Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster Briefing

Briefing

13 May 2008

The Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqukula briefed the media on the progress made by the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster in combating crime. He outlined the progress made on revamping the Criminal Justice System then emphasized the link between the police, prosecution systems, correctional and rehabilitation systems. He looked at research on why SA has such high levels of violence and why crime often is often accompanied by such excessive violence.

He reported on the status of the fight against organised crime and about realigning the state entities involved in combating it. The cluster had considered the Khampepe Commission Report. They then approached Cabinet, who approved the General Law Amendment Bill, which would establish the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) to replace the Directorate of Special Operations / Scorpions. The DPCI would amalgamate with the Organised Crime Unit and Commercial Branch of the SAPS. 

Focusing on the Criminal Justice Review and the drive to improve the court system, he commented on the use of an audio visual postponement system to link courts to the awaiting trial detainees and announced that families of the accused could now pay bail at the court nearest to them instead of the court that heard the case, thereby reducing the number of awaiting trial detainees. He announced that the value of new asset forfeiture cases totalled R3.2 million and good progress had been made on developing asset forfeiture jurisprudence. The cluster was also aiming to redesign the witness protection programme to ensure crucial witnesses were offered adequate protection.

The NPA was looking to review some of its organisational principles to deliver a better service based on integrity and accountability. It was establishing a programme management office which would manage all NPA projects. The establishment of the Probation Service Coordination Forum had helped to reduce the number of children in conflict with the law in correctional services, with the aim of moving them to secure places of safety.

The Minister emphasized the reliance on using partnerships to combat crime through incorporating Presidential Working Groups, the National Religious Leader Forum and cooperation agreements with foreign law enforcement agencies, such as the recent bilateral agreement with the Netherlands to help develop levels of policing, various projects and the provision of safety and security at large events such as the FIFA World Cup.

The Minister discussed border control matters and highlighted the fact that a new cargo scanner had been installed at the Durban Harbour. Finally, the Minister brought up the issue of refugees seeking permits for asylum and having to deal with the congestion in the system. He also spoke about the e-passport system and improvements to the printing of ID and other documents to make them more secure and less able to be counterfeited.

Minutes

 

Q          A journalist referred to page 11 of  the “Strengthening the capacity of the state the combat organized crime” document and noted that the DPCI would not have a legislative mandate to gather intelligence.

A          The Minister replied that it was the role of the investigator, who had the necessary training. The investigator would have the mandate to gather enough intelligence to start an investigation. Thus the DPCI was going to work together with the Crime Intelligence unit of the police and not gather crime intelligence themselves.

Q          In the context of an investigation, why would the DPCI need to outsource crime intelligence to Pretoria and was this necessary? What was the difference between tactical and proper intelligence?

A          The Minister replied that the investigators could go to intelligence and ask them for assistance. For example, intelligence was when people who want to commit terrorist acts were investigated by intelligence.

Q          Comment was requested on the incidence of xenophobic attacks against foreigners.

A          The Minister replied that this was a social crime – this was not a police matter. The police’s role was to react to the attacks – they could not be proactive in preventing this sort of crime. Persons should be educated against violence towards foreign nationals by the government. The government implored people to be understanding. It was wrong of people to deal with the matter in the way they were doing so at the moment. We must encourage peace and security and understand the reason why these people come into the country – often because there was violence in the country they were coming from.

Q          The Minister was asked if these attacks had reached crisis proportions and what the reaction of the intelligence community was.

A          The Minister replied that they did try, through intelligence to assess and identify the conflict brewing in these areas, via intelligence estimates. If it were a crisis then it would be a country-wide occurrence – but it had only occurred in certain areas of the country. But it was an issue that government was concerned about.

Q          The
Department of Correctional Services was asked if there should be a halt to the building of private prisons and what the effect would be on public/private partnerships.

A          Ms Mary Mokgoro, Deputy Commissioner: Policy Coordination, replied that there were prisons being built at the moment. There was an important understanding between government and business about delivering services to prisons – so service providers were still being used.

Q          The Minister was asked about the fact that the ruling alliance made a decision about the matter and if she could tell them what was going to happen.

A          The Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Loretta Jacobus replied that she could only comment when she knew about what had been decided on the weekend.

Q          She was asked what the e-passport system was.

A          She replied that it was an electronic passport that allowed safer methods for producing passports to prevent counterfeiting. There were also plans to introduce smart ID cards that would include a chip to make these safer to use.

Q          The matter of the new crime investigating unit was raised. Some members of the Scorpions had left the country and the county was losing their experience. Was there a danger that the amalgamated version [the DPCI] would be weaker than the DSO?

A          The Minister said that the DSO was created to address organized crime, along with two police units - the Organised Crime and Commercial branch of the SAPS. However organised crime was still a problem – and they needed to deal with it. The new unit would rely on past experience and would include the SAPS experience. It would be a better organisation.

Q          The Minister was asked if there was an abuse of power by the Scorpions and what the standing of the ANC was.

A          The Minister replied that if one had to answer questions that might incriminate one, that might be a problem. Section 28 of the NPA Act forced one to answer questions in the course of the DSO investigation, however the US constitution allowed everyone the right to silence in case they incriminated themselves. They wanted to ensure that people did not incriminate themselves and the DSO had the power to possibly let this happen.

Q          The Minister was asked who was going to be in the new unit that would replace the Scorpions and whether the members of the DSO would supply their services.

A          The Minister replied that after the high crime rates in the period around 1993, many personnel left the police and correctional services. Now the crime levels had gone down. The persons who remain and want to, would go into the new establishment – if they wanted to. They would recruit people to join the new unit.

Q          Regarding the new unit, who would appoint the head of the new unit, were they elected by the police commissioner and if so, where were the checks and balances? What would happen if they wanted to prosecute the police commissioner himself – the issue of who guarded the guardians?

A          The Minister replied that all police members elected by the police commissioner. South Africa’s legislation ensured that if you commit a crime, you would be prosecuted. In terms of who guarded the guardians, the Independent Complaints Directorate ensured that there was no abuse of power.

Q          The Minister was asked what would happen if the National Commissioner were arrested, then who would take up the case.

A          The Minister replied that corruption cases would be dealt with by the old unit in the transition. The Scorpions would continue to investigate until the new structures were put in place.

Q          The Auditor General reported on poor border control – it was asked what was being done to improve the situation.

A          The Minister replied that the personnel who were involve in border patrol – the police and SANDF were there on the border.

A          Acting National Commissioner Andre Pruis said that it was very early in the transition process. The police and the SANDF especially on the Zimbabwean border did share some functions. But the SAPS were taking over most border patrol functions from the SANDF. They had bought some vehicles and also boats that patrol the territorial waters (12 nautical and 24 nautical miles). They had recently bought a 12m vessel. In terms of aircraft – they were mainly bought by the SANDF.

Regarding the land borders, the use of satellites to make sure hot spots were patrollled. In terms of organised crime, border control could prevent this sort of crime by focussing their efforts on certain areasand deploy personnel there. There could be further proposals to Parliament on joint projects to improve borderline security. For the 2010 World Cup they had bought hardware to help in border patrol.

Q          The MEC for Mpumalanga was dismayed when he went to the border – how many police patrol the borders?

A          Acting police commissioner said that the SANDF withdrew and the police had taken over. In that transition time there were possible visits. There were primarily detached duty members who work for 2 months at a time – but there were more than 1000 members in border control. The air strips fall under the jurisdiction of the police stations.

Q          It was asked if there were there enough police on the borders.

A          The Acting National Commissioner said that SANDF also had few people on the borders but the exit/entry strategies were taken over by the SAPS. By 2009 their plan should be implemented. Some functions remained the jurisdiction of the SANDF but they were trying to increase the number of people.

Q          The Minister was asked about the new DSO unit about salaries and if the personnel in the unit earned more than the police, and when would the new conditions of service be implemented.

A          Government had decided on salary scales in the public service – they could not undercut the conditions of service of personnel from the DSO. It depended on how soon the law would be in place.

Q          The Minister was asked if he was accepting the disparities that existed in the meantime and if the unit would operate with different standards of reward.

A          The Minister replied that the police still did the work, despite other law enforcement agencies getting different rates.

Q          It was put to the Minister if Deputy Minister Johnny de Lange would stay as deputy for justice in the transition and whether the new partnership with the Netherlands mean that decriminalization of dagga would occur.

A          The Minister replied that he would continue as Deputy Minister at least until the end of the current term.


Appendix

STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY OF THE STATE TO COMBAT ORGANIZED CRIME
REVIEW AND ALIGNMENT OF STATE ORGANS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COMBATING OF ORGANISED CRIME

Introduction

Despite indications that the levels of crime in South Africa are dropping, it is of great concern that they still remain high and that organised crime is prevalent.

Organized crime manifests itself in crimes committed in an organized and often syndicated manner. Among others, we have witnessed syndicated criminals being involved in:


·         the theft of essential copper cables;
 
·         organized aggravated and violent robberies, at homes, financial institutions, retail outlets and ATMs, cash-in-transit heists;
 
·         high-jacking and theft of motor vehicles and trucks,
 
·         the illegal manufacture of drugs and illegal drug trafficking;
 
·         trafficking in human beings,
 
·         trafficking in counterfeit goods,
 
·         the plundering of our protected resources and endangered species;
 
·         cyber crimes;
 
·         the illegal trafficking in weapons, firearms and ammunitions; and
 
·         the fraudulent acquisition of our national documents, particularly the Identity Document and Passports.
 
Many of the crimes go hand-in-hand with money laundering and high levels of corruption within state institutions and private enterprises. Some of those crimes are less conspicuous and often times escape public attention.

In very important respects, the modus operandi employed by organized crime syndicates coincides quite considerably with that employed by terrorist organizations. Consequently, the instruments that government employs in dealing with organised crime coincide with that employed in dealing with certain aspects of terrorism.

It is evident, though, that the combating of organised crime requires specialised skills, resources, focus and capacity to deal with it in a comprehensive manner. Our experience instructs us that we need far better levels of coordination, right across the chain of interventions that define our war on organised crime. Among others, these relate to assessing the phenomena and its impact; determining priorities; developing appropriate measures that go beyond such important aspects such as conviction rates; conducting research; the sharing of information and the referral of cases; approaches to liaison with foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies; and constantly improving training and the relevant operational imperatives.

It is our desire to construct a more robust set of measures than conviction rates when assessing the impact we are making on it. Typically, arresting and convicting any number of people does not always mean that a particular syndicate has been comprehensively disrupted or that its surviving members would not amalgamate into new syndicates.

Conviction rates in respect of other crimes are useful, in part, because the state would have taken out of society the single person behind the commission of any crime.

Certain types of organized crime have had a very negative effect on our people and the economy. Those crimes have induced great fear because of the excessive violence that accompanies them while others, like fraud and corruption, have undermined the project to construct a strong economy that will be able to sustain our developmental goals. Other forms of organized crime, if not appropriately dealt with, have the potential to undermine other fundamental national interests of this country, including its overall sovereignty...

Background

The capacity to combat organized crime in South Africa has been subject to scrutiny and analysis by a range of commentators nationally and internationally.

The South African government, like many other administrations across the globe, has been redefining its strategies to deal with crime, generally, and organized crime, specifically. It has established partnerships from all walks of life to define a formidable block against crime.

Such partners include the business, religious and labour sectors, communities that are participating in the various aspects of community policing and law enforcement agencies within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and further across the African Continent and beyond.

Government started an exhaustive process to strengthen public safety and to improve the effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System through the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster. In this regard the combating of organised crime forms an integral part of Government's Programme of Action, 2008.

Criminal Justice Review

The Review of the Criminal Justice system was undertaken between 2004 and 2006 by the Cabinet's Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster some three years ago. The Presidential Big Business Working Group joined the process as a partner. There are other anti-crime forums that committed time and energy to the project. There were extensive and focused consultations which included on-site visits.

The overall objective of the review was to design a programme that, among other things, would:


·         Improve the legitimacy of and public confidence in the entire Criminal Justice System;
 
·         Eliminate all key weaknesses and blockages in the system through short and medium term interventions;
 
·         Ensure sustained efficiency and effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System through improved coordination and professional management of the system as a whole, as well as
 
·         Establish or reconfigure structures within and throughout the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security sector of government.
 
The improved coordination and management of the system was designed to provide quality and professional services in an integrated, coordinated and effective fashion so that swift, equitable and fair justice would be dispensed in all criminal matters. It was government's view that better coordination and management of the system would be an effective deterrent to crime on a sustainable basis.

Cabinet endorsed on 7 November last year the project for the modernization of the Criminal Justice System, which would be underpinned by fundamental transformative changes in an integrated and holistic manner. Some of the changes would require the reorganizing and reformatting of the structures servicing the Criminal Justice System.

One of such changes would be the establishment of a new coordinating and management structure for the Criminal Justice System nationally (JCPS), provincially and locally (District Court). The structure would be comprised of relevant stakeholders at each level to represent the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, including the National Prosecuting Authority, judiciary and magistracy, the South African Police Service, the Department of Correctional Services and the Legal Aid Board.

President Mbeki has appointed Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr Johnny de Lange, as the political champion of the new structure whose main function would be to coordinate and manage the tasks of the new structure under the guidance and on behalf of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster of Cabinet.

The revamped Criminal Justice System will create new protocols and supporting governance mechanisms which will oversee and facilitate performance monitoring and measurement of the system, cross-departmental cooperation and effective management of- inter-departmental and intra-departmental deliverables and process improvements.

It should be noted that the Directors General of the JCPS have started holding their meetings in each of our provinces. This is done in order to enhance integration within the cluster, and between the cluster and other clusters at the provincial and local levels. Needless to say, the cluster needs to enhance integration with the other spheres of government and this is particularly the case in respect of social crime prevention and dealing with children in trouble with the law.

The review of the Criminal Justice System was happening at a time when particular attention was being paid to organized crime and strategies were being devised to deal with the scourge.

An assessment done to determine the country's capacity to combat organized crime threw up serious weaknesses despite the existence of a number of state entities responsible for the combating of such crime in South Africa. The review also exposed a lack of cooperation and coordination among and within the entities, duplication and parallel investigations with different entry points, failure in relation to intelligence gathering and sharing, failure in terms of priority and focus and material contradictions in respect to how to best deal with various syndicates. The key threats, in the circumstances, were often missed and allowed to find space to grow into major problems.

Government discussed how we could realign the entities responsible for organized crime combating, especially the investigative units represented by the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), or Scorpions, as the entity came to be known, as well as the Organized Crime Unit and Commercial Branch of the South African Police Service (SAPS). Those discussions culminated in the appointment of the Khampepe Commission.

Khampepe Commission

The Commission, appointed on April 1, 2005, was mandated to inquire into, make findings, report on and make recommendations with respect, principally, to the mandate and location of the DSO. The Commission raised awareness regarding some of the matters that the review of the Criminal Justice System benefited from, including weaknesses in the fight against organized crime. The Commission made the following observations about organized crime and its combating:

"Despite indications that crime levels are dropping, it is my considered view that organized crime still presents a threat that needs to be addressed through a comprehensive strategy.

"At the relevant point in time, the body of the information and evidence strongly suggested a need by the government to have in place a coherent effective strategy in the fight against organized crime. Foreign jurisdictions that I visited in the course of the Commission's work also indicate a global trend towards creating instruments of a specialized nature in addressing and combating or mitigating the effects of organized crime."

The Commission was also worried about the lack of cooperation and coordination in the fight against organized crime. It noted:

"There are no systems of cooperation and coordination between the SAPS and DSO, in terms of which arrangement both agencies could be enabled to formally share their respective training methods in the investigation and combating of organized crime. This should be encouraged and if need be, through legislation."

The comments by the Commission on the current capacity to combat organized crime required action. The point of departure in our work, as also understood by the Commission, was the necessity to redesign our systems of coordination and management; a better command and control system in the face of the disparate processes and systems that we were deploying to deal with serious and violent as well as organized crime.

Anti-organized Crime Entities

SAPS and the Scorpions have been the primary state entities heading the fight against organized crime. The Scorpions have concentrated, in the main, on corruption. The other instances of organized crime have been dealt with by SAPS.

The DSO evolved from what was called the Office for Serious Economic Offences (OSEO), which was established in 1992 in terms of the Investigation of Serious Economic Offences Act (Act 117 of 1991). OS EO was incorporated into the National Prosecuting Authority as the Investigating Directorate. The DSO eventually was established on July 8, 1999.

The Commercial Branch of SAPS has a mandate similar to that under which the Scorpions operate. It covers the crimes of fraud and corruption. The other elements of organized crime are handled by the Organized Crime Unit of the police.

In the past five years the police produced a design that was intended to improve its crime-fighting capacity. A number of anti-crime units that were dealing with the divergent aspects of organized crime were phased out and were integrated into the Organized Crime Unit. The phased-out entities included the Precious Metals and Diamonds as well as the Serious and Violent Crime units. Units that were allowed to exist as "stand-alones" were the Commercial Branch, Stock Theft Units, and the FCS units that deal with family violence, child protection and sexual offences.

Despite the existence of the DSO and the Commercial Branch of SAPS inadequate attention has been paid to corruption in the Public Service, the police service and key departments in the Criminal Justice system, as well as environments such as the Department of Home Affairs that is targeted actively by criminal elements.

Other Entities

The state has some departments and state owned enterprises that have various entities that handle some aspects of organized crime. Located under the Department of Finance are the South African Revenue Service, Customs and Excise and the Financial Intelligence Centre; the Department of Home Affairs has the National Immigration Branch. The other entities are the National Intelligence Agency, the South African Secret Service and the National Communication Centre, which resorts under the Ministry of Intelligence.

Other departments that are affected by organized crime are Minerals and Energy, Communications and Trade and Industry.

The Case for Realignment in the Fight against Organized Crime

Government has taken a decision to review and realign state entities that have a responsibility to investigate and combat organized crime, as well as its international dimensions. The imperative to review is informed by a desire to improve our effectiveness and to eliminate areas of weakness. The process includes the review of the legal mandates, location and procedures for investigating and fighting organized crime. In its endeavour, government gave due regard to the recommendations contained in the Khampepe Report.

What Justice Khampepe has referred to as the Troika Approach is a useful instrument that is underpinned by close collaboration in investigations between investigators, intelligence officers (including analysts) and prosecutors. It does not require, of course, that prosecutors be part of the investigations and then be the prosecutors when the cases go to court. The principle of separation of functions is an important element of the system of justice between investigations and prosecutions, where the prosecutors maintain independence from investigators better for them to exercise proper balance in their decisions to prosecute or not. The point is illustrated by Justice Khampepe where she recalls the FBI experience. She writes in the Commission Report:

"Subsequent to an investigation, the information and evidence gathered in the course thereof is presented to the appropriate US Attorney or Department of Justice official who will determine whether or not to prosecute or further action is warranted. Although the FBI is responsible for investigating possible violations of federal law, the FBI does not give an opinion or decide if an individual will be prosecuted. The federal prosecutors employed by the Department of Justice or the US Attorney's offices are responsible for making this decision and for conducting the prosecution case."

Many of the Khampepe Commission recommendations can be aligned to the new thinking in government with respect to the fight against organized crime. Some of those recommendations talk to the necessity to improve attention to the fight against organized crime; better coordination, command and control of the law enforcement agencies and the conferring by the President on the Minister for Safety and Security the political responsibility and authority over the law enforcement agencies that are involved in the fight against organized crime.

The new approach, therefore, in dealing with organized crime will be underpinned by an up-scaling, to greater levels, of the resources, both human and material, as well as deployment methods in the investigation and combating of organized crime. Government, therefore, remains committed to dealing with organized crime as a matter of priority. It also recognizes its international obligations and remains committed to discharging those.

Way Forward

A new division which will lead the fight against high impact organized crime will be established by government. It will be comprised of investigators from the Directorate of Special Operations and the Organized Crime Unit and Commercial Branch of the South African Police Service. The DSO and the two police units will be phased out to make way for the new division, which will be called the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI).

The OPCI will be resourced properly to ensure that it does its work. In doing its work, the OPCI will rely on the experience that the OSO and the organized crime units in the SAPS established.

The division will develop close working relations with the prosecutors and the intelligence agencies. It will also develop close working relations with all other entities of the state such as the Asset Forfeiture Unit, Customs, state owned enterprises and the relevant entities in the private sector, including the relevant regulatory bodies.

A contingent of legal practitioners, located in the division, will be part of all investigations where they will provide legal guidance from the beginning of the investigation to ensure propriety and, in the end, help craft dockets that would enhance the prosecution process.

The OPCI would not have a legislative mandate to gather intelligence but, tactical intelligence will be available to them within the context of the investigations they will do. To that extent, they will receive support from the Crime Intelligence unit of the police. The crime intelligence unit of the police will also have the responsibility to coordinate all support that the other intelligence agencies of the state will provide to the OPCI.

Eligibility for membership to the new entity will be informed by a clear criteria that will look at such matters such as experience, expertise and obtaining a designated security clearance.

The OPCI will be invested with the powers that are currently outlined in section 28 of the NPA Act. Importantly, the application of these powers will be properly regulated, the better to ensure that no abuse thereof happens. In this regard, the very separation of investigations from prosecutions will immediately create the professional distance that should prevent any abuse.

A set of transitional arrangements will be articulated to ensure that no vacuum exists. The arrangements will include an audit of all resources, human and material, available to all the investigators for redeployment.

Cases which are currently under investigation by the DSO will continue and will be finalized in terms of the law of the land. Pending investigations will be treated in the same way.

The conditions of service of members of the DSO who will migrate to SAPS will be protected and guaranteed in terms of the relevant laws of our country.

The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster of Cabinet will develop, on an annual basis, an integrated report on organized crime. The report, among other things,

will be used to determine priorities, streamline responsibility, assess the impact of organized crime and to develop appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems. As indicated earlier, we are looking at developing other robust measures for assessing the impact of our interventions on organised crime.

In order to ensure proper and effective coordination, provision will be made for the relevant Ministers to exercise superintendence over the DPCI and all the other departments of the state that have to cooperate in the war on organized crime. These Ministers will also attend to any conflicts and tensions that, experience tells us, effectively blunt our efforts on organised crime.

Other coordinating mechanisms will be established at the level of the heads of departments on the one hand and for the actual operational people on the other.

The relevant laws governing plea bargains and their application will also be reviewed. In this regard, we need to ensure that criminals do not escape the full censure of the law through negotiating questionable plea bargains. And our recent experience tells us that we may need to exclude certain categories of crimes from the provisions of this law.

As an example, it is not desirable that people who have committed murder or conspired to topple foreign governments would effectively negotiate immunity from the full wrath of the law.

Again, separating investigations from prosecutions will give us guarantees that prosecutors will always consult investigators ahead of entering into plea agreements. Needless to say, we shall not have investigating prosecutors also negotiating plea agreements with suspected criminals.

From the point of view of oversight and control, establishing the DPCI in the police enables us to ensure that the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) no longer has three important and exceedingly powerful responsibilities - being the effective head of an intelligence gathering entity; being the head of an investigating organization and also being head of the prosecuting service.

Again, this is important for purposes of coordination, including ensuring that the NPA is clear about areas on which it should establish liaison relations with foreign partners. It is undesirable to have an entity such as the NPA straddling intelligence, investigations and investigations within the realm of liaison with foreign partners. Same is true in terms of having relations with private intelligence, investigations and security companies.

The above construct will be critical if we are really going to be effective against organized crime.



 

JUSTICE CRIME PREVENTION & SECURITY CLUSTER

MEDIA BRIEFING

 

Cape Town, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

The Justice, Crime Prevention & Security Cluster of government continues to implement the decisions of Cabinet to establish a new, modernised, efficient and transformed Criminal Justice System (CJS).

At the heart of the revamped CJS is commitment to enhance the provision of quality and professional services including the dispensation of swift, equitable and fair justice as well as to boost the integrity of the criminal justice system.  

The redesigned system, as we indicated at the media briefing on February 19, will be characterised by a seamless interlink between the police, prosecuting authority and corrections underpinned by focused and successful investigations and arrests, prosecutions and adjudication and a better system of detention, which would alleviate the problem of overcrowding and result in an enhanced system of rehabilitation.

The revamped CJS, therefore, is intended as a springboard to deal with all manner of crimes, especially of the serious and violent kind as well as organised crime.

SERIOUS & VIOLENT CRIME

The JCPS cluster will give a progress report to Cabinet at the July Lekgotla on the work the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) is doing on behalf of government to establish why crime in South Africa is often accompanied by excessive violence. The CSVR was assigned the responsibility at the beginning of last year. The final report will be submitted to government at the end of this year.

An interim report is due this month which will cover some case studies from interviews done with inmates who are serving sentences relating to violence and violence involving young people. The next interim report, which will be submitted in due course, will deal with violence and sexual abuse against women.

The final report, therefore, will be discussed by Cabinet at the January Lekgotla next year.

The work by the JCPS continues to reduce the levels of contact crimes like murder, rape, indecent and serious and violent assault. The statistics published in December last year on the first six months of the 2007/08 Financial Year (April 1-September 30, 2007) indicated a steady decline in contact crimes.

ORGANISED CRIME

Organised crime continues to be a big challenge. We made this point clear in the last media briefing on February 19 and indicated, among other things, that we were revising our strategy to combat organised crime. We said we would use the review of the Criminal Justice System to realign the entities of state that are involved in the fight against organised crime. We said:

“We will suggest to Cabinet the establishment of an organised crime machinery that will have better priority-setting mechanisms to prevent gaps and undue overlaps in the fight against organised crime. The arrangement will also see the creation of a common pool for sharing information and other enabling resources.

“Our proposal, therefore, is to create a team that will work in the best collective traditions to fight organised crime. That team will be an amalgamation of the best investigators of both the DSO and the police Organised Crime Unit. Other investigators will be recruited elsewhere to give the new structure adequate capacity.”

We approached Cabinet who, on April 30, approved the General Law Amendment Bill, 2008, which seeks to establish the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI). The DPCI will replace the DSO and the Organised Crime Unit and Commercial Branch of the police.

The Notice of Intention to introduce the bill, in terms of the relevant parliamentary laws, was published in the Gazette on May 9, after tabling in parliament on May 7. The bill has been submitted to the State Law Advisers for certification.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REVIEW

President Mbeki has appointed the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Johnny de Lange, to be the political champion of the revamped CJS. His work, in the main, will be to coordinate, on behalf of the JCPS cluster, all the component parts of the CJS and ensure that they all work together to produce the desired results.

Some elements of the changes to the CJS are already in place. The modernisation of our court system has seen an extension to the Port Elizabeth and New Brighton courts of the audio-visual postponement project linking the courts to the St Albans Correctional Centre. The project, which allows for case postponements by video-conferencing, was piloted in Durban.

Part of the modernisation also allows for bail to be paid at any court nationally and not only at the court where the awaiting trial detainee appears. The system, therefore, creates the possibility for family members who live far away to pay bail at the courts where they live. This system will reduce the number of awaiting trial detainees in correctional centres, who are admitted to bail but cannot pay.

The number and value of asset forfeiture against criminals increased during the period under review. The value of new cases was R3.2 million. Good progress has been made in the development of asset forfeiture jurisprudence.

The cluster is redesigning the witness protection programme to ensure the safety of witnesses. The programme is crucial in the investigations the law enforcement agencies are running.

The National Prosecuting Authority adopted in the period under review a set of organisational principles that it has enjoined its personnel to embrace to deliver an excellent, professional and credible service based on integrity and accountability. The NPA is also establishing a programme management office which will manage and support all NPA projects.
A tender has been awarded for the development of a capacity model which will enable the NPA to determine the optimal capacity required effectively to fulfil its constitutional mandate.
The establishment of the Probation Service Coordination Forum has helped to reduce the number of children in correctional services facilities in the country. The intervention is designed drastically to reduce that number and ensure that children in conflict with the law are taken to secure places of safety.

PARTNERSHIPS AGAINST CRIME


The project to build partnerships against crime continues to produce good results. Many communities have joined various anti-crime campaigns and where the partnerships with the police have taken root, crime levels in those areas have gone down.
The Presidential Working Groups, which include the business, labour and religious sectors, have become part of the fight against crime.
The National Religious Leaders Forum will meet with the JCPS on June 19 to finalise their joint project to prevent social crime, which accounts for the biggest portion of contact crime.
The National Religious Leaders held a workshop on March 3 on social crime prevention. The meeting and a subsequent meeting on March 11, agreed to establish a formal and structured partnership with the police.

A report was submitted to the President yesterday when he met with the National Religious Leaders.
Cooperation agreements exist between South Africa’s law enforcement agencies and several countries across the globe. A delegation from the Netherlands, led by former Dutch national commissioner of Police Services, Mr Peter van Zunderd, is in South Africa this week. Their visit is connected to the bilateral cooperation agreement signed with the Netherlands early this year.
The agreement includes the following broad areas of cooperation:
Improvement of the quality of policing through exchange police training programmes;
Improving the quality and standards of integrity within the law enforcement agencies;
Improvement in the project to address domestic violence, community policing, crime prevention and reduction, organised crime combating, corruption and border control, and
The provision of safety and security at major events, including the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

UPHOLDING NATIONAL SECURITY

Border control continues to receive serious attention from the cluster. A new mobile cargo scanner has been installed at the Durban harbour. The technology will curb the smuggling of illegal and counterfeit goods into the country. The scanner is the first of eighteen to be introduced at different ports.
 
The Department of Home Affairs has converted to the e-government service system in the delivery of its products, using the HANIS system. Most of the programmes that form part of the HANIS have been completed or are at advanced stages to completion. Some of the Home Affairs projects include:

Late Birth Registration

New processes for the late registration of births came into effect on 01 May 08.  The processes will close the loopholes that have allowed people to obtain South African Birth Certificates through fraudulent means. About 1700 DHA officials have already been trained in the new system.

Refugees & Permits

Significant steps have been taken to ease congestion and speed up the Asylum Seekers Registration Process in Cape Town.  The Cape Town office was able in February to process 300 Section 22 Permits in a single day.  In the Rosettenville office in Johannesburg has been closed down and all asylum matters are dealt with at Crown Mines, which will be transformed into a Centre of Excellence for the registration of asylum seekers.

E-passport System

The project to develop and implement the E-passport system is incorporated into the 55 turn-around projects for 2008 at the Department of Home Affairs.  The project charter has been completed and is under consideration for approval.  The Government Printing Works has secured an interim production site and a Hi-Tech printer has been procured.  The specifications for the capturing, enrolment and personalisation are currently being developed.





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