Police Minister Senzo Mchunu says his department plans to recruit 10 000 additional members over the medium term to bolster police ranks. Mchunu presented his department’s budget to a mini plenary of the National Assembly for approval, earlier on Tuesday. SAPS have been allocated R113 billion for the 2024/2025 financial year.
Mchunu says while additional funding in the past two financial years was used to recruit an additional 10 000 officers per year, this year they realised that they needed to recruit more officers. And despite this huge allocation from the fiscus, it is clear, according to all political parties, that additional funding is needed to effectively deal with the high crime rate in the country.
Some opposition parties say moving some of the funding allocated to ministerial protection to everyday crime fighting will go a long way.
Police Minister knows the task that lies ahead of him is huge. He says enhancing police visibility is key to building confidence and trust in the SAPS. Mchunu says this will also improve community responsiveness and crime detection.
The management of SAPS firearms, however, remains a concern. SAPS needs to improve its own management of firearms in its possession, of course, this is quite a worry, ourselves, we are losing a lot of firearms at a rate that is quite high and then contribute to the proliferation against that which we are fighting,” says Mchunu.
Police Portfolio Committee Chair Ian Cameron from the Democratic Alliance says collaboration with all stakeholders is key.
“Police unions have consistently told parliament that discipline is applied inconsistently and that low-ranking officers are sometimes punished more severely for infractions than their higher-ranking counterparts who are committing far more serious misconduct. This imbalance simply undermines morale and the integrity within the service.”
Other opposition parties shared their insights.
uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party’s David Skosana says, “Prioritise community safety, and well-being before punitive measures, ensure accountability and transparency within the police ranks. Foster a culture of respect, empathy and understanding because our people are unemployed.”
Economic Freedom Fighters’ Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi adds, “Your strategy is not actually committed to prevention of crime. You want to fight crime after it has happened. There is no well-articulated idea of how we are going to stop the murder rate.”
“As the IFP, we call upon this new administration to get the house in order. How can South Africans listen to discussions on keeping them safe, when a police vehicle has not patrolled their area in weeks or sometimes even months,” says Petros Sithole from the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Freedom Front Plus’ Dr Pieter Groenewald says, “If we want to effectively prevent and combat crime, we must look at our complete criminal justice system. Justice, police, and correctional services.”
“Guns, there is no targeted approach or programme in any of the presentations that specifically addresses guns in our communities. This weekend, I had to jump off my bed because they were shooting on the corner of my house in Edorado Park,” says Dereleen James from ActionSA.
“If you put the question how many policemen do we need in our nation? 250 000? We need 63 million policemen. Every single citizen needs to be a policeman. It starts with self-control,” says Steve Swart from ACDP.
“Visible policing is a problem. There is a speaker who said you will see a lot of police in the CBD but once you go to townships you are lucky to see one policeman, even in areas that are considered hotspots for crime. And that is something we have to change,” explains UDM’s Nqabayomzi Kwankwa.
The point that millions of rands are being spent on VIP protection came through strongly.
“South Africans are not safe. We are not safe, you are also not safe, that’s why you have protection 4 hours. The police commissioner is also not safe. That’s why he is being protected 24 hours. But South Africans are left to fend for themselves. Just outside there are more police officers and more police cars than there are available in police stations,” says Makashule Gana from Rise Mzansi.
“The life we live in this country is not normal. It’s not normal to walk around scared every day. It’s not normal to walk around being scared of being raped every day. It’s not normal for children to not be able to play on the streets safely. And this dept needs to give this crisis that we have, the urgency that it deserves, and needs to for once put South Africans first, put them before the needs of politicians,” says Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster from BOSA.
“The NCC cannot support this budget. It cannot support a budget that allocates more to the protection of 72 VIPs than to crime intelligence. It is unthinkable. I am here today minister to speak to you as a Coloured South African. To tell you the Coloured story. 85 people will die in South Africa today. 20% of them are on the strip of Cape Town you know as the Cape Flats. It’s a genocide. Yet every police station found there is understaffed, under a vehicle, under-resourced,” argues Fadiel Adams from NCC.
Minister Mchunu said that while money has been allocated to put extra boots on the ground, he acknowledged that is still not enough to tackle the challenge of South Africa’s high crime stats.
Source: eNCA
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