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Speech at the SAPS medal parade
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Safety Liaison and Transport

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EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
 SPEED DELIVERED BY THE MEC NEER AT THE SAPS MEDAL PARADE
AT UMTATA POLICE COLLEGE
 ON 30 JANUARY 2001

Deputy Provincial Commissioner
 Area Board and CPF Members
 The Acting-Area Commissioner
 Police Management of the Area
 Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me first to please wish you all a happy and a prosperous year. Another New Year has started. It is important at this time of the year 
that we take a pause and look back in the past year and observe whether we did achieve what we set out to do during that year. What can we 
do with what we could not achieve or finish and make our new resolutions for this year.

This making of new commitments is very relevant in terms of todays occasion. Remember, we have come here to honor those members of the 
Service who have finished 10 and 20 years of faithful service to our communities. These men and women have for such long periods committed 
themselves to the provision of safety & security to our communities.

Whilst honoring them, in appreciation of the years they have spent in the Service, they must share with us their experiences. Through those 
experiences we shall together have to draw lessons that will help us to build and strengthen the Police Service.

Some members have a service dating back to the bicycle, baton, and had handcuffs as the only weapons to fight crime with. Some have served 
without any educational opportunities and are now victims of the promotion policy. Some have managed and others benefited. The department 
is looking at the above matter.

Amongst the lessons we could draw from their experiences, I wish they could give guidance as to how they were able to avoid

what other policemen and women, apparently could not avoid, the terrible act of killing ones wife and children and then themselves. The 
rate of these killings and suicides within the service is perturbing.

In your ten and twenty years of Service you probably lost a number of your colleagues in this terrible manner. It could be that at some 
point you were once confronted by such situations. Please come forward and help the Service find solutions to this kind way of resolving 
problems.

It is difficult for me to understand what makes a person reach a point of not only taking ones life but also of his whole family. What 
kind of problems are these? Is the support provided by the Department not enough? What about friends and family? Are they not approachable 
on such problems? Please come forward and share ideas with us on how we can do away with this tendency.

Your dedication to the Police Service is well appreciated. The last seven years has not been easy for all of us. A lot of changes in our 
society, in a short space of time, have taken place.

The SAPS, because of our past, has been and continues to be one of those areas that have to embrace change. The style of policing has 
changed. A new police culture is being evolved. Race is no more a criteria in the provision of a policing service and also in terms of 
upward mobility within the service.

Through all those developments you were there building together with us, a new Police Service. You have not resigned or taken a package. 
Instead you have been positively helping to assist in the establishment of a new Police Service. The challenges of uncertainty that tend to 
company change did not frighten you. We thank you for that.

Chairperson, we are, today, all challenged to bring credibility to the Police Service. Many in our communities do not have confidence in 
the police. There are many reasons for this. We need to find solutions and convince the general public that we are there and that we shall 
give them an effective Service.

In the past year I did take note of the fact that the police in this area are beginning to engage the criminals much more effectively than 
in previous years. I am not suggesting we reached satisfactorily levels. There is still a big room for improvement. Umtata has become one 
of the capitals of crime in our Province. This is not good as investors will continue to stay out and therefore no jobs will be created. 
Absence of jobs leads to poverty and hunger and therefore more crime.

Let us perform our duties knowing very well that, we are judged and our performance is measured by the public in accordance with our level 
of service delivery. We should be able to prove the negative perceptions wrong by performing at an extra-ordinary level, in order to retain 
trust and confidence of our people.

As the Honorable, Minister Steve Tshwete put it "fixing the basics to improve service delivery to the public doesnt necessarily require 
sophisticated training, but commitment and innovative managers"

We should manage policing such that corruption and crime is uprooted, both within the SAPS and society in general. Criminal elements are 
targeting members of the SAPS with the intention to make them their partners in crime, at times rob them of their firearms or because of 
the police effective investigative skills try to intimidate and at worst kill them.

The question we need to ask ourselves is how we will reinforce and accelerate service delivery through the new established developmental 
local municipalities. We need to galvanise support from councilors and communities generally, for us to jointly uproot criminals in our 
communities. We have to embark on this program because crime and lawlessness are a deterrent to development

Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, the greatest challenge, in our efforts to fight crime, is to make the concept of community policing 
work. The building of an effective relationship between communities and the police through structures like the Community Police Forum is 
very important. Police alone can not carry this burden of fighting crime. We have to work with the communities and they must work with the 
police.

In terms of the law, the police are tasked by the Police Act to organise Community Police Fora. These structures are in place. The crucial 
question though is, are they effective. Do we give them the necessary respect they deserve? Does every police person in the Province 
consider himself or herself as community policing officers?

We must be careful of putting up structures for the sake of placing them. We have to give these structures the seriousness they deserve. 
Community policing is a viable concept if we want to see effective crime combating. Together we can do it.

Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen let me conclude by appealing to these men and women who are receiving medals today, to continue being examples 
to their colleagues especially juniors. We expect you to share the experience you have gained over the years with your juniors. In that way 
not only will your juniors be empowered, service delivery will be enhanced. Show our people that to become a police person is something one 
can be proud of. The changes that have been brought about by the developments of 1994 are challenges that we need to understand and adjust 
to. Our people expect delivery from us and we must provide it.

Let us all work together for a peaceful crime free society where Love, Prosperity and Peace will reign

I thank you

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