Policing budget not enough to keep KZN safe as crime rises

THE IFP is concerned about the high rate of crime in the country, as it continues to spread in Kwazulu-natal.

The latest quarterly crime statistics released by Minister of Police Bheki Cele have revealed a country at war with itself.

The IFP is of the opinion that these statistics are not a true reflection of the actual status quo at grass-roots level as most of the cases reported never make it to the courts. Some dockets have reportedly gone missing from the hands of police officers, crime incidents such as rape are never reported if a family member or a close family relative is involved, while women and children are raped by traditional healers promising to help them remove evil spirits and bad omens. Further, we hear about muti killings where traditional healers are alleged to have been involved in using human body parts to make muti.

This means crime doesn’t happen in isolation. It is created and determined by the surrounding society. The social ills have negatively impacted the maintaining of law and order and it calls for urgent intervention from stakeholders such as amakhosi, izinduna, onomehlo (maidens testers) health workers and social workers to work in collaboration with police officers. The indigenous knowledge system has played a huge role in identifying rape victims, especially in rural areas. A good working relationship between traditional leadership and the police has resulted in successful rape prosecutions, but we believe more needs to be done.

The reported crimes from July 1 to September 20 compared to the same period in 2021 reflect a sharp rise in crime related to murder, rape and assault.

They depict a violent and aggressive picture of the country as whole. The upward trajectory in shoplifting and burglary cases reflects the depth of moral decay in our communities.

But one cannot shy away from the unfortunate incident of the July looting last year and Covid 19, which has left many unemployed with some resorting to crime to survive. These factors have also contributed immensely to the increase in crime.

With Inanda and umlazi townships under the spotlight yet again for being areas with a higher prevalence of crime, it is clear these places require robust and vigorous programmes with immediate effect. We cannot afford to have places which are dubbed war and “nogo” zones. It is therefore, imperative that the government ruminates on the imposition of stringent punitive measures against the perpetrators of

execrable crimes.

We are aware that in the 2022/23 financial year, a significant portion of the department’s budget allocation is directed towards safety promotion activities, such as the Communitiesin-dialogue Programme, mainly in areas where there is instability in the province.

The budget will also finance safety against crime programmes; attend to issues of gender-based and domestic violence; promote police relations with communities, as well as the maintenance and support of community safety structures, such as Community Safety Forums and Community Policing Forums. Further, it will fund the monitoring and evaluation of the functionality of police stations, the monitoring of SAPS specialised units and the investigation of service delivery complaints received against SAPS.

Considering all of the above, serious questions must be asked: Is the department achieving its goals or is it just a futile exercise? How effective are the monitoring systems in place to gauge the success of such programmes?

Answers to these questions are a yardstick in measuring the successes and the failures of the department.

As the IFP, we have been raising our concern about the budget allocated to the KZN Department of Community Safety and Liaison. We are of the view that the budget of R236.9 million for 2022/23 is not adequate to meet the demands that this department faces.

This budget must at least be similar to the Health and Education departments’ budgets, if keeping the province safe and eradicating crime is a priority for the current government.

The men in blue alone cannot perform magic and single-handedly deal with crime, but all the stakeholders should be active in crime-combating strategies.

Sometimes police are blamed for non-visibility, much of which is attributed to a shortage of personnel and vehicles. Recently Kwazulu-natal Commissioner, General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held a consultative meeting with stakeholders from the southern parts of ethekwini where he learnt that health-care workers were hijacked when attending to rape and GBV cases, and this exercise required an escort from police who also suffer from the shortage of resources. We hope Minister Cele will attend to this problem before the end of this term as per his promise.

The IFP is confident that come 2024, if we are trusted by the people of KZN with their votes, they will witness a change in law and order.

It is of great concern that politicians have a tendency of interfering with police work by imposing strategies intended to curb crime to them.

I’m of the opinion that we must allow police to apply their expertise as they are well-trained in the field of policing. The politicians can only guide and monitor the progress.

As the IFP spokesperson for Community Safety and Liaison, I have received a number of complaints from senior and experienced police officers, some of whom have resorted to leaving the police service even before their retirement age because politicians tend to impose their thinking on them, instead of working hand in hand with them. It is fair to state that there is absolutely no substitute for experience.

We can’t afford to have Inanda township brought into the spotlight for the wrong reasons in the two consecutive crime statistics reports. Somebody is not performing his or her duties.

We need to bring confidence to our people, more especially in townships like umlazi which were developed by former leader of the IFP Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi by the construction of the state-of-the-art Mangosuthu University of Technology, Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital, development and training centres and many schools.

Keeping Kwazulu-natal safe is non-negotiable. Like other provinces, we propose that this department should be granted a standalone budget. This will assist in employing more investigators in order to reduce caseloads allocated to each investigator and to equip the Intelligence Unit with necessary resources which will assist in preventing the killing of Amakhosi and mass killings. This will definitely yield positive results and successful prosecutions.