South Africa’s crime problem is at the root of the government’s drive for inclusive growth in an effort to address the causal factors of poverty, unemployment and inequality, said President Cyril Ramaphosa during the 2023 State of the Nation Address, promising that work is being done to fight crime.
“We are strengthening the South African Police Service to prevent crime. This includes putting more police on the streets and setting up specialised teams that will focus on specific types of crime. Last year, we undertook to recruit 12 000 new police personnel. Since then, more than 10 000 new recruits graduated from police academies and a further 10 000 will be recruited and trained this year,” President Ramaphosa said.
The crime fighting plan announced by the President is anchored on capacitating specialist units trained in specific area of concern. “The specialised police teams that are working on tackling crimes like kidnapping, extortion and illegal mining have had several breakthroughs, arresting dozens of suspects and achieving several convictions,” the President emphasised.
The President also highlighted that the fight against crime must be sophisticated, as criminals are always looking at ways to improve. As such, the 10111 call centre operation has been identified as the nerve centre of effective crime fighting. In recent months, some people have pointed out that contact centre’s operations are inadequate due to understaffing.
“We will use our competitiveness in call centre operations to support the proper functioning of the 10111 help line, partnering with the private sector. This is to ensure that when people call the police, their calls are answered and their emergencies are attended to. We will also use data driven methods in a more sophisticated way to identify and target crime hotspots,” the President said.
But the fight against crime is dependent on the entire justice value chain functioning optimally. To ensure this, the President promised further enhancement of capacity at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to drive prosecutions and bring about justice. “Significantly more funding will be made available in this budget for the police, the NPA and the Special Investigating Unit,” the President promised.
Sexual violence remains a dark stain that continues to affect South Africa despite various efforts to stop the scourge. However, some progress has been noted. “One of the great successes of our effort to fight gender-based violence is the extent to which social partners have rallied around the National Strategic Plan. In January last year, I signed into law three key pieces of legislation that afford greater protection to survivors of gender-based violence and ensure that perpetrators are no longer able to use legislative loopholes to evade prosecution. We continue to improve the accessibility and functioning of Sexual Offences Courts and expand the network of Thuthuzela Care Centres,” said President Ramaphosa.
Members of Parliament will next week have an opportunity to debate the SONA speech during a joint sitting.
Arrange a tour