Keynote address by Eastern Cape MEC for Transport

Keynote address by Eastern Cape MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison, at the Community police forum board strategic planning session, Blue Lagoon Hotel, East London

8 April 2010

It is indeed a great honour for me to address this session, which seeks to maximise the participation of our communities in the fight against crime in the Eastern Cape.

Before I proceed with my address, let me first take this opportunity to congratulate this community police forum (CPF) provincial board for its election and I hope that you will continue to make this province a shining example throughout the country as we have always had active CPF structures in all our police stations and constantly proved that working together we can do more to combat crime in our society.

It is gratifying to observe 40% representation of women in the new executive, which demonstrates your commitment to achieve the 50 to 50 gender parity in the near future in order to empower women and promote their participation in CPF structures. You are now meeting at a time when as government, working together with our people, we are expected to:

* intensify the fight against crime and corruption in our society
* build cohesive, caring and sustainable communities

We are all, therefore, expected to accelerate our pace, work harder and smarter in order to realise these targets, which derive from the ANC's manifesto and our provincial strategic framework.

Through his State of the Nation Address, President Jacob Zuma, has declared 2010 as the year of action and today I call upon you develop a strategic plan that is going to be responsive to this call and show that the "people shall govern". Such a plan needs to reposition our CPFs to become agents of change and vanguard for social transformation through ensuring that our communities are actively involved in:

* winning back our streets and villages from the hands of criminals
* transforming our schools and hospitals into places of safety
* ensuring that the police are accountable to the people they serve
* ensuring that our people receive a quality service from our police stations.

For many years, the Department of Safety and Liaison has been unable to provide a solution to the challenge of lack of resources for our CPF structures.

Today I am proud to announce that for the first time, the Department of Safety and Liaison has allocated R20 000 to each of the 27 cluster community police boards and R30 000 to the provincial community police board. These funds will be used for the day to day running and administration costs of these structures.

I would like to call upon all of you to spend this money wisely and understand that you must account for government funds. This cash injection will enable you to constantly reach out to our communities and listen to the people, understand their concerns and practically take up issues they raise regarding crime and prevention thereof.

The plan that is going to emerge out of this session needs to be in line with our provincial crime prevention strategy (PCPS), which is the overarching plan of government in dealing with crime and its causes in the Eastern Cape in a coordinated and integrated fashion.

When we host the Crime Prevention Indaba in October 2010, the CPF provincial board must be able to account for its own programmes and contribution in the implementation of the PCPS. This session must also assist us in assessing the effectiveness of the PCPS through analysing the impact of our crime prevention campaigns and indicate areas that need improvement.

You must start identifying your role in raising awareness about human trafficking, which is gradually becoming a silent killer in the province and this is perpetuated by the people's limited understanding of the nature of this crime.

According to the United Nations, the definition of human trafficking is:
"Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

"Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs".

When analysing these cases the victims are mostly children and in some incidents, where the mothers of these children are accomplices forcing their children to have sexual intercourse with these adult men. We call upon our communities to strengthen our families and parenting skills so as to ensure that we all take responsibility for our children.

Human trafficking incidents are unfolding in various parts of the Province with hotspots being in East London, Port Elizabeth, Qumbu, Queenstown, Indwe, King Williamstown and Lusikisiki. We have established an integrated Task Team to look at strategies in dealing with this inhumane crime.

We are further required to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the South African Police Service (SAPS) rural safety strategy throughout the province through embarking on crime prevention campaigns. This is in support of government's rural development programme.

Before I conclude my address, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all CPF structures in the Province for their assistance in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Today we have 500 safety patrollers that are being trained in order to assist with security at the six public viewing areas within the province. On completion of their 10 day training course, these safety patrollers will be eligible to qualify as security officers.

In conclusion, I would like to commend our community safety section for facilitating this session together with the SAPS management and all community members, who have sacrificed their time to be with us in this meeting. Let us continue to work together to make the Eastern Cape province a place to live, work and invest in.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
8 April 2010