucus is concerned about the misunderstanding of the role and the politicization of community policing forums (CPFs). It is in this regard that the ANC Caucus congratulates MEC Nkosi-Malobane for taking initiatives to review the role of these community structures within the existing legislation. MEC Nkosi-Malobane has committed to ensuring that CPFs become more involved in the work of being links between communities and the police and doing oversight over policing work at police stations. The ANC Caucus calls upon the MEC to also ensure that systems are in place to recruit individuals of good standing and have commitment to stand for elections of CPFs. There must also be systems introduced to monitor performance of CPFs and to reprimand those which will be underperforming. The ANC Caucus notes that the decision of the provincial Department to undertake the responsibility of monitoring of the police conduct and performance as an internal function has rendered this task deficient and ineffective. The ANC Caucus calls upon MEC Nkosi-Malobane to accelerate the process of appointment of the Civilian Secretariat as required by legislation in order to alleviate this problem. The ANC Caucus commends the Gauteng Provincial Police Commissioner (PC) General Mothiba for the statement attributed to him at the recently held safety indaba. The PC is reported to have said he was ‘taking full responsibility where the crime has increased’. The PC has demonstrated decisive leadership required to find radical approaches to fighting crime in the province. The ANC Caucus will approach the Speaker of the Legislature to enforce sections (section 206 ss 9 and section 207 ss 5) of the Constitution requiring the PC to present the annual report to the Legislature and answer questions. The intention of this action is to ensure that the Legislature satisfies itself with the effectiveness of policing by the law enforcement agencies in Gauteng. The ANC Caucus welcomes the initiatives which are taken by the Gauteng Provincial Government to find solutions to fighting crime in the Province. The Caucus is aware that the decisions of the safety indaba which was held last week are still being finalised. The ANC Caucus awaits the release of the report with bated breath. The ANC Caucus will work with the government to mobilise communities and all stakeholders to commit to the implementation of the decisions of the safety indaba. The ANC Caucus also congratulates the MEC of Community Safety and the officials of the Department for achieving an unqualified audit finding. The ANC Caucus sees this as a demonstration of their commitment to managing public funds and systems with responsibility. The ANC Caucus calls upon the Department to ensure that in future it corrects the matters of emphasis as identified by the Auditor General. Issued by: Sochayile Khanyile: ANC Caucus Spokesperson on Community Safety: 071 687 6732
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 04:22:15 +0000
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