BRIEFING BY THE MINISTER OF SAFETY AND SECURITY, MR STEVE TSHWETE, ON BEHALF OF THE CRIME PREVENTION AND INTEGRATED JUSTICE SECTOR, PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING WEEK, 7 February 2000

As the President indicated on Friday we have never been better poised to take decisive steps forward and ensure that as we enter the African century, we can create a humane society where peace, security and dignity will replace crime, fraud, corruption, flagrant abuse of human rights and lawlessness. As the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster of Government, we have set ourselves priorities for the coming year that will ensure our contribution towards this vision.

You are aware that the system of clustering ministries along thematic lines is now well entrenched in our governance fabric. We, as cluster ministers, can boast a well-established structure that has been functioning effectively since June 1999. Today, we will present to you an integrated vision of where we are headed. This we will use as yardstick of our progress you too will find it instructive as a yardstick to measure whether we have indeed accomplished what we set ourselves to do.

Our main objective will be to focus our endeavours and resources jointly in addressing the incidence of crime and public disorder (security breaches) that has the most negative effect on society, which are mainly organised crimes, serious violent crimes and crimes as a result of intergroup conflict. We will further intensify this focus in the areas of the country where most of these crimes occur. These areas, which have already been identified, also has the highest levels of poverty and need for socio economic development. In doing this we will stabilise and normalise these areas so that we create a secure environment, which is conducive to social development and economic growth.

The Cluster has identified several strategic interventions that will be highlighted in this presentation.

These are:

Social crime prevention
Prosecution led and intelligence driven investigations
More effective border control
Alternative containment mechanisms and reduction of awaiting trial prison population
Human Resource Development
Quality service delivery
Private-public partnerships

1. SOCIAL CRIME PREVENTION
This government has consostently committed itself to ensuring that South Africans are free from want and free from fear. Indeed the President. Has, on behalf of government, made a commitment to address the relationship between crime and poverty, we have concretised that symbiotic relationship in our work. Consequently, social crime prevention has become one of the core functions of this cluster. While poverty alleviation is not a substance of the Departments in this Cluster, it has a responsibility to ensure that South African citizens can conduct their daily lives free from fear and want and in dignity. Concurrently, we also have to inculcate such values as respect for human life and dignity, and respect for the rule of law.

The focus of our Cluster is social crime prevention pilot projects, as announced by the President in June 1999. The President has continually made reference to the relationship between poverty and crime.

After a series of visits to some of the strife torn areas, the cluster came to the firm conclusion that unless we urgently and seriously tackle the issue of endemic poverty; the fight against crime would not be won. In line with this, government has adopted an Urban Renewal Programme, which is a multi-faceted approach to deal with problems in high-density poverty riddled urban areas. An approach has been adopted where poverty alleviation programmes are conducted in close co-operation with the social cluster as part and parcel of our fight against crime. This cluster is central in the delivery of programmes which have a variety of pilot projects in high-density crime areas, such as Katlehong (in Gauteng), Mitchell's Plain, (in the Western Cape), Tsolo (in the Eastern Cape), Inanda (in KwaZulu-Natal), Thabong (in the Free State), Mafikeng (in the North West), Galeshewe (in the Northern Cape) Thohoyandou (in the Northern Province) and KaNyamazane (in Mpumalanga).

These pile of projects which were announced by the President in June have begun to bear fruit. Mitchells Plain for instance a pilot project quite close by is one of our successes. Together with donor money we have been able to launch a crime awareness poster campaign; put up a savers school campaign where reservists, neighbourhood watch and teachers form a scholar patrol unit; a missing person project is also been put up; a family court have been set up - to be open shortly; repair work has been done in the Magistrates Court to tighten security; cells have been upgraded and all this is done in conjunction with other projects from the Mayors and Councilors Programmes.

Alongside the delivery of essential services from Health, Water Affairs and Public Works, this cluster ensures that there is high visibility of police, frequent patrols, the development of a safe environment at schools, cordon and search operations based on an intelligence. This will ensure that the fight against crime also addresses its root causes as a pre-requisite for lasting peace and stability.

Mitchells Plain is a model pilot project, which is been replicated in each of these high-density crime areas mentioned earlier.

A comprehensive plan developed by an inter-departmental task team representing national, provincial and local government will be presented to cabinet shortly. This plan will be implemented in the first semester of 2000, by this time we should be able to measure our successes in these areas countrywide.

2. PROSECUTION LED AND INTELLIGENCE DRIVEN INVESTIGATIONS
Prosecution-led and intelligence-driven investigations are a key element in the fight against crime and corruption. All prosecutions are being brought into line with the national strategy concerning crime and crime prevention. The legislative framework for the Directorate for Special Operations (Scorpions) is nearing finalisation and will be tabled in Parliament later this month.

The creation of this unit gives effect to the cluster's determination to increase national conviction rates through prosecution led investigations. This unit will direct its energies at priority crimes including vehicle hijacking, syndicated drug and arms dealing, transnational crimes, money laundering and corruption. Cases are given priority according to clear guidelines, and the resources and services of several Departments are being brought together where required, in a structured manner.

The Intelligence Services will be pivotal to combating crime at its source. Improved methods of intelligence gathering and closer co-operation between the intelligence arms of State, the SAPS, Scorpions, customs and immigration services will contribute to significantly improved investigations which in turn will impact on the quality of prosecutions and increase public confidence in our systems.

To ensure more effective intelligence capacity, the cluster has agreed that the consolidation of signal intelligence capacity is a priority for the year 2000. The Ministry for Intelligence Services will spearhead the setting up of the national communication centre during the course of this year. This will give us a crucial weapon in out fight against crime.

3. MORE EFFECTIVE BORDER CONTROL
This is a very important problem facing the cluster. Porous Borders make for very inefficient internal crime prevention systems. Recognising the enormity of the problem the ministers of Home Affairs and Defence conducted a tour of one of our most problematic borders ie Lebombo and Oshoek in December. A tighter system is now being worked on in terms of a co-ordinated strategy, involving all Departments in the Cluster.

The illegal alien problem and cross border crime originates to some extent from the border control or the lack of thereof. The Department has as one of its priorities the upgrading of this facet. It is involved with the other relevant Departments in the border control context and through NIDS in major efforts in respect of upgrading ports of entry, training combating corruption and streamlining of procedures.

Furthermore, the Department of Home Affairs is committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are attended to, as the impression of xenophobia amongst South Africans at grass roots level, is largely caused by a perception of inadequacy on the side of the state to deal with this problem.

Crossborder crimes are a very difficult to deal with, as these involve beuracratic processes and bilateral agreements with other countries. However the cluster feels that unless this matter in tacked immediately we will not get to the bottom of drug smuggling, smuggling on contraband goods, export of hijacked vehicles, smuggling of illegal immigrants - who are in tern exploited by unscrupulous persons, and the smuggling of illegal arms. Last year after careful consideration of the unfettered access of aircraft in and out of our country without the clearance from immigration and customs officials and the dangers that this has for our country and our sovereign integrity, it was decided that the number of international airports would be limited to eight.

The Department of Home Affairs has already held discussions with various state Departments and institutions like Defence, National Intelligence Agency and South African Police Services, with a view of having a co-ordinated border control strategy. While numerous joint projects have already been undertaken, a national co-ordinated strategy will immeasurably assist in the continuing efforts of combating corruption, the illegal crossing of persons and goods, and in the upgrading of and the streamlining procedures at points of entry.

4. ALTERNATIVE CONTAINMENT AND DIVERSION
As a result of a visit to several prisons by the cluster Ministers, overcrowding in prisons became a serious concern. The visits highlighted that our prisons have an overpopulation of 61.4%, a third of which comprise awaiting trial prisoners. These also indicated the implications of this for the national budget; the successful rehabilitation of prisoners, and for the household income of the families of the incarcerated.

The cluster is convinced that the division of large numbers of prisoners into smaller clusters in order to aid rehabilitation and to prevent escapes must be considered. Diversion is also needed; before and after the incarceration of criminals.

It therefore requires clear decisions before even going to trial on whether imprisonment is required, or whether the state should ask for an alternative sentencing. Making alternative provisions for prisoners, who are not convicted of serious charges, will go also a long way towards revolving this issue.

The Justice Department has put out a tender on Court Process Project which is aimed at automating backdated systems and at improving efficiency in handling cases i.e.
* addressing delays in the finalisation of cases
* reducing the number of awaiting trial prisoners
* increasing court hours to reduce backlogs.

To partly address the problem of overcrowding the department is working towards introducing electronic monitoring of offenders placed under community corrections. This method is more cost effective than imprisonment and increases capacity to accommodate offenders in the community corrections. A consultant to develop specifications for a device suitable for South African conditions has been appointed. The consultant will start work towards the middle of the month. Later in the year a consortium will be appointed to manufacture the device and the system is to be operational during the first half of 2001.

5. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Government has already earmarked this year as the year of accelerated human resource development within the public service. We have put this as one of our top priorities as this Cluster. The core of our Human Resource Development is the continued transformation of the departments. The thrust of our resource development programmes is the development of an accessible, efficient, professional and user friendly service.

Departments have had to review their training requirements and put in place systems that will ensure that our judges, prosecutors, police, immigration and intelligence officers and prison staff are enhanced for them to adequately deal with the tasks ahead of them. The most intensive training programme within the cluster is that of the Department of Justice which has now been made compulsory for all prosecutors, a diploma course has been designed for interpretors, a Judicial Education to cater for all judges and magistrates.

To close existing gaps and to ensure the cohesion of the criminal justice system, a joint training programme for both prosecutors and investigating officers has been undertaken. Within the Police Services, increased attention will be given to the training of intelligence and investigating officers dealing with priority crimes.

Human rights training will continue throughout our various departments to ensure at all times we are guided by a human rights ethos. In Correctional and Immigration Services, the Human Rights Commission has been training the personnel in these departments.

The lynchpin of the Human Resource Development strategy is the continued transformation of the security services, which will give effect to Constitutional imperatives, national legislation and executive orders. The focal point of human resource development will be the accelerated training of members of previously disadvantaged communities.

Additionally, a number of training programmes are set to be launched this year. Training assistance on an interdepartmental basis is rendered to the Detective and Intelligence Academy on a regular basis by representatives of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Justice College, NIA, academics from various universities and the private sector. These cources are offered to personnel from SAPS, NIA, SASS, SANDF and the Department of Justice, these cources will be upgraded to include personnel from Correctional Services in various specialised courses and special course will be developed to cater for the security needs of the Department of Home Affairs, whose anti-corruption unit has the task to rid the Department of rogue and unscrupulous elements. Members of the Scorpions are also going to be trained in the establishment before they go to the FBI and Scotland Yard for further training during this year.

Further, the USA/SA Binational Justice and Anti-Crime Committee has established an interdepartmental training Committee to organise and execute training assistance. Represented in this Committee is the NDPP, Justice Training, SAPS, NIA, SASS, ICD, SARS, Home Affairs, Correctional Services and NIDS Border Control.

The cluster will encourage staff members to become engaged in both functional and academic training. The former equips personnel in a specific post to effectively perform their duties and to facilitate training for personnel to acquire functional skills. This involved a total of 15 913 staff in 1999. Academic training equips members with skills in various fields, which may not necessarily relate directly with their current posts. Towards this goal the DCS offers bursaries and last year 237 bursaries were awarded and the figure currently stands at 250 so far in 2000.

A regional initiative toward the establishment of a training school for immigration officers is being pursued and this could be established this year.

In accordance with the policy articulated by the President in his State of the Nation address to Parliament on the 4th of February 2000, the cluster will embark on large scale reengineering and realignment programmes. Evaluating and establishing the correct number quality and capacity of public servants in the cluster is a prerequisite for the improvement of overall service delivery. To this end, the Department of Defence will be right sizing. This process will be guided by a skills audit of those affected by the right sizing to redeploy them in accordance with their skills to the SAPS, immigration and customs and the intelligence services.

6. QUALITY SERVICE DELIVERY
Service delivery, as a national priority, cuts across all institutions of State, and specifically, informs each of the priority areas identified by the Cluster. The maxim that more can be done, more needs to be done provide the thrust of accelerated delivery.

Specific aspects of such service delivery are to be found in each of the priority areas being described here, and will therefore be highlighted in this context. Effective service delivery also requires a high amount of co-ordination between responsible Departments.

To improve co-ordination of all security organs:

* The Cluster has set up a Steering Committee of Directors-General to ensure co-ordinated planning and effective service delivery
* The National Operational Co-ordinating Committee was refined to improve communication and co-operation between all security departments

The Department of Home Affairs was used as a pilot project for the Batho Pele policy. The successes of this pilot scheme will be replicated by the other segments of the cluster. As part of the policy Home Affairs has invited the Public Service Commission to assist in a complete overhaul of the present structure of the department to ensure that the Department is geared toward maximum delivery of efficient, professional and people centered services.

Improved service delivery will be attained in the following manner:
* Upgrading of courts, including accommodation and infrastructure in previously disadvantaged areas.
* The improvement of victim support services by the provision of witness waiting rooms in court and rooms for child witnesses to give evidence by means of closed circuit television
* The development, together with all role players, of the victim Charter. The finalisation and dissemination of the Charter will promote the rights of the victims.

Extensive computerisation programmes in both the SAPS and Correctional Services aimed at achieving uniformity of systems within the cluster is expected to impact extremely positively on overall service delivery.

The Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) will play a crucial role with border control. As an integral component of HANIS the Department of Home Affairs will replace it's present fingerprint manual identification system with an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS). The AFIS is aimed at reducing the number of duplicated finger print records that are most commonly found with the manual system. Provision will be made on AFIS for capturing the fingerprints of all repatriated persons, refugees and contract workers. It is expected that the accuracy of the AFIS will be higher than that of the manual system. Subsequently, law enforcement officers will more easily exercise border control.

7. PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS
Private sector partnerships are another way of ensuring effective service delivery. The member departments of the Cluster have been involved in various initiatives aimed at cooperative governance and enhanced service delivery. In the year to come, some critical partnerships will be established with the private sector, which will strengthen the public sector's hand in fighting crime and corruption.

This includes
* the strengthening of Community Police Forums in order to strengthen the interaction with the public
* Partnerships with private sector institutions such as banks to combat Border control financial crimes.

The Department of Correctional Services will, during 2000, embark upon the Asset Procurement and Operating System Programme. Two consortiums won 25-year concession contracts to design, construct and operate 2 state of the art prisons in Bloemfontein and Louis Trichardt. The consortiums had to demonstrate unambiguously how the would promote economic empowerment and achieve other socio-economic objectives like environment protection.