Durban — Multiple sittings in the Provincial Legislature on Tuesday – including Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli’s budget vote for the Community Safety and Liaison department – were fraught with drama and a series of interruptions.
Delivering his maiden Community Safety and Liaison budget vote, Ntuli announced that R243343 million (R2.4 billion) had been set aside for the department he incorporated into his office after assuming the role of premier in June.
The department, crucial in fighting crime, suffered a budget cut of R10 823 million.
The breakdown of the budget is as follows:
- Compensation of employees: R130 735 million.
- Goods and services: R110 790m (which includes service delivery programmes targeted at safety promotion, crime prevention and partnerships).
- Transfers and subsidies: R44000.
- Payment for capital assets: R1 756m.
Ntuli’s budget vote was titled: “Galvanising Community Participation Towards a Crime-Free and Prosperous Province”.
“This theme is a clarion call to action so that together we fight against crime and reduce the statistics in all categories of crime. During the State of the Province Address (Sopa), I highlighted what the Department of Community Safety and Liaison will do,” he said.
Ntuli vowed during his swearing-in ceremony in June that the crime-busting measures would be front and centre of his Government of Provincial Unity (GPU).
“Following a vigorous engagement I had with the business sector they cautiously and robustly indicated that if our province is engulfed by crime and insecurity, there will be no investment prospects. Crime, uncertainty and violence negatively affect investor confidence,” Ntuli said.
Incorporating the Department of Community Safety and Liaison into the Office of the Premier allowed him to have a “hands-on approach” to the burning issue of crime prevention in the province, he said.
On the rampant fraud and corruption in the public sector, Ntuli said his department would be tightening internal crime and fraud-fighting measures.
“The department is tightening its internal controls, as informed by its risk-mitigating strategy, through the implementation of the Fraud Prevention Policy. Departmental oversight structures and policies for implementing consequence management have been put in place.
“This has resulted in the implementation of consequence management against 23 officials who were implicated in five cases of irregular expenditure.
“We will intensify our focus on this matter to ensure clean governance within the department.”
Speaking about the protests in KZN, he said: “These protests shift the focus of law enforcement personnel from doing the actual work of enforcing the law, and end up managing these protests as some of them are characterised by violence and destruction of public infrastructure.
“The public protests are perceived as a sign of lack of security and instability in the province, and they do not augur well for the province’s efforts of investment attraction.”
To ease the burden on rural police stations, the department would be rolling out the programme of Amakhosi, trained as Commissioners of Oath.
“This will improve the efficiency of the police and decrease the load of certifying documents.
“A total of 50 unemployed law graduates are placed under the SAPS as an added resource to assist with the reduction of litigation cases against SAPS.”
Furthermore, he said the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster has developed a plan to deal with illegal firearms and ammunition in the province. This plan includes granting amnesty to people who possess illegal firearms.
“Part of the strategy includes interventions like granting amnesty to those people who have illegal firearms, strengthening visible policing in hotspot areas, community policing, crime intelligence, and improving border management. The focus will be on the implementation of the strategy.”
The department would also fight to curb the raging gender-based violence plaguing the province.
“As part of the provincial government’s response to Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF), the department will recruit 123 GBV activists, who will provide basic counselling services to Gender-Based Violence and Femicide victims, as a means of preventing secondary victimisation.”
He added: “The traditional leadership will also be targeted as another strategic partner. Improved working relationships between traditional leaders and police will be facilitated by encouraging station commanders to attend meetings convened by Amakhosi and Izinduna to report on crime taking place in their respective areas and further get information from the leaders which will assist in solving some of the crimes within their areas.”
Reacting to the budget vote, violence monitor Mary de Haas, said: “Crime imbizos don’t achieve much. Community safety starts at police station level and community policing forums can play an important role but only if the right people serve on them.”
Meanwhile, Ntuli had earlier presented the budget vote for the office of the premier with a budget of R784153 million. Of this, R226 733 million was set aside for administration of the office, R329 778 million for institutional development, R124 896 for strategic human resources, R227 642 million for policy development, premier’s priority programmes gets R85 239 million and to the royal household – R77 507million – a cut of more than R2m.
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