Deputy Minister of Police, National Police Commissioner and the Department of Police on the SAPS Strategic Plan, Annual Performance Plan and Budget for 2013/14

Meeting report

Briefing by the Department of Police
The Deputy Minister of Police, Ms Maggie Sotyu, said the Department was seeking to improve the management of capital and infrastructure projects and make spending more efficient. Focus areas were going to be sector policing and crime prevention and the theme for the year was going to be “The Year of Police Station”

General Victoria Phiyega, the National Police Commissioner, said the South African Police Service (SAPS) operated under the mandate of Section 205 of the Constitution and the Department was relooking at how they delivered on this mandate and what values it embraced in the process. She said that the Department’s planning was linked to three of the 12 outcomes of Government.

It planned to reduce serious crime, contribute effectively to the criminal justice system (CJS), reduce corruption internally and externally, review how the police was perceived and dedicate resources to media, border management and in the cyber environment.

On the regional and continental level, the SAPS wanted to contribute to the security and sustainable development of the region. The planning was influenced by the 2013 State of the Nation Address (SONA) which made specific reference to police visibility, gender based violence, public order policing and fighting corruption. She said the Department would be aiming for 50% gender equity, up from the current 37% in line with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) point of view that broad based black economic empowerment was not just for business but also for government entities.

The SAPS was going to target youth and rural employment by appointing local people in rural areas. It supported the National Development Plan by supporting the vision for a better Africa. The SAPS was going to be hosting the first international conference for women police in Africa. In line with the Minister’s ten point plan, the Department was planning to work to get the police infrastructure program into the Minister of Economic Development’s Strategic Integrated Projects program.

The Department’s priorities had to be of a sustained nature even were there to be a change in personnel. It would work with the Department of Public Works and wanted a larger police station maintenance budget to improve the conditions of services of members. The Department was looking at re-equipping the service with new generation vehicles. Stock theft would be a key service of rural policing and assessment centres were going to be refurbished to increase training and improve the discipline and quality of members of the service. The Department needed to give effect to the Code of Conduct and had held its first meeting addressing 1500 members in starting the change management process.

The Divisional Commissioner: Finance and Administration, Lieutenant General Stefan Schutte, said that the SAPSA had five programs. These included; administration, visible policing, detective services, crime intelligence and protection and security services.

The spending priorities were going to be to increase the number of police stations points to improve police response times, to replace boarded vehicles, to provide specialised equipment and training, to train members in crime intelligence gathering  and analysis and to deploy new recruits. There was not going to be a decline in police numbers and the total staff was around 200,000. Forensic and detective services and investigation would be integrated with the criminal justice system to a level where it addressed exhibits. The SAPS was going to maintain police capacity which would allow for external deployments.  The SAPS was establishing victim friendly facilities at police stations and was to provide capital equipment and purchase firearms for police stations to improve the capacity of the police station to deliver improved services. It was going to implement CCTV in high crime areas. The SAPS would be reinforcing the Family, Violence and Child Protection and Sexual Offenders unit and would intensify attention on flash goods. It was to increase the number of imbizos it held so as to mobilise the communities and the focus of the stock theft unit would be on prevention. It would increase the capacity of the DPCI (Hawks) unit and there was going to be a rollout of war rooms (multi-disciplinary operational rooms). The Department was going to strengthen the resources and capacity of national intervention units and the special task forces.

He said the budget had been R47.7b in 2009/10 and was expected to rise to R75.8 in 2015/16. The budget for 2013/14 was R67.9b. This was a 6.2% increase from the previous year. The growth in the budget was attributable mainly to funding to cover  salary increases,  to provide for security requirements for the African Cup of Nations (Afcon), capital infrastructure,  technological enhancements,  the growth in staff numbers and because a portion of the CJS budget had been diverted to the justice environment.

In terms of economic classification, the biggest increase of 30.5% was in buildings and fixed structures. Compensation accounted for R50.4b and was monitored closely as personnel were a primary cost driver.

Challenges facing the Department were fuel price fluctuations, service delivery protests, incidents of unrest and unforeseen big events arranged by external entities.

General Phiyega said that the Department had made 75%/25% the cut-off point for the split between personnel and operational costs and the Department was going to be looking at re-establishing finance committees. She wanted to reinforce the point about spending on unrest related matters. She said that in three years there had been 33000 incidents related to unrest with 30000 of them being peaceful. With new dimensions of intensity to these incidents, it meant that increased and different types of resources might be needed. The Department also needed to take into account the cost implications of new regulations and new legislation.

On the Administration Program, Lieutenant General Schutte said that the civilian secretariat was going to have its own budget and be an independent unit and off the police budget the following year. There was going to be significant funding for the CJS revamp initially, for Information Technology (IT), for office accommodation, for the integrated justice systems and for networks.

The Visible Policing Program accounted for 46% of the budget at R31.5b and was the biggest program. R27.35b was to be spent on crime prevention, R1.57b on border security and R2.6b on specialised interventions. All police stations were to be capacitated to provide a victim friendly service for rape and sexual offenders and abuse victims.

The Detectives Services Program totalled R14.3b and included capacity enhancements for forensics which would get an extra R251m, for IT which would get an extra R900m and for the criminal record centre which would receive R320m extra.

The Crime Intelligence Program, which was personnel intensive, had a budget of R2.7b, 80% of which was spent on compensation.

The Protection and Security Services Program amounted to R1.9b. There was an increased demand on protection services and the vehicle fleet needed upgrading. VIP protection accounted for R775.7m of this budget.

Critical plans for implementation were the Infrastructure and capital asset plan, Information Technology and Communication plan, the Human Resource (HR) management plan, the risk management plan and the service delivery implementation plan.

Discussion
Mr J Gunda (ID; Northern Cape) said that the Department claimed to want to reduce corruption yet the Auditor General’s report noted that R4b had been spent on consultants and that there had been a project to have a firearms control system to which four addendums to the contract to the value of R412m had been signed, R341m of which had been paid out even though it had not received the firearms control system. He said corruption within the police had to be stopped first. He asked what criteria were used to build police stations. The police was a permanent structure so why was money paid to rent office accommodation. Were the police happy with the food and medical treatment given to detained people? Why were escapes from police custody so high? Was the police in agreement with the Auditor General’s comment on supply chain management? He said police professionalism was a challenge and that the police had become brutal in their actions. The community needed the police and the police needed the community.

Mr L Nzimande (ANC; KwaZulu Natal) asked whether the need for vehicle fleet replacement was the result of bad maintenance. What was the situation regarding the welfare of disabled police personnel?

Mr Gunda said that the Auditor General had reported on 200 Nyala vehicles which had been refurbished. Two consultants had been paid a total of R79.5m and this had escalated to R176m while only 44 of the vehicles were delivered at the delivery date and no penalties had been imposed. He said that the Police were reported to have paid too much money to an education trainer for delivering ABET services and that the costs of the service had escalated. What was wrong with the Supply Chain Management procedures in the Department?

General Phiyega said consultants were used when the Department did not have in-house skills. She said penalties were a weak point and was an area that was prioritised to be looked into.

Regarding the firearms control system, one of the SAPS officials explained that there was concern if an IT project was more than three years old as the technology had become obsolete. The SAPS IT capability had been incorporated into the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) upon its establishment, leaving SAPS with no internal IT capability. SITA had been of no help. The firearms system had been 80% complete, as verified by the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR). Four addendums had been signed and the system had been rolled out to 1090 police stations. The contract had been for the software only, not for the ancillary hardware, so the addendums were to get this hardware. No addendums to contracts were to be allowed in future as they reflected poor planning practices. Disputes with the contractor as to whether he was still on the job had delayed the project. As the supplier did not have the skills to transfer the existing database onto the new database, the Department felt the supplier was in breach of the contract and therefore had terminated its services. The Department was working with the CSIR so that the 80% completed system was operational and was working to complete the system by 2014. SAPS had consulted Senior Counsel for an opinion on whether the contract was still binding or not.

General Phiyega said that the CSIR would henceforth act as the standing advisory council for the Department on IT related matters.

Lieutenant General Kruser, Divisional Commissioner: Supply Chain Management (SCM), SAPS, addressed the Nyala question and said that an assessment was made on whether to purchase new vehicles or to refurbish the existing Nyalas which had been mothballed. The cost of new vehicles would have been R200m. The tender for the refurbishment was awarded to two companies so that the smaller one could develop the skills to do the job. A basket of 48 items most likely to be replaced had been valued at R79m. After actual stripping of the vehicles, it was found that extra items needed to be fixed. The 200 Nyalas were fully utilised.

General Phiyega said the ABET matter was more a question of change which had not been documented.

Major General Bonang Kwena, Head: In-Service Police Development: Division Human Resource Development , said the ABET contract for 36 months had been amended without authorisation. SAPS had overpaid the service provider but the project had been completed in 29 months not 36 months, so the actual spend was less than what had been budgeted for. The service provider had over delivered in that the learners had written and obtained the General Education Training Certificate issued by the Independent Examination Board.

General Phiyega said the Department was looking at different ways of approaching the SCM processes.

On the capital management program, Lieutenant General Kruser said work-study had been conducted on police stations, crime statistics, population growth in the area, and how the province had prioritised it. A final decision was to be made at national level and those stations that were approved were allocated funds for the three phases, site clearance, planning and design and construction. He said the R1b allocated for capital expenditure were for building not for building rentals. He said the Department had a big planned maintenance program and day to day maintenance was a challenge as no artisans were employed.

Lt General Lesetja Mothiba, the Divisional Commissioner: Visible Policing said the Department had ageing infrastructure and some court cells were in a bad condition. The detainees were served three meals a day and those with medical conditions were referred to hospital. He said there were only 776 escapees out of a total of 1,446,314 detainees. If the ratio climbed above 1% then a task team was formed to investigate the situation. Normally it was through police negligence that escapes occurred and in some instances members of the force had been dismissed.

General Phiyega said cleanliness was high on the agenda. She acknowledged that there was an issue with discipline and it was being addressed through training at base level and in managing discipline within the force.

Major General Kwena said members were taught discipline with special emphasis on human rights and the Constitution.

A Department official said the challenge was that the framework was not strong enough to sustain the character needed as well as the increased influence of the trade unions which undermined command and control. The revised framework would be implemented. The Department wanted to rid itself of criminal elements.

General Phiyega said that even the revised framework was inadequate, with the fundamental flaw that it was a negotiated settlement. She said the police could not have a negotiated settlement just like the Defence force did not have a negotiated settlement as it undermined command and control and that it needed to be looked into.

Lieutenant General Kruser said the SCM processes were a challenge, especially at the lower levels where bids were evaluated and where there was interference by administrative staff. These gaps were being tightened. He said the police had a fleet of 51,000 cars, with a vehicle ratio of one for every five policemen and they wanted to reduce that ratio to one for every four policemen. It had an asset register indicating where every car was. The challenge was the garages where they needed sufficient and appropriate personnel and where they needed to optimise the infrastructure.

General Sithole said current external operations were in South Sudan where 16 personnel had been deployed and in Darfur where 53 personnel were deployed for United Nations operations.
 
General Mothiba said the Rural Safety Strategy had been implemented since July 2011 and specifically stock theft. All provinces had now launched a rural stock theft project.

General Ngobeni of KZN, said 80% of rural theft was stock theft with 6500 head of cattle being lost per annum. She said the stock theft unit needed to be made more visible and the police were giving attention to traditional structures to assist them. The Department also needed to collaborate with other departments such as COGTA.

A Department official said the 2% target for disability equity issues was difficult to achieve as the police requirements for physical fitness meant there was no room for impairments and limited the Department’s ability to employ the disabled, but that they had targeted the disabled in a targeted recruitment program

The provincial commissioners commented on discipline, internal corruption, the community’s perception of the police and gangs in KZN.

General Phiyega said employee health and wellness were important as 70% of the budget was spent on people. On the question of veterans, she said she had not engaged in managing and recycling their skills which was an idea which had to be explored.

The meeting was adjourned.