Speech delivered by Dan Plato, Western Cape Minister of Community Safety Community Safety Bill - Debate

Speaker. Today is a day we have waited some time for. There has been a lot of hard work, long hours, consultations with hundreds of people, and road trips to all corners of this province to ensure we had as much public participation as possible.

Speaker, it brings me great joy that today is the day we get to debate the much needed Western Cape Community Safety Bill.

One would think that the reason for such a bill is obvious, but it appears that no matter how much we explain the value of this bill a minority just refuse to listen.

Speaker, none is so blind as he that will not see.

The history of policing under apartheid was one of brutality, it was a history of a profound lack of accountability and it was a history of a police force which operated in an environment of secrecy. At the dawn of our democracy, all of those speaking on the side of transparency and accountability in the Constitutional Assembly, wanted to create a proper framework of accountability by the police to the communities that they served.

There was much debate about where this accountability could most effectively be monitored. The argument advanced by those visionary individuals in that Assembly was that South Africa is a big country, with many towns and cities and many communities that have different needs and priorities and therefore the best way to achieve the effectiveness of the police would be if the service were monitored on the level of the provinces.

Therefore, section 206, which gives provinces powers of oversight over the police was purposefully included in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and accountability by the Provincial Police Commissioner to the Provincial Executive was built into our Constitution. This was done precisely to ensure accountability and to safeguard against a return to a police service that acted with complete impunity.

But speaker, that is precisely where we are arriving now. Let me paint you a picture...

The year is 2005. A once effective specialized drug and gang police unit, a unit that operated throughout the country, is disbanded.

The year is 2008. The Scorpions, praised by many for their thorough investigations and zero tolerance of crime and corruption approach is disbanded. Perhaps they were too effective. After the damage was done, a few years later, in 2011 the South African Constitutional Court ruled that the legislation that disbanded the Scorpions and replaced them with the Hawks was not consistent with the Constitution.

The year is 2009. The police commissioner, Bheki Cele, says that police must ‘shoot to kill' and not worry about "what happens after that".

A local newspaper at the time pointed out and I quote:

"Cele's philosophy on shooting before being shot, which he has preached in KwaZulu-Natal during his time as MEC for community safety, has led to the province having more deaths in police custody under review than any other province during the past year."

The year is 2011. There is a service delivery protest in Ficksburg. An unarmed protestor is shot and killed at point blank range. Six officers are arrested in connection with the man's death. That man was Andries Tatane, one name among many that we should know.

The year is 2012. Vigilante violence, mob justice, petrol and tyres, necklacing - this collapse of faith in the justice system becomes a regular front page for newspapers. Civil Society go to all spheres of national government, crying for help, telling anyone who will listen that there is a complete breakdown in the relationship with the SAPS. After numerous avenues are exhausted, the Premier of the Western Cape appoints a commission of inquiry. The national government takes us to court to stop the commission, that court battle is still ongoing.

In the same year, we have the Marikana massacre. A tragedy where many lives were lost, on both sides. 

The year is 2013.  A man is tied behind the back of a police van, dragged through the streets and beaten to death in a police cell. That man's name was Mido Macia.

Today, cases of police brutality have increased by more than 300% in the past decade. 

This does not paint the picture of a police service that was envisioned for a democratic South Africa.

Speaker, we do not, however, need to accept this as the status quo. The drafters of our constitution foresaw the important role that provinces would play in oversight over the police service.

Today is a historic day because for the first time in our democracy we are legislating on provincial oversight over the police. Today we are making history.

The Constitution clearly states that "each province is entitled to monitor police conduct; oversee the efficiency and effectiveness of the police service including receiving reports on the police service; to promote good relations between the police and the community..." (Section 206(3) of the Constitution). 

The Constitution further states that in order for provinces to carry out these functions, "a province may investigate or appoint a commission of inquiry into any complaints of police inefficiency or a breakdown in relations between police and any community".

What the Bill seeks to do is to regulate the activities of the Province, setting out how we should be performing oversight over the police (both SAPS and municipal police) in order to give effect to these constitutional provisions - to clarify what oversight means in a practical way and how the Western Cape Government should be fulfilling this oversight responsibility. 

Oversight remains critical to our efforts to increase safety to all the people of the Western Cape as effective oversight can act as a catalyst for improved policing and thereby make the province safer for our communities. This is why we are asking SAPS and municipal police for reports regarding their efficiency and service delivery in order to monitor and assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the police service. We want to know, for example: how many issued firearms were lost and stolen and how many arrests resulted in a prosecution and of those, how many convictions were secured. 

The Bill also proposes the creation of a Provincial Police Ombudsman to investigate complaints about police inefficiency and a breakdown in relations between the community and police.

Safety concerns differ from province to province and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to crime. In fact, section 206 (2) of the Constitution explicitly   provides for differing policing policies for different provinces, simply because each province has different needs when it comes to safety.  With this in mind, we are trying to improve the identification of the policing needs and priorities of our communities which must be taken into account by the Minister of Police in the determination of national policing policy. We want to make this process not only more effective and holistic, but also more transparent by requiring that it be debated regularly in a multi-party forum in the Provincial Parliament.

Importantly, this Bill seeks to develop and introduce provincial police oversight models and to promote good relations between the police and communities.

It seems that the National Government clearly recognises the importance of oversight, which is why the ICD was strengthened and transformed into the IPID with additional powers and strengths and the Civilian Secretariat Act was promulgated.  Both of these draw their powers from Chapter 11 of the Constitution. The Community Safety Bill draws its powers from the very same chapter.

By way of background, the Western Cape Cabinet granted, in principle, approval for the preparation of draft legislation in respect of provincial oversight of the police in terms of the Constitution in May 2010.

After the main parts of the Bill were drafted, expert workshops were facilitated by the Department of Community Safety involving various constitutional and other experts.

On 7 December 2011, Cabinet approved the draft Community Safety Bill.  On 16 February 2012, the draft Bill was published, in three official languages, for public comment and was forwarded to various role-players including the South African Police Service and the National Secretariat of Police. An extended period of three months (opposed to the norm of one month) was allotted for interested parties to comment on the draft Bill with the due date set on 15 May 2012.

Before the Bill was introduced into the Provincial Parliament various consultation workshops were held. The national government and local government were also asked to comment on the Bill. We then held consultation workshops in Caledon, Worcester, Vredenburg, George and Beaufort West as well as with all 13 Provincial Government Departments and the Provincial CPF Board.

We had over 600 people attending these sessions, of which the majority were SAPS officers, municipal officials and office bearers as well as CPF members. We also received written comment in excess of 300 pages from civil society organisations and NGOs. The Bill was then re-drafted to include comments received and was tabled in the Provincial Parliament late last year. 

Speaker, I want to be clear that the intention of this Bill is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the police. The intention is to fix the future, for a safer Western Cape for all. 

Issued by the Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, March 27 2013

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