ANNUAL REPORT 2003

 

  1. COMMITTEE: Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security

    1. Chairperson: Mr. ME George
    2. Period from June 1999 to date

      Chairperson’s Overview:

      The year 2003 has not been an easy year for the Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security. The Committee had to grapple with a number of things, viz. passing legislation (especially the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Bill), implementation of legislation (especially the Firearms Control Act), proper handling of the implementation of Resolution 7/2002, farm killings, checking the availability of centres for the survivors of abuse (children and women) and other domestic related violence in all police stations in the country, transformation in the South African Police Service, efficiency in all those entities that relate to the Committee’s scope of oversight responsibility (for example, PSIRA); encouraging police, in our visits to police stations1, to do more in reducing the levels of crime. These visits, together, with many other efforts of this Committee are beginning to pay-off in many ways (see foot note number 1).

      However, there is never enough. The Committee, for instance, still has to deal with the problems of the SAPS in the Eastern Cape. These problems pertain to the manner in which the SAPS management in the Eastern Cape had handled the implementation of Resolution 7/2002. This had been a recommendation of the delegation that visited police stations in the Eastern Cape from the 01 to 02 December 2003.

      Problems in some of the stations in KwaZulu-Natal would also have to receive priority attention, particularly problems of eSikhawini Police Station2. The Committee would make recommendation to the new Committee to make a follow-up on the problems identified in the Committee’s oversight visit to KwaZulu-Natal.

      The Committee had also identified problems in the manner in which Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) is functioning. The Committee observed that PSIRA’s foes emanate from the misinterpretation of the legislation that established it (Private Security Industry Regulation Act, 2001) and the conduct of the Chairperson of the Council that governs the Authority. The Committee would recommend to the new Committee to pay a closer look at PSIRA and take decisive steps to arrest the situation before it gets out of hand.

      I am, however, very happy with the strides the Committee has made during the term in question. All the successes the Committee is beginning to point and look back at proudly are a result of the calibre of Members that composed this Committee, whom it was a marvel to work with. I have always been heartened by the sober and mature way in which Members dealt with issues, irrespective of party-political affiliations. Such was the integrity of the Members of this Committee, whom I was fortunate to work with.

    3. Objectives:

    1. List of entities overseen by Committee:

  1. SUPPORT:

2.1 Control Committee Secretary: Mr Ben Kali

Period from: June 2000 to date

2.2 Committee Secretary:

Period from: July 2001 to date

Committee Assistant:

Period from: Mr. Vido Mfuniselwa

Period from 2000 to date

2.4 Secretary to Chairperson:

Period from: Miss Thenjiwe Khambule

Period from July 2001 to date

2.5 Researcher (Research Unit): Ms. Nadia Levin

Period from 1997 to date

    1. Legal Support: The Committee does not have Legal Advisors assigned to it. For legal opinion, the

Committee relies on the State and Departmental Legal Advisors.

  1. COMPOSITION OF COMMITTEE
  2. MEMBERSHIP:

    Member

    Date Appointed

    (in current Parliament)

    Date Discharged

    African National Congress

    1 Booi, Mr MS

       

    2 Bloem, Mr DV *

       

    3 Dyani, Mr MMZ

       

    4 George, Mr ME

       

    5 Goniwe, Mr TM

     

    13 Sept. 2002

    6 Kgauwe, Mr OJ

       

    7 Mandela, Ms NW *

       

    8 Maserumule, Mr FT*

    13 Sept. 2002

     

    9 Mashimbye, Mr JN *

     

    13 Sept. 2002

    10 Masithela, Mr NH *

     

    13 Sept. 2002

    11 Maziya, Mr AM

       

    12 Mngomezulu, Mr GP *

       

    13 Molebatsi, Ms MA

       

    14 Morobi, Mrs DM

    15 Mudau, Mr NE *

    16 Ndou, Mr RS *

    17 Ngubeni, Mr JM *

    18 Ntuli, Ms J

    13 Sept. 2002

    19 Ratsoma, Ms MM *

    14 Oct. 2002

    20 Sosibo, Ms JE

    21 Sotyu, Mrs MM

    22 Vadi, Mr I *

    23 Van Wyk, Ms A

    24 Zondo, Mr RP

    Democratic Alliance

    1. Botha, Mr AJ*

    2. Gibson, Mr DHM

       

    3. Swart, Adv. PS

    4. Waters, Mr M*

    Inkatha Freedom Party

    1. Ferreira, Mr ET

       

    2. Xulu, Ms. M*

       
         

    New National Party

    1. Geldenhuys, Dr BL *

       

    2. Schippers, Mr J

       
         

    United Democratic Movement

    Maseka, Mr J *

       
         
         
         

    African Christian Democratic Party

    Meshoe, Rev KRJ

       
         

    Freedom Front

    Groenewald, Mr PJ

       
         

    Pan Africanist Congress of Azania

    Pheko, Mr M

       
         

    * Indicates an alternate member

  3. DELIBERATIONS AND COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES (for further information, refer to Minutes)

FIRST TERM

Briefing by the Department on Anti-Terrorism Bill

29 Jan 2003 (Wed)

Briefing by CSIR on the impact of Technology on the levels of crime

19 Feb. 2003 (Wed)

Briefing by the SAPS on the training Curriculum of the SAPS and its relevance – How does it compare with international practice?

28 Feb 2003 (Fri)

Briefing by the Minister on his vision of the year and the department’s tasks ahead

05 March 2003 (Wed)

Briefing on the Budget and Annual Report of the ICD and the tasks ahead

07 March 2003 (Fri)

Briefing by National Commissioner on Logistics and Human Resources in the SAPS (all Provincial Commissioners will also attend)

12 March 2003 (Wed)

Budget Hearings and Strategic Plan of the SAPS: Dept of Safety and Security

19 March 2003 (Wed)

Budget Hearings and Strategic Plan of the SAPS: SAPU

26 March 2003 (Wed)

  • Briefing by the SAPS on the Implementation of the Regulations of the Firearms Control Act
  • Briefing by TSA and Gun Free South Africa on the research done in implementing the Regulations of the Firearms Control Act

02 April 2003 (Wed)

  • Briefing by the Department on: Section 49 of the Criminal Procedures Act; Protocol on the Establishment of Peace and Security Council of the AU; Resolution 7/2002
  • Consideration of the NCOP amendments on the Explosives Bill [B 43B – 2002]

09 April 2003 (Wed)

Briefing by SAPS on the Disbandment and redeployment of Special Units

11 April 2003 (Fri)

Briefing by ISS on the Review of crime & criminal justice performance in 2001/2002

16 April 2003 (Wed)

SECOND TERM

 

Briefing by the Department on Anti-Terrorism Bill

14 May 2003

Consideration of party positions on the SAPS Budget

28 May 2003

Briefing by Minister on the statements made by the National Commissioner; Progress with resolution 7/2002: briefing by saps

04 June 2003

Firearms Control Regulations: Briefing by SAPS; Conventions Against Taking of Hostages and Prevention & Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons

11 June 2003

Firearms Control Act Regulations: Briefing by SAPS

17 June 2003

Public Hearings on Anti-Terrorism Bill [B12-2003]; Accreditation of the Regulations on Firearms Control Act: Adoption

23 June 2003

Public Hearings on Anti-Terrorism Bill [B12-2003]

24 June 2003

Public Hearings on Anti-Terrorism Bill [B12-2003]

25 June 2003

Public Hearings on Anti-Terrorism Bill [B12-2003]

26 June 2003

   

THIRD TERM

Oversight Visit to KZN and Free State

28 July to 01 August 2003

Briefing by the SAPS on the Working Document of the Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

06 August 2003

Briefing by the SAPS on the Working Document of the Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

08 August 2003

Briefing by the SAPS on the involvement of foreigners (foreign nationals) in criminal activities in SA

13 August 2003

Briefing by the Head of the Regulatory Authority on the activities of the Private Security Industries

20 August 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

21 August 2003

Briefing by the SAPS and Dept of Transport on the Safety of Commuters in Trains

27 August 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

28 August 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

29 August 2003

Briefing on Firearms Control Amendments Bill

03 September 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

05 September 2003

  • Briefing by the Minister on the Commissioned Report on Farm Killings
  • Briefing by Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority

10 September 2003

Briefing by the SAPS on the number of firearms in government departments

17 September 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

19 September 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

24 September 2003

CONSTITUENCY PERIOD

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

20 October 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

21 October 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

22 October 2003

Consideration of Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

23 October 2003

FOURTH TERM

Deliberations on Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

11 November 2003

Deliberations on Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

12 November 2003

Formal Deliberations on Anti-Terrorism Bill [12-2003]

13 November 2003

Briefing by the Department on the Draft Regulations of the Firearms Control Act

19 November 2003

  • Presentation of the annual report of SAPS by the National Commissioner
  • Presentation of the Annual report of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority by the Chairperson of the Council

26 November 2003

  1. LEGISLATION DEALT WITH:
  2. Bill No.

    Name

    Public Hearings

    No. of Submissions

    Amendments

    No. of hrs spent

    Report tabled

    B43 - 2002

    Explosives Bill

    N/A (There was no need for Public Hearings as the Committee was just considering the NCOP amendments. Public Hearings for this Bill were held in 2002)

    N/A

    The Bill was reported with amendments

    3

    09 April 2003

    B28 -2003

    Firearms Control Amendment Bill

    N/A

    3

    The Bill was amended

    6

    19 Sept 2003

    B12-2003

    Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Bill

    23 to 26 June 2003

    44

    The Bill was redrafted

    90

    13 Nov 2003

  3. SUMMARY OF NUMBER OF APPEARANCES BEFORE COMMITTEE:

    1. Minister: 3
    2. Deputy Minister: 1

    3. Government Officials: 20
    4. CEOs of Statutory Bodies and Public Entities:

6.3.1 Independent Complaints Directorate: 1

6.3.2 Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority: 2

        1. CSIR: 1

6.4 Any other:

6.4.1 Institute for Security Studies: 1

        1. South African Police Union: 2
        2. Technikon South Africa: 1
        3. Gun Free South Africa: 1

  1. CONFERENCES AND OTHER OFFICIAL BUSINESS ATTENDED:
  2. Subject Matter

    Date

    Names of attendants

    Venue

    No. of days spent

    Southern Africa Counter-terrorism Conference

    24 to 26 March 2003

    Mr ME George

    Ms. MA Molebatsi

    Ms. A Van Wyk

    Botswana

    3

     

  3. OTHER MATTERS DEALT WITH:
    1. PUBLIC HEARINGS ON MATTERS OTHER THAN LEGISLATION: NONE

    b. INTERNATIONAL VISITS: NONE

  4. INTERNATIONAL PROTOCOLS AND AGREEMENTS
  5. Subject

    Date of meeting

    Date Report Tabled

    No. of hours spent

    Date and type of referral

    International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages

    11 June 2003

    12 June 2003

    1.5

    Referred in terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution

    Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons

    11 June 2003

    12 June 2003

    1.5

    Referred in terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution

  6. OVERSIGHT

    1. ANNUAL REPORTS OF ENTITIES

Two annual reports had been submitted and presented. One is the annual report of Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority. The other is the annual report of the South African Police Service. (For more information on the dates of the presentation of these two reports, please refer to item number 4 of this report).

  1. VISITS
    1. NATIONAL VISITS:

    From the 28th July to 01 August 2003, the Portfolio Committee visited police stations in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. The purpose of these visits was to ascertain the operations of various police stations in those provinces. Among other things, the Committee looked at the following: Distribution of police personnel; farm killings; police killings; community policing forums; acts of terrorism; vigilantism; infrastructure; abuse of women and children; corruption in the SAPS; successes and problems in the implementation of the Firearms Control Act. To this effect, a report was compiled and recommendations were made. Those recommendations were discussed with the SAPS management. The Portfolio Committee is going to make a follow-up on the implementation of those recommendations.

    Again on the 1st up to the 4th of December 2003, the Portfolio Committee visited Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Provinces. The purpose of those visits was to investigate, after having received numerous complaints from interested parties, whether there was adequate consultation with all the relevant stakeholders in the handling and implementation of the Resolution 7/2002, and whether due consideration was given to family circumstances of police members who, as a result of Resolution 7/2002, were then deployed to other areas, which were far away from their homes and their immediate family members. The Committee also looked at the manner in which complaints by the affected police members were handled and the decisions taken on individual cases in addressing those complaints.

    After these visits, a report was compiled and the implementation of the recommendations in those reports would be followed-up with the relevant stakeholders in 2004.

  2. SPONSORSHIP: NONE
  3.  

  4. LEGACY REPORT (OUTSTANDING WORK FOR HANDING OVER TO THE NEW COMMITTEE)

The following issues are what the current Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security sees as needing urgent attention by the new Committee, which will be taking over after 2004 General Elections:

(i) The Status of the Secretariat for Safety and Security. The need for a Civilian Secretariat for Safety and Security was identified by the then Minister for Safety and Security in 1994. The key objectives of the envisaged structure were to provide government with civilian policy management capacity, independent of the vested and occupational interest of the Police Service. This culminated in the inclusion of a chapter defining the role of the Secretariat in the South African Police Services Act of 1995. The Secretariat is also provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996).

However, there had been some doubts in the effectiveness of this structure in fulfilling its mandate and the vision for which it was established. The problem, it has been argued, may not necessarily be with the structure itself, but could be with the personalities involved or the current SAPS Act of 1995 that does not give the Secretary of the Police Secretariat equal status with the National Commissioner of the SAPS. Irrespective of who or what to blame, the Committee had been unanimous that there is a problem in the manner in which the Secretariat for Safety and Security operates and that needs urgent political intervention. This is, therefore, one of the key challenges of the new Committee.

(ii) The Review of the SAPS Act of 1995. Ideally, an Act of Parliament is reviewed every five years to see if it is still in keeping with the developments in the country (that is, to check if the Act is still relevant or not). The Committee had already started with the process of reviewing the Act in 2001. It was found that the Act does not only need to be amended, but to be changed completely, starting with its name. The name of the Act itself (SAPS Act) is misplaced, as it gives the impression that the Department of Safety and Security is only about South African Police Service. The Act, therefore, has to be accommodative of other entities in the Department, like Independent Complaints Directorate and Secretariat for Safety and Security, for example. It is, therefore, recommended that the new Committee, together with the Department, should start a process to put together a legislation that would govern Safety and Security as a whole. It is hoped that through that new Act members of the SAPS would be taken out of the Public Service Act.

(iii) Transformation in the key departments in the SAPS. Throughout its oversight visits to provinces, the current Committee has found that departments like Finance, Logistics, Support Services, etc. are still dominated by white males. The new Committee will have to push for the transformation of these key departments in the SAPS and others that may not have been mentioned here.

(iv) Problems raised in the Eastern Cape relating to the implementation of Resolution 7/2002 (see Eastern Cape Oversight report, dated 01 to 04 December 2003). A follow-up is recommended to see if the recommendations made by the current Committee had been implemented.

(v) The Committee also recommends that the new Committee should visit KwaZulu-Natal to see if progress had been made in implementing the recommendations made during the oversight visit to that Province (see KZN report, dated 28 July to 01 August 2003). A special attention should be paid to Esikhawini Police Station, which had numerous problems, including a high murder rate, at the time of the Committee’s visit.

(vi) A follow-up is also needed in the oversight visit to Gauteng (see a Gauteng report, dated 02 to 04 December 2003). In its report, the Committee made a specific recommendation that those members in Soweto who are functionally illiterate should be spread around the province, like it happened in Khayelitsha with Kits Constables (for more information on this, see 16.2 of the Gauteng Oversight Report).

(vii) The Committee recommends that a diligent monitoring of the implementation of the Firearms Control Act and its Regulations should be high on the new Committee’s agenda.

(ix) Lastly, the Committee would like to recommend to the new Committee that they take a closer look on the operations of Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA). The Committee has not been happy with the way PSIRA goes about its business and had been continually perturbed by the reports it received from the public about the operations of PSIRA. Most deplorable of all had been the conduct of, and the misinterpretation of the Act that established PSIRA (Security Industry Regulatory Authority of 2001) by, PSIRA’s Chairperson in his first and only visit to the Committee. As a result of this, the Committee Chairperson at the time, Mr Mluleki George, had to call off the meeting.

All these are the things that the new Committee will inherit. It is not all doom and gloom, as it may appear to be, but challenges that, if handled properly (which I do not have a doubt they will be) would take the work that the current Committee has already done to the highest levels.

13. FORMAL ADOPTION OF ANNUAL REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE:

Annual Report of the Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security, having been put to the Committee, was adopted by the Committee on

………………………………….. …………………………………

Mr ME George, MP DATE

COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON

…………………………………… …………………...…………….

Mr N Lala DATE

COMMITTEE SECRETARY

…………………………………… …………………………………

Mr B Kali DATE

CONTROL COMMITTEE SECRETARY