Hansard: NCOP: Unrevised hansard

House: National Council of Provinces

Date of Meeting: 02 Jun 2022

Summary

No summary available.

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Minutes

UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
THURSDAY, 2 JUNE 2022
Watch: Plenary
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
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The Council met at 14:00
The Deputy Chairperson took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon delegates, before we proceed I would like to remind you of the following; the
virtual sitting constitutes a sitting of the NCOP, the place of the sitting is deemed to be Cape Town where the sitting of
the NCOP is. Delegates in the virtual sitting enjoy the same powers and privileges that apply in a sitting of the NCOP.
For purposes of a quorum, all delegates who are logged on to the virtual platform shall be considered present. Delegates
must switch on their videos if they want to speak and should ensure that the microphones and gadgets are muted and must
always remain muted unless they are speaking. The interpretation facility is active and that permanent
delegates, special delegates and Salga representatives are requested to ensure that the interpreting facility on their
gadgets are properly activated to facilitate access to the interpretation services. Any delegate who wishes to speak must
use the “raise your hand” function.
Hon delegates, I have been informed that there will be no Notices of Motion or Motions Without Notice. Before we proceed
to the first order, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Minister of Higher Education and Training as well
as the Minister and Deputy Minister of Police, the MECs and all special and permanent delegates to the House.
Hon delegates, we will now proceed to the First Order on the order paper. I will now call upon the hon Dr Blade Immanuel
Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training to open the debate. Welcome hon Minister, over to you.

APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 17 — Higher Education and Training:

The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION: Hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Madam Lucas, Deputy Minister
of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in absentia, all the MECs that are present here, Chairperson of the select
committee hon Nchabeleng and members of the select committee, my Director General Dr Nkosinathi Shishi, the leadership of
the PSET, post school education and training and NSI fraternity honourable member. It is indeed my pleasure to address the (NCOP) today.
Much as we are a national function, in our work as the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation we have
ensured that is grounded and aims to address concrete challenges in very concrete ways in our various provinces and localities.
Our skills training and our science and innovation interventions also seek to support and strengthen the District Development Model, DDM, which aims to improve provision of services and socio-economic development in each of our 44 districts and eight metros.

Our goals and objectives are implemented through our new landscape of higher education, science and innovation, HESI, facilitated by President Cyril Ramaphosa through his decision to place the Departments of Higher Education and Training, DHET, and the Department of Science and Innovation, DSI, under one ministry. This new landscape opens up the opportunities for both these sectors to contribute towards and inclusive economic growth
path in our country that addresses the structural challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

This new landscape has now brought under one umbrella very crucial post school and training institutions as well as it is from the Department of Science and Innovation both of whom are driving the new higher education, science and innovation landscape and our economic growth and development agenda.
In the post school education and training landscape, which is the substantive matter for this policy discussion our Department of Higher Education and Training, I’m very proud to say has played a hugely important role in providing access especially to the children of the working class and the poor
to university, college and community education, and to other skilling opportunities.

Through National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, students from poor and working-class background have managed to access college and university education. I’m sure hon Chair and members have seen many of them dancing, graduating, many of whom are the first in their families to see the university or college door.
I’m pleased to say this year NSFAS will be spending a record R49 billion to achieve this objective. Through the Department of Higher Education and Training, from 2010 we extended NSFAS to support TVET colleges for the very first time in the history of our country. In addition, from last year we have
set aside millions of rands from the National Skills Fund, dedicated financial support to students in agricultural colleges who require financial assistance. I am however concerned about the growth trajectory of our Post School Education and Training, PSET, system as it is university centric, and with a rather smaller college sector.

Hon chair and hon members, I’m saying this because at the heart of the challenge for Post School Education and Training system is that of addressing the 4 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 who are not in employment, education nor training which we call the Neets. These millions of young people should ideally be catered for by a larger college system, with vocational education and training at the centre.
We are however determined to grow the Technical Vocational Education and Training sector faster and to enable subsidy and infrastructure funding that can support its rapid student enrolment growth. Indeed, we do not have enough money as yet but we hope hon members will support us in the budget appropriation going forward. We now have taken a decision to fund skills programmes offered by our Community Education Training, CET, colleges to the tune
of R200 million. We are also reviewing our five-year enrolment plan for our community colleges and develop a sustainable funding model.
Hon members, government has committed and is working upon a comprehensive student funding model for our universities and

 
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colleges. As part of the development of our comprehensive
student funding model, through the ministerial task team set
up in student funding, we are engaging both the public and
private components of the financial sector to come up with a
funding model to support students in the missing middle sector
as well as post graduate studies for students who cannot
secure funding from the National Research Foundation.
Our proposal for a comprehensive student funding model will be
presented next month before Cabinet.
The public sector trade unions are, in addition, calling for a
financial assistance model for dependents of public servants
to access university and college education. I believe this
proposal by the unions must be closely looked into and be
considered very seriously.
On the Department of Science and Innovation briefly, we are
ensuring greater whole of government and whole-of-society
innovation. We have already begun with a new institutional
architecture to build better coordination, cohesion and
direction in how science, technology and innovation resources
are used.

 
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Cabinet has already established an inter-ministerial committee
which the President has asked me to chair on promoting and
mainstreaming of science, technology and innovation in both
government and society.
Hon Chair and members, at the same time we are also pleased to
say that we have become a process of crafting what we call one
country one skills plan which is a master skills plan for
South Africa. This process will promote a more efficient and
effective mechanism for country-wide skills planning.
The master skills plan will draw on the information available
in existing plans, such as the, Human Resource Development
Plan, Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan including its
skills strategy recently adopted by Nedlec as well as your
National, Provincial and Local Government Skills Plans.
Through the National Skills Fund, NSF, we supported 304 skills
development projects across South Africa in 2020/21.
Furthermore, 34 994 South Africans benefited directly from the
National Skills Fund support during the 2020/21 financial
year.

 
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In terms of provinces, Eastern Cape accounted for the majority
of beneficiaries for this funding at 7 127 followed by Gauteng
6 881 and KwaZulu-Natal 6 374 just to mention the top three.
In the same period, the number of beneficiaries who reported
to have a disability was 704 which was 2% of the overall
number of beneficiaries.
During the 2020/21 financial year, the National Skills Fund
funds were mainly disbursed for TVET colleges and rural
development projects, while other were allocated for the
bursaries and for other national priorities.
Hon Chair and hon members, I am delighted to report that the
learners who benefitted through the National Skills Fund
projects were mainly youth aged 25 and 34 years, there were
16 536 of them, followed by those younger than 25 years who
were 12 932. However, I do need to point out that our Post
School Education and Training sector caters for all South
Africans, irrespective of age to acquire further education or
skills.
For this current financial year, the National Skills Fund in
partnership with the Presidency has allocated R100 million

 
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towards the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative which
will benefit 4 500 learners in the digital learning space to
get appropriate learning in this area.
The National Skills Fund has committed R200 million to
employment creation initiative between the Department of
Higher Education and Training and the Department of Employment
and Labour through the Unemployment Insurance Fund, UIF. This
project will benefit more than 5 000 unemployed youth to
acquire skills in a variety of fields.
In my response to the State of the Nation Address, through our
SETAs, we have increased our targets for workplace-based
learning for the financial year commencing on 1 April 2022,
with our annual target to 107 000.
We have also committed to have 15 000 TVET college graduates
to be placed for in service training and other forms of work
placed based learning. This is 5 000 more than the President’s
commitments during Sona.
We are also targeting 20 500 opportunities for apprentices,
22 500 for artisanal trades, 31 300 for those completing
learnerships and 148 000 for learners entering into various

 
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other skills development programmes, such as digital skills,
crop production and plant production.
Our artisanal learning programme includes an apprenticeship,
learnership, skills programme undertaken at the workplace
conclude with a trade test which is undertaken for a trade
that is part of the official list of artisan occupations.
Let me share with you the number of learners entering
artisanal learning programmes by province because the
production of artisans is one of our major priorities. Western
Cape is 860, Eastern Cape 359, Northern Cape, 216 Free State
418, KwaZulu-Natal 1 316, North West 782, Gauteng 3 859,
Mpumalanga 1 172, Limpopo 967, and 353 additional who are not
specified which province they come from.
About 12 613 of our learners who completed our artisanal
learning programmes participated in the government special
infrastructure projects, SIPs, scarce skills programme in the
2020/21 financial years. Hon Chair and hon members, this is
significant because we are saying wherever there are
government major projects, especially infrastructure projects,
we must attach trainees so that as we finish projects, we are
also producing new skills that we need.

 
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Some of the artisanal skills there have been produced include
automotive mechanics, electricians, plumbers, diesel
mechanics, boilermakers, millwright and welders.
Government has already spent vast amounts of money to support
our youth through the TVET system and therefore it is
important that we assist them to transition to workplace
through appropriate work place experience.
To this extent, we have established very important
partnerships between TVET colleges and our trainees with for
instance the Japan government Toyota motor company to produce
motor mechanics, Germans to share their famous dual system of
training with us, the United Kingdom to address youth
unemployment with the projects we have, another project I’m
very proud of is with Huawei on ICT skills which has
established Huawei academies in 22 of our 50 TVET colleges.
I’m also very pleased that I’m working with the association of
those repairing mobile electronic gadgets, an association
called SAMDRA to train young people to repair on repair and
maintain mobile devices and other electronic devices.
There is absolutely no need for our townships and villages to
take our cell phones and repair them very far in the cities

 
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and towns instead of repairing them in our own townships and
train black youth to be able to do this.
These agreements include the provision of training for both
TVET college students as well as to give workplace exposure to
TVET college lecturers, so that they teach and train in what
is currently needed by industry which is important. We do not
only train students but lecturers as well so that they are
aware of their issues of training students in skills that are
relevant for workplace right now.
I intend to take forward building of partnerships with
industry for work placement and I will be holding a
stakeholder summit, including the Nedlac social partners, to
discuss and agree on further concrete actions to strengthen
work placement of our students and learners.
Almost wherever I go across the country, our communities are
yearning for expanded access to post school opportunities
given the fact that we have millions of young people who are
at home doing nothing.
We are also reviewing and seeking strengthen our
infrastructure development strategy for the Post School

 
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Education and Training sector, with a special focus on student
accommodation.
The total amount currently available for investment in
infrastructure projects across the 26 universities over the
next two years is R7,5 billion with R2,9 billion going towards
student accommodation but clearly this is not enough. One of
the things we are accelerating is partnerships with the
private sector so that we are able to build more accommodation
for students in both universities and TVET colleges.
I’m very pleased to say we are further experimenting the idea
of what we call education and innovation precincts. The first
one is Imbali which I’ve allocated R90 million for this
project which brings various education institutions and
schools together in one area to partner with industry and
locate scientific possibilities for science work in those
areas.
The next precinct to be established will be in Giyani in
Limpopo. We are also expanding and planning to relocate the
University of Zululand teacher training faculty to the former
KwaZulu Parliamentary Precinct at Ulundi. We have set aside

 
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R10 million to cover planning costs and project initiation
financial requirements.
We have also invested about R146,9 million, through our
Wholesale and Retail Seta, in collaboration with the
Sekhukhune TVET college to construct the Sekhukhune Skills
Development Centre.
A R131 million has already been set aside and construction has
commenced and is fairly advanced now for building of this
centre; R9 million is for capacitation of informal traders and
construction of trading stalls for 45 informal traders
operating in the surrounding areas and R6,9 million is to
construct an access road into the centre.
The Wholesale and Retail Seta is also establishing a skills
centre at Reitz in Bethlehem in the Free State province, in
conjunction with the local municipality.
The Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Seta has established a
skills centre at Endaleni in Richmond in KZN in collaboration
with uMgungundlovu TVET College to offer occupational
qualifications in garment construction, furniture making,
information technology with free Wi-Fi for students, the shoe

 
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making centre of excellence and a newly established innovation
hub.
The Health and Welfare Seta has a partnership with the UKZN to
train lay counsellors for psychosocial services in support of
those negatively impacted upon by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hon chair and hon members, our Setas are starting to play an
important role to provide skills programmes in our former
adult education centres which we refer to as community
colleges.
We are also in the process of establishing 54 ICT laboratories
for web design, end user computing in the designated 54 pilot
community learning centres nationally.
I’m also pleased to say that we are now training community
college lectures and offering advanced diploma in adult and
community education and training-teaching. This project is
part of capacity building supported by the Education, Training
and Development Programme Seta and is offered through the
Durban University of Technology.

 
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We would like hon members in the various provinces to visit
these sites and see for themselves the progress that we are
making on the ground in changing the lives of young people but
as well as adults for the better. We commit to work with all
the provinces and municipalities in ensuring that we use our
government departments to respond to the skills revolution and
innovation in our country. I thank you hon Chairperson.
Mr M E NCHABELENG: Deputy Chairperson, permanent and special
delegates, members of the executive committees, MECs, present,
Minister, all ladies and gentlemen, let me start by asking for
indulgence because I’m having a touch of flue, so don’t wonder
if I am to stop and cough and do all those but we are moving
on.
I am opening this debate under the theme “Expanding access to
higher education landscape to increase skill development and
integration to economic opportunities.” The Freedom Charter is
a policy ... [Inaudible.] ... to all the people of South
Africa the ANC. The class which calls for all the doors of
learning to be open has been a primary objective of the
democratic government.

 
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In the recent year, funding for National Financial Aid Scheme,
NSFAS, has been the fastest increase in budget allocation
proof due to the realisation of a fee free higher education.
The ANC in its 2019 manifesto to the people of South Africa
committed to ensure that Tvet colleges are adequately funded
and respond to the country’s skills, needs and high levels of
unemployment. Through progressive policies such as the skills
levy and placing education as an apex priority of government.
The coronavirus has had a significant impact on the well-being
of the people of South Africa and their livelihoods. Our
learning institutions were not spared, but we rose quickly
dusted ourselves and moved on. And that’s thanks to the
revolutionary visionary leadership of the Department of Higher
Education and Training as led by the Minister, the Deputy
Minister, and the management. We really thank you for rising
quickly and moving on.
The first and foremost task of the democratic government in
the higher education landscape was to repeal apartheid laws
which restricted black people from accessing higher education
institutions and barring them from studying particular

 
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courses. And of course, the special segregation as if that
wasn’t enough.
This ushered an epoch where black people uptake in different
university previously reserved for whites, increasing
tremendously. Higher education landscape was designed to
create a heterogeneous system with different standards with no
articulation from colleges to universities, and other
qualifications.
The White Paper for Post-School Education and Training sets a
vision of a single coherent differentiated system. To achieve
such system will require Sector Education and Training
Authority, SETAS, and the National Skills Fund. This need to
improve their fiscal accountability because of regressing on
audit findings, with instances of impeding the work of
Auditor-General. In some instances, someone of the units do
not actually account properly for the for the job done and the
monies used in the department. So we really need to jag up in
that area.
A capable developmental state will not be possible with
institutions that have inadequate internal controls related to
project monitoring and reporting. The levels of youth not in

 
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employment, education or training is soaring and it requires
government to expand education and training opportunities for
the youth so that they attain the required skills to attain
work opportunities or to be entrepreneurs to create a living
for themselves and others.
Out of 10,2 million young people aged between 15 to 24, 33% of
them, which is just over 3,3 million youth were not in
employment, they were not in education and they were not in
training in the second quarter of 2021. This doesn’t look very
good.
Hon members, it is important to know that the Fiscal
Consolidation, Fiscal Policy Transmission, while necessary to
curb the debt has impacted government spending into the Post
School Education and Training, PSET, sector.
The department will allocate R144, 3 billion over the next
three-years to NSFAS supporting over 800,000 students in
universities and technical and vocational training colleges.
We will we will await the work of the Ministerial Task-Team
which is working on a sustainable financial model, which will
support students who fall within the missing middle working
with other financial institutions. The ANC-led government will

 
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always prioritize support for the poor and our government is
making efforts to leave no one behind through this new
financial model.
We need to address the skewed distribution of the budget to
the university programme, despite the university principals
complaining about the allocation and not allocating adequate
support for the Tvet programmes.
The higher education programme has been allocated R88 billion
which is 80,9% of the budget whilst the Tvet programme is
allocated only R12,6 billion. The resource concentration to
higher education will unwittingly decapitate the growth of the
Tvet sector to expand its ability to adapt to the changing
world. They do need that funding also. We must transform the
thinking of the public on the importance of Tvet as part of
articulation to universities or to workplaces.
Due to their apartheid restrictions to universities,
universities have become the only key institution which black
people deemed as the only desired space for learning in order
to attain a degree that’s getting employment. This is
partially true, yet incorrect as college students also have a
lot of work opportunities. A critical training institution is

 
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the community education training colleges which provide such
needed opportunities for the youth and the older South
Africans.
We welcome the growth of the number of enrolment in our
community education training colleges to over 266,000. This is
a commendable growth and the type of enrolment growth we need
to experience in order to address the problems of youth, not
in education, not in employment and not in training. A major
aspect of realizing the required policy outcomes is the
capability of governance systems and the capability of human
resources.
Numerous SETAs such as the National Skills Fund, NSF, Services
SETA and others have governance challenges which require
continuous oversight by the department. However, Minister, the
relationship between higher education and the industry is an
important relationship which should be institutionalized
through workplaces, place of learning and training for young
people.
The link between our skills development programmes and Tvet
qualifications with the needs of the economies is paramount.
The skills need of the economy are also in continuum, ever

 
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changing hands, training our sector education, training
authorities are important and they should be at the cutting
edge of sectoral development.
Deputy Chairperson, we need a skills development compact with
labour, business, civil society and South African at large to
commit to ensure that our job market creates more training
opportunities and work opportunities in the face of increasing
poverty and unemployment. Our inability to forge such a social
compact will always have the country near risk of social
instability. The Minister has alluded to some of the
programmes that are in place and this really shows that we are
on the right track. It
Hon members, it is important to note that the Fiscal
Consolidation, Fiscal Policy Transmission, while necessary to
keep the debt has impacted government spending into the PSET
sector. Infrastructure development is a key pillar of the
Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, ERRP. One of the
challenges with request support is the capacity and capability
of implementation of infrastructure projects.
The expansion of higher education and the success of
addressing the barriers to access at universities. The

 
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problems we experience today is not a problem of lack of
access. But the question is whether we have adequate
university spaces and university beds to respond to the demand
for higher education.
In January, February, when universities open you will get
students sleeping on the streets and even in shacks in the
townships. This is not a good condition for learning for young
people.
We welcome the agile response on government’s development of
an ERRP skills strategy as part of his response to the
devastating impact of COVID-19. Its impact on the economy and
its effects on deepening current levels of unemployment and
poverty and inequality. The skill strategy aims at ensuring
that the post-school education and training system in
conjunction with key government departments and other
stakeholders will respond to the new demands which are being
created in the economy. It is intended to support the
implementation of the ERRP in ways that both maximizes
opportunities for new entrants to the labour market, as well
as support the preservation of existing jobs and the creation
of new jobs. The strategies direct towards both public and

 
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private education and training institutions and skills
development providers, which will include work places.
The idea is to strengthen partnership between the public and
the private sectors with a view to improving efficiency and
effectiveness. This is a commendable development which should
be advanced to their lives’ intended objective and to
strengthen relations with social partners. Social
transformation is about equipping the people with skills and
support for them to liberate themselves and live to their full
potential.
The ANC supports this Budget Vote, because this is a tool to
change the lives of the people, particularly the marginalized,
creating equal opportunities for all South Africans, and as
affirmed in the Freedom Charter, and that “The doors of
learning and culture shall be open to all.” I thank you,
Deputy Chair.
Afrikaans:
Baie dankie.
Die ADJUNKVOORSITTER VAN DIE NRVP (Me S E Lucas): ...
[Onhoorbaar.] Baie dankie, Elleck. You know [Jy weet] mos.

 
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English:
I’m glad that you didn’t cough.
Ms D C CHRISTIANS: Thank you, Deputy Chairperson. Hon Deputy
Chairperson, hon members and hon Minister, the Higher
Education system continues to fail young South Africans as
they face a myriad of insurmountable barriers, corruption,
state capture and dysfunctionality. The rise in tuition fees
of 4,3% and accommodation fees of 6,3% has seen many students
stranded and unable to enter university or complete their
courses, yet R143 billion is allocated to the Higher Education
budget.
This is an indication that current fee-free Higher Education
system is not sustainable in the long term as we continue to
see students battle to enter the system and when they do, they
are forced to sleep in unsafe spaces as accommodation
continues to be a huge problem. These students are battling to
complete their courses because other social issues linked to
finances continue to haunt them. Student accommodation in the
Northern Cape higher institutions have been an issue since
2001, especially at Technical and Vocational Education and
Training, TVET, colleges.

 
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No new accommodation facilities have been built for the past
30 years, yet promises were made by government that
accommodation would be a priority. A huge portion of National
Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, bursaries go to student
accommodation yet students are left vulnerable year after year
as Higher Education continues to fail to secure safe and
sustainable accommodation for students. The major challenge,
of course for South Africa’s Higher Education is however, not
the issue of fees, but continued poor access and very high
dropout rates for those who have entered the system.
While there has been an impressive increase in the number of
students from poor households, the proportion of previously
disadvantaged students at South African universities are still
limited. It was recently reported that less than 5% of
previously disadvantaged secondary students with parents
earning less than R120 000 qualify for entry into universities
while the percentage of students with parents earning more
than R600 000 is 70%. Even more disturbing, barely 50% of
undergraduate students have managed to graduate five years
after entry.
Among those being supported by the National Student Financial
Aid Scheme, NSFAS, two-thirds of undergraduate students have

 
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become drop outs five years after entering. Most drop out
after the first year, many because the financial support is
just not sufficient, with accommodation and transport being
too expensive but most because they fail to pass examinations.
Furthermore, there is still no solution for the missing middle
student. This is the student who does not qualify for
financial aid but cannot afford to pay the exorbitant student
fees.
We have spoken about it in every select and portfolio
committee meeting for a number of years now and yet there
seems to be no solution. A task team has now been appointed by
the Minister, but committees have not received any substantial
feedback on the matter. These students eventually become lost
in the system, not in education and not employed. Student debt
continues to be of concern for students and institutions. In
2021, student debt was at a staggering R11 billion and
universities surely cannot scrap this debt as their
functioning will be heavily impacted, however, sadly, students
are left stranded as they cannot graduate or receive their
results.
Gender-based violence continues to plague society and remains
an issue in institutions of higher learning. Not enough is

 
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being done to end this scourge and female students remain of
the most vulnerable in our society despite numerous calls on
the Department of Higher Education and Training by students
and during committee meetings by Members of Parliament. There
seems to be no willpower or no knowledge to change the status
quo. Not sufficient programs or finances aimed towards ending
this scourge are being implemented.
Chairperson, let us focus on the electrical power instability
and load shedding and the impact this has had on institutions.
We have had reports of the Technical and Vocational Education
and Training, TVET, colleges unable to continue their teaching
and learning as many of these courses are practical and depend
on the availability of electricity. Classrooms make use of
smartboards and other electronic devices and have suffered the
consequences of lost time during load shedding. Universities
and Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET,
colleges have had to make massive investments to secure power
supply, many of which do not have sufficient resources which
means load shedding remains critically disruptive to the
sector.
Minister, the country has endured a pandemic, we have been
forced to endure inflation, food and fuel hikes and this

 
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faltering economy will surely have a dire impact on Higher
Education. Graduated doctors and nurses are leaving the
country in droves as there is no work for them and the
university graduate unemployment rate continues to rise as we
see teachers, engineers and other highly qualified young
people leave the country looking for employment elsewhere
because they cannot find placement anywhere in the country.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, once again
has a newly appointed chief executive officer, CEO. We wish
him well with the task at hand but also know that without a
resilient information technology, IT, system for bursary
disbursements the system will continue to be clouded by errors
and vulnerable to fraud and corruption. Additionally, year
after year the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS,
faces huge financial shortfalls. In 2021 the shortfall was
R6 billion and at the beginning of this year the shortfall was
R10 million. Usually these shortfalls are funded by cuts to
universities subsidies and infrastructure grants which in turn
impacts the future growth of these institutions.
Deputy Chairperson, community colleges have recently opened
their doors, however they are already set up for failure as
most provinces do not even have permanent premises and some

 
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programmes are taught in schools after hours. Additionally,
very little is known about the courses offered in 54 pilot
centres across the country and whether they are doing what is
expected of them. With a budget of R2,4 billion for the 2022-
23 financial year, surely more information should be readily
available during committee meetings. The sad truth is that the
entire education system is failing young South Africans.
The Minister of Higher Education recently informed us during a
select committee meeting that 94% of learners who start grade
one did not reach or enter the higher education system. It
seems our young people are set up for failure from entry to
exit level. If our youth are doomed through a dysfunctional
education system our country is doomed. Neither this budget
nor government seems to be able to change this and therefore,
we need to change this government. I thank you.
Ms S B LEHIHI: Deputy Chairperson, the EFF rejects the budget
for Higher Education and Training. We reject this budget as
the Department of Higher Education continues to face numerous
challenges in education, technology, teaching, learning and
research. Challenges faced includes issues related to access
for the vast majority in the country, and it has resulted in

 
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education system that was designed to cater only for a select
few.
Access to former white urban university such as UCT or Wits
are still determined according to racial lines and at the
University of Stellenbosch. Racism is still identified as a
problem. There also exist no considerations, whatsoever for
people living with disabilities in staff compliments. With
while males and females often over represented at a
professorship level. The department has also not conducted any
meaningful work with the universities to ensure that black
South Africans are supported and given incentives to stay on
as academics.
Transformation in higher education sector in South Africa has
a long way to go. The protests by students in universities are
evidence that we still have a long way to go in resolving the
challenges faced. The universities remain costly and there
remains little to no support to missing middle students who do
not qualify for financial aid but also can’t afford to pay
fees.
National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS remains one of
the most critical issues in the universities sector. Yet, the

 
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budget for higher education remain inefficient. Students debt
is one of the many issues of many violent protests action,
with students calling for debts to be scrapped. To date,
thousands of students who were beneficiaries of NSFAS are
unable to access their qualifications as they are told that
NSFAS hasn’t settled their fees and these very poor students
are now expected to settle their fees or never get their
qualifications.
Insufficient affordable students’ accommodation on campuses in
this country and often exist lack of suitable accommodation
for gender nonconforming students and staff. Students residing
outside institutional accommodation continue being vulnerable
to crime even if one pertains to something basic as residence
buses. They don’t have access to that and thus become easy
targets for criminals lacking in surrounding corners knowing
very well that students carry with them laptops, cell phones
and other educational materials of value.
Setswana:
Borra dikgwebo ba kwa magaeng, ba ... [Go sa utlwagale.] ...
go feta bana bao ba tshwanetseng ke go bona matlole a NSFAS.
Phaphosi ele nngwe ya borobalo bole bongwe, e ka lenaka ntlo e
e feletseng kwa toropong. Diyunibesithi di tshwanetse go aga

 
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madulo gore ba kgone go ntsha borra dikgwebo ba ba megagaru,
dijo inong. Maemo a di thutegokgolwane go tshwana le di TVET,
a tota a senyegelwa pele ke dinokwane le mamenemene ba ba
tswang gone mo lefapheng la gago. Ga gona tshegetso kgotsa
ponelopele ka di TVET tsa naga e.
English:
The above issues are an indication that protests by students
in higher learning institutions will continue. As long as
their needs and realities are not addressed. This is not the
responsibility of the university alone. We reject this budget
as it is not adequate for the demands of this sector. This
budget gives university challenges since they have to tap into
their own budget and resources to make up for their financial
constraints in their sector. This has a further impact on
former black universities who continues to struggle in their
... [Inaudible.] ... and an impact on the quality of level of
education offered. Long term solutions are needed for South
Africa’s higher education. None have been offered by this
department. As such, we need to synchronize the goals and
needs of the economy with the number of places available at
these institutions of higher learning.
Setswana:

 
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Re kgwetla lefapha go tshwaragana le diyunibesithi go rebola
dithutego tsa maemo a kwa godimo, a setegeniki le boitsanaape
a a tshwanang le ...
English:
... coding, computer, hardware development, robotics and
biotechnology.
Setswana:
Le go rotloetsa ka boleng le dithutego tseo mo dikolong.
English:
Establishment as satellite campuses, University of Pretoria,
University of Free State, University of North West, they are
facilities of natural, agriculture campuses which will focus
on agriculture and agro-processing. Chairperson, we reject
this budget for Higher Education and Training. We reject the
executives of this department. We reject Mr Blade Nzimande and
his inadequacies. Thank you.
Ms N NDONGENI: Deputy Chair, Ministers and Deputy Ministers on
the platform, permanent and special delegates, ladies and
gentlemen, good afternoon. We debate this important Budget
Vote on Higher Education during Youth Month. A critical month

 
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that reminds us of the struggles that the youth had to endure
in creating a better life for all. It reminds us of June 16
when learners across the nation and in Namibia drew a line
against the oppressive and brutal apartheid regime which
wanted to impose Afrikaans and perpetuate Bantu Education
which was developed to provide inferior education to the black
majority.
Higher education is significant as Lenin emphasised that the
task of the youth is to learn, learn and learn. This is a
critical task because through learning the youth acquire the
knowledge and wisdom to transform themselves, others and the
broader society. The World Declaration on Higher Education for
the Twenty-First Century Vision and Action in 1998 set out the
vision of universities as a common good with an increased
emphasis on equity of access, enhancing participation and
promoting the role of women, long-term orientation based on
relevance, diversification for enhanced equity of opportunity
and innovative educational approaches, critical thinking and
creativity. In essence, the World Declaration locates
universities as a key to socioeconomic transformation. This
then implores us to ask critical questions. We need to ask
whether our higher education institutions are making the

 
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necessary social, political and economic impact to create the
South Africa of our dreams and a better world.
As the African National Congress, ANC, we are outraged by the
perpetual emergence of the ugly head of racism at the
University of Stellenbosch. The inhumane treatment by a white
student who urinated on another student’s belongings who is
black with no resistance and no shame demonstrates that our
path on national reconciliation and social cohesion will
continuously be divided by institutional cultures which
embrace discriminatory practices.
University institutions with cultures which have largely been
shaped by the colonial and apartheid state, in numerous
instances, continue to be embedded in the practices of the
institution. Despite the university’s transformation key
performance areas constituting 20% to 25% of the total key
performance areas, African academic staff increased from 5% to
7%, coloured staff from 12% to 14% and Indian staff from 2% to
3%. This is an expression of the white dominance. This is a
reminder for all of us that the journey of creating a united
and non-racial society will always be disrupted by the ...
[Inaudible.] ... of apartheid. The symbolic dominance of white
supremacy should be dealt with decisively and isolated.

 
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Hon members, apartheid did not only strip the oppressed of
their humanity but the oppressor also lost their humanity. It
is important, as Paulo Freire alluded that, for true
realisation of freedom, the oppressor and the oppressed should
restore their humanity and that the freedom of the oppressed
is not to revenge on the oppressor but to restore the humanity
of both.
The ANC as a liberation movement is in a protective struggle
for social transformation. The post-schooling education and
training, PSET, sector has been a key component of eradicating
a social order which marginalise blacks and women. This Budget
Vote is designed to respond to the commitment made by the ANC
to the people of South Africa in creating equal opportunities
for all South Africans, including those who did not complete
schooling. This Higher Education Budget Vote responds to the
social and economic challenges facing our nation.
The scourge of gender-based violence is a priority of the ANC-
led government and the implementation of the Gender-Based
Violence Policy Framework is a critical intervention for the
sector to ensure all institutions have norms and standards for
addressing issues of Gender-Based Violence, GBV, and awareness
among the student population.

 
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It will be critical for the department to strengthen
monitoring and evaluation systems on policy implementation of
the Gender-Based Violence Framework as other institutions in
the PSET have not implemented the framework. The department
will also be developing and collating transformation material,
curriculum tools and approaches for prevention interventions.
This includes the training and support for the capacity to
deliver gender-based violence and femicide prevention
interventions.
The ANC acknowledges the commitment by the department to hire
health for being part of the integrated GBVF response
strategy. The fact that the majority of student graduates are
women is an important milestone for the sector in transforming
and addressing gender inequality. Incidents of sex-for-marks
and other sexual harassment cases in the PSET sector require
scrutiny and decisive action. We would like to urge our
scholars to use all avenues and systems in place to combat the
pandemic because it is only through their usage that our
people can monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and
efficiency of the government services.
Gender mainstreaming must find expression in our educational
curriculum. Institutional policies and initiatives that are

 
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undertaken within the higher education landscape,
discrimination and racism in some universities require a
systematic transformation. As such, racism is mainly
institutional. We need to teach the youth through this sector
to respect women and internalise the appreciation of women as
equals.
The 2015 and 2016 #Decolonise movement and the #FeesMustFall
movement anchored the consistent call from progressive
sections on the transformation of the higher education content
and research investment. This is because the universities
curriculum is not neutral but responds to particular
conditions. We need to ensure that our universities research
capacity embrace pedagogy thinking and not only embedded
pedagogy thinking in the youth.
The problem facing our society requires a paradigm shift type
of thinking if we are to break the bondage. Research that is
undertaken by different scholars is also shaped and influenced
by institutions that provide such with financial support, and
these can be from the private or public sector. It is
therefore critical to assess the role of the market and what
institutional autonomy can, wittingly or unwittingly, enable.
The transformational and developmental objectives of higher

 
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education institutions should recognise that the powers
conferred by academic freedom go with the duty to deracialise
and decolonise intellectual space and serve the development
priorities of the country. This does not negotiate global
competitiveness academic freedom.
The ANC Strategy and Tactics of 2017 discussed that the
foundation of a national democratic society should be founded
on a thriving economy, the structure of which should reflect
the natural endowment of the country and the creativity that a
skilled population can offer. It should be an economy with
cutting edge technology, labour absorbing industrial
development. Thriving small businesses and co-operatives
sector utilisation of ICT and efficient forms of production
and management all combined to ensure national prosperity. It
requires the deracialisation of ownership and control of
wealth management and professionalism.
The strategic orientation of universities and colleges should
be of advance imperative, as outlined by the ANC Strategy and
Tactics. These are the key economic areas we need to develop
for human capabilities to address if we are to create an
equitable society and develop a strategy which addresses the
triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

 
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Hon Minister, a review of transformation of higher education
and its socioeconomic impact, 27 years since the democratic
dispensation, is necessary and should provide an opportunity
to assess higher education as is and to envision an outlook
towards an extent to 20 years. The review should be done in
the context of the socioeconomic impact of higher education in
society. The review should expand transformation not only
limited to racial aspects but a holistic socio-political and
economic impact. The review should contribute to policy
development in the higher education sector and legislative
imperatives which advance the vision of transformed higher
education in South Africa. We must guard against the use of
institution autonomy to evade public accountability but rather
be a tool to harness co-operative governance in the sector.
The ANC support this Budget Vote as an instrument of the ANC
policy implementation. If we are to address the triple
challenge in our society we need to build a capable
developmental state which can intervene in the economy and
also give strategic direction to social institutions to
realise national imperative. I thank you, Deputy Chair.
Mr M A P DE BRUYN: Hon Deputy Chairperson, higher education is
one of the most fundamental necessities to ensure the

 
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economically successful country. This basically applies to
South Africa. There is no secret that we have an enormous
shortfall when it comes to a qualified and educated workforce.
This shortfall is not as a result of the youth that is
unwilling to study further after school or funding for less
fortunate students or even the access to higher education
facilities.
It is this department and the way it is run that is to blame.
Under this department, universities across South Africa, has
lost the ability to provide sustainable and uninterrupted
education. In this year alone, months were lost due to student
protest and we are now already in June. The fact is most of
these protest actions are either politically motivated or are
as a result of this department not delivering on its promises.
Unrealistic promises in most cases.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, the National Student Financial Aid
Scheme, NSFAS, was supposed to be the pillar of hope for
students who truly wanted to better their lives and contribute
to the success of a developing South Africa. However, instead,
it has deteriorated to yet another ANC failure of corruption,
fraud and irregular expenditures.

 
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Over the last few years NSFAS reportedly had a loss of more
R50 billion of irregular expenditures. It was also reported
that it has subsidized more than 440 000 ghost students up
until 2021.
Deputy Chairperson, with an average cost of R105 000 for a
full time student getting a degree in South Africa, 476 000
students could have received their degrees with that same
R50 billion. The hon Minister stated that NSFAS is not a
grant. I quote him when he said:
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, is not a
grant. You are given this money because you qualify
irrespective of whether you have been taken into an
institution.
Hon Minister, if you receive money from the government, then
you do not have to pay it back. It is a grant. It does not
matter how you phrase it. It is no wonder that thousands of
students do not care if the graduate or not, because they know
that if he or she is enrolled with NSFAS they will receive the
funds to live the student life of the government’s time
without any consequences.

 
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If any NSFAS students that received a degree and is earning a
salary today, because of NSFAS had to pay back only half of
the funds received, imagine how many more students could have
been funded to study? However, this department would rather
flush money down the drain instead of committing itself to a
financially viable plans and procedures.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, in 2021 the estimated costs of
vandalism cost by student protests amounted to R32,8 million
by the end of the first quarter. That could have paid for
another 312 degrees. However, instead of addressing these
protesters on authority on consequence management the ANC, EFF
and this department would rather use these protests as
political agendas and gains. In doing so, they are depriving
thousands of potential students the opportunity to better
themselves and contribute to the economy.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, this reminds me of a dog that is
extending its own tail for days on end without even receiving
anything. I can go on and on with statistics and figures and
examples and so on and so forth, but the fact of the matter
remains, if this department cannot even address these basic
issues, it is very doubtful that it will be able to address
anything else.

 
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Everything I have said today, is happening under the oversight
of the Minister and this department. It clearly highlights the
mismanagement and the incompetence of this department.
Therefore, no budget presented by this department can be
accepted. Thank you.
Mr M R BARA: Hon Deputy Chairperson, hon members, hon
Minister, section 29 of the SA Constitution enshrines the
right to education and define positive responsibilities of the
state in this respect. The Constitution clearly states and I
quote, “Everyone has a right to a basic education, including
adult basic education and to further education.”
However, in South Africa, this is far from being real.
Students from lower economic backgrounds find it challenging
to gain access to higher education. For a number of reasons
for a lack of basic career guidance, many students are unable
to meet the maximum requirements for admission and funding.
Every year students prepare for long queues hoping to be
granted an opportunity to greener pastures through
institutions of higher learning where they can change the
plight of poverty and break the curse of inequality in their
homes, however this remains nothing but a dream to some. This

 
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is due to the struggle of having to travel to faraway places
and still have no success gaining access to schooling, as a
result these kids become prey to this cruel society that is
battling the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide.
Truth be told, the challenges facing South African higher
education is linked to the wider crisis of poor economic
growth, higher youth unemployment and the paralysing effect of
the political crisis surrounding the ANC leadership and
government.
Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the inequalities
within and between universities as some institutions were
ready to move teaching online and continue with the academic
term, whereas others faced severe constraints related to
students, poor access to technology and poor socioeconomic
circumstances.
On top of all these challenges to access education the most
crucial one is access to funding, the National Student
Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, has failed dismally to be of help
to many students, with some dropping out of school because the
promised funding is nowhere to be found, some students resort
into humiliating social behavior patterns just to keep going

 
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while NSFAS is playing hide and seek and the Department of
Higher Education, Science and Innovation does not offer any
kind of assistance to alleviate this anxiety.
I recently followed a conversation on social media where
concerns were raised about the anxiety and mental state of
students at the University of Free State due to a number of
reasons including hunger, to nonpayment by NSFAS. One student
claims that she packed her things on Sunday and went home
because her mental health comes first. Some were even suicidal
as a result of disappointment and frustrations. On top of
hunger due to failure of NSFAS not coming through, there are
further allegations of violence, rape and tribalism.
I urge the Department of Higher Education, Science and
Innovation to urgently follow-up on these allegations both in
Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa campus. This is just the tip of the
iceberg and could not only be the problem of the University of
Free State, but a national crisis facing students. Minster,
your department needs to urgently attend to these challenges
to save these students.

 
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In the beginning of every year we encourage learners to also
apply to Technical and Vocational Education and Training,
TVET, colleges so as to minimise pressure on universities.
However, there is a lot that needs to be done to ensure that
TVET colleges are able to deliver the best while ensuring that
the future of their learners is guaranteed. There are known
challenges with colleges that are in rural areas like lack of
infrastructure, poverty, poorly resourced campuses, high
turnover of staff, limited course offerings, lack of policies
and lack of financial assistance for disadvantaged students.
Most of the challenges faced by staff at campuses are related
to the centralization of services.
Therefore, Deputy Chairperson, we have to make TVET colleges
viable both in human resources and facilities. The TVET
colleges are closer to people and communities, meaning they
can lessen the cost of education access and delivery for
students. However, the funding model for TVET colleges does
not seem to be transparent enough and needs to be addressed.
We also have to find innovative solutions for these colleges
to generate third income streams. There is a need for greater
private sector involvement and TVET college collaboration
because we see that most companies do their own in house

 
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learnerships to impart vocational skills they need and that
makes TVET colleges redundant.
The Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation,
should prioritise the provision of integrated basket of
services that will assist students to cope with all the
pressures of the institutions of higher learning. This can be
done by forging working relations with other government
departments to bring a comprehensive solution to the mental
state of students in those institution.
Over 30% of university students have experienced a common
mental disorder in the past year. In South Africa, statistics
shows that 21% of first year students had experienced anxiety
and 13,6% had experienced depression. Additionally, they found
30,6% of students had thoughts of suicide in the past 12
months, 16,6% made suicidal plans and 2,4% had attempted
suicide.
In conclusion Deputy Chairperson, I want to propose that there
should be a discussion on the challenges confronting our
institutions of higher learning so as to engage and address
the state of funding and accountability as well as curriculum
across TVET colleges. I thank you.

 
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The DEPUTY HOUSE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you, hon Bara. While I am
now giving to the hon Hadebe, the hon Rayi will continue with
presiding over the debate. Over to you, hon Hadebe. Hon Rayi.
Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, higher education
is a fundamental driver of economic development and
upliftment. Whilst we welcome the number of graduates leaving
universities who are filled with wisdom and insights for the
future, we have no place for them to go.
Our economy is in drastic decline and even though we have seen
a small decrease in unemployment in South Africa, it remains
insufficient to absorb the number of graduates exiting higher
education.
If a comprehensive strategic plan was available to government,
then we would see that funding for higher education is
directly linked to the employment market.
We must be cognisant to the fact that a brain drain in Africa
and especially South Africa, is one of the biggest threats to
our developmental state.

 
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Whilst people peruse employment abroad, it is our government
that has to foot the bill for people to receive education.
Unfortunately, we cannot afford to pay for the education and
skills to be taken elsewhere as we have our own developmental
agenda to that needs to address further inequalities other
than education.
We need to encourage development in our rural areas. One way
to do so would be to invest in infrastructure projects that
bring desirable educational facilities that are aligned with
the needs of our country.
The IFP calls for a greater alignment of skills in the
education and employment sector. These two sectors must work
hand in hand to support each other’s needs and outputs. At the
basic education level, infrastructure and support remains
unequal. At the level of higher education, it is virtually
non-existent. Why is this so hon Minister?
Small rural towns have greatly benefitted from being homes to
large tertiary institutions, for example, Stellenbosch and
Rhodes University. It is now time for other rural towns to
develop through being a home to fully equipped accredited
tertiary institutions.

 
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The township and rural economies will greatly benefit and
evolve into greater economic hubs through an accelerated
programme of housing tertiary institutions in rural areas.
Whilst we can see the clear benefits of carrying out such
projects, the budget imposed by government is depressing when
it comes to addressing the inequality amongst our most
vulnerable and marginalized.
In closing, hon Chairperson, I wish to state that the IFP,
nevertheless, supports the budget vote. I thank you.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M Rayi): Thank you very much, hon
Hadebe. And also thanks to the Deputy Chairperson and
greetings to hon members and the Minister.
The next speaker is now hon Gade ... [Interjections.]
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Hon Rayi, on a point of order. With respect
and I hate to do this to you but I’m not aware that there was
any election of you as a Presiding Officer. I believe that
we’ve got the two House Chairpersons, the Deputy Chair and the
Chairperson as Presiding Officers that have been elected and
sworn-in as such. I just need some clarity as to how and where

 
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the decision was made that you can stand-in as Presiding
Officer? I just need some clarity on that, thank you.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M Rayi): Is that a vote of no
confidence, hon Michalakis? Hon Deputy Chair, can you please
clarify! [Interjections.]
Mr G MICHALAKIS: No, I just need [Inaudible.] no, no, no,
that’s why I say I hate to do this to you. I have all the
confidence in you but we have to follow the procedure in the
House, surely, hon Rayi. You can be as competent as ... well,
it’s not very, very difficult to the most competent Presiding
Officer amongst the five of you. But what I can just say to
you is that we need to follow procedure before you can just be
appointed to the Chair and I would like just for you to
satisfy my question in that sense. How and when did this
election take place? Thank you very much.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M Rayi): It is in the Rules there,
hon Michalakis, that Chairperson can appoint any of the
members of the NCOP to preside, Rule 12. If you can consult
the Rule [Inaudible.] Thanks so much.
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Thank you very much.

 
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Mr J J LONDT: I just think they are trying [Inaudible.] hon
Rayi to replace Ngwenya, and I’m all for that.
Mr F D GADE (Eastern Cape): Hon Chair, Deputy Chair, hon
Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members, allow me to say
your established protocol is observed.
In every facet of our lives, today, we are experiencing some
sort of hardship, whether it is as a result of unresolved
historical injustice or as a result of ... [Inaudible.]
factors that are currently manifesting themselves, as a result
of geopolitics that we are experiencing today.
However, under such material conditions for any developing
country like ours, this is situation is presenting itself, an
opportunity for the incumbent to review its strategic view,
either review some policy directives, reviews some economic
policies and foreign policies. That does not mean that we have
to reinvent the wheel, but at this particular epoch and also
era, we are compelled to continuously subject everything under
the sun to the judgement of the city of reason.
We don’t just do things because they’ve been done in the past.
This is a task that is so important before all of us as

 
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leadership, but equally urgently. It is urgently because of
its own current prevailing material conditions.
Our productive forces need to be developed so that we can be
able to grow the economy of the people and so as to ensure
that from the dividends of the growth we can have more
economic opportunities and create the jobs we have promised.
This will require a progressive social impact which would
respond to the much needed investments in terms of the actual
funds, skills and technology.
More importantly, the focus would have to start with basic
education sector, the higher education sector, where knowledge
production takes place. And I think this where we are all
missing the point, the theatre of production of knowledge is
in educations, whether basic or high. So, any development
trajectory in any developing nation must take the pattern from
those two sectors. So, that’s why I’m bringing that discussion
here, so that we can understand each other, both at an
ideological and political level, what should be line of march
moving from here.

 
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This is why the Minister, through his budget, is putting
concrete systems and measures that would enable the
implementation of the progressive policies to improve
students’ access, internal capacity and quality of teaching
and learning, including the research and the support,
curriculum renewal in our universities and the Technical and
Vocational Education and Training, Tvet, sector.
This is also done to ensure that our education system as a
whole can adapt to the ever-changing environment in our
society and ensure that we have a system that remains
resilient, that is responsive and that is able to tilt some
changes at the level of the baseline, where things are
happening.
Hon Chair and hon members, our efforts should be to ensure
that the education system remains resilient and under any
circumstances at the basic education level, there are measures
in place to ensure and to establish, for example, in the
Eastern Cape, the online learning programmes, so as to bring
in some alternative initiatives of teaching and learning as a
direct response to the lessons that we have learnt out of the
COVID-19 and also, remember we are a generation of viruses, it
may be covid today but I can assure you tomorrow it’s going to

 
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be something else. So, there is a need of a strategic thinking
from the leadership and a serious advanced one so that we are
able to contend with the forces of balances as we move along
with the development of the country, in general.
This is also as a result of ensuring a complementing effort of
the Department of Higher Education such that as those
interventions could be able to ensure that they respond to the
increase of the Grade 12 passes through the mathematics and
science and technology, which are the gateways in term of the
basic education in the country.
These interventions are done through the Department of Science
and Innovation through developing collaborations with the
provincial Departments of Education to support maths and
science and technology.
In addition, to ensure the holistic response to the matter of
scare skills in our country and improvement in our education
system as a whole, the Department of Basic Education has
developed the three important initiatives in progress. It has
successfully implemented a shift on the Early Childhood
Development, ECD, function-shift from Department of Social
Development, DSD, to enable the basic education from the

 
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foundation phase level. This is done as a direct response of
the ruling party’s perspective that cognitive development and
learning in kids begins on the first day of his or her birth,
up until the 1 000 days. So, if you miss that point at that
time, you run a risk of being found wanting, whether that
individual kid can be located within the streams that we are
beginning to develop.
We would want also, through you Chairperson, to enlight that
we have also introduced one of the serious programmes which
the country must take it up. The provisioning of the mother
tongue bilingual education. Because for us language is not an
academic matter, but it is a defining instrument in terms of
social relations, and therefore, advancing an argument in
terms of democratization of society and also advancing
argument in terms of decolonization of education in the
country so that you can be able to ensure the democratization
of the theatre of production of knowledge in the classroom and
also in the lecture room as well. It then gives us a space to
create a balance between the interpretation, reading,
understanding, analysis, engaging of information at the level
of the learners and students and as well at the level of
lecture rooms. Hence this programme is quite critical for us
to engage extensively so that we can be able to define

 
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ourselves in a proper context and also ensure that the
evolution of the South African people and the evolution of the
sector itself does correspond with what we ought to define
ourselves as who we are. It must not just be an accident of
history that we are Africans, we must be able to engage
extensively what does that mean.
Chairperson and members, therefore, we are called upon to
reflect on this hon House not only about ...
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M Rayi): As you conclude, hon
MEC.
Mr F D GADE (Eastern Cape: MEC for Education): Let’s quickly
go to the conclusion, Chair. We have tried our level best to
ensure that we bring in some level of Information and
Communications Technology, ICT, infrastructure development as
part of the three-streamed model that has been developed by
the basic education in the country. As also trying to align
what then becomes the thesis of the basic education in the
country, and what then becomes the basic thesis of the higher
education in the country. That correspondence, those
dialectics can be able to give us a new character of a South

 
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African citizenry that is able to comprehend with what ought
to happen in the country in general.
Thanks, hon Chair, for the opportunity that has been granted
to us and hon members and Minister and Deputy Ministers and
invited guests.
Mr D R RYDER: Hon Chairperson, this debating cycle has seen
one phrase repeated regularly, “South Africa is the most
unequal society in the world.” I pointed out to this House
last week that the ANC’s failed model of Broad-Based Black
Economic Empowerment, BBBEE has in fact worsened the
inequality in South Africa and this is borne out by the Gini
Coefficient measurement of the World Bank.
Today I would like to point out that the ANC’s funding of
education has a similar impact on inequality, favouring the
less than 7% of the population who will get a tertiary
education. Now, hon Christians alluded to this in her
contribution today and I would like to explore it little more
deeply. Hon members, if you choose to rubber stamp this
Cabinet’s budget vote, you will be allocating an amount to
higher education that is three times what we are allocating to
basic education. Think about that.

 
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More concerning is the planned remodelling of the education
funding environment that is phrased out in the medium-term
expenditure framework which shows that programme 3 of the
vote, which deals with university education specifically. It
is increasing by a rate double that of any basic education
programme. This programme already gets for over 68% of the
departments expenditure and now it has been increased at a
rapid rate to benefit the very few who make it to university.
Make no mistake. I think that future leaders should be
empowered no matter what their financial circumstance are, but
the disastrous failure of National Student Financial Aid
Scheme, Nsfas gives me no confidence that this money will be
an investment in our future economy as it should be. The
underfunding of schools means that too many of our children
are receiving a poor basic education, and now this government
intervenes at the end of the education cycle by funding
university education. That is like planting a mielie meal and
starving it of water until just before it crowns, and then
overwatering it. The result will be a stunted plant that gives
you a very sparse harvest.
You do not have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer
Minister to know that the results will not be what you hoped

 
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for. Minister you stood before us today asking for support,
yet you are famous for not standing and listen to students and
listening to what their real needs are. But what have you done
to fix Nsfas? We cannot be asked to be throwing water into a
leaky bucket. Not only is the whole Nsfas system broken, but
we do not know what its true value is.
I normally try to disagree with Hon De Bruyn, if only on
general principle, but today he raised the important issue of
the need for the Nsfas grants to give a return to South
Africa. Minister can you tell us how many students have been
funded by Nsfas, how many of them have received degrees, and
how many of those are now adding value into our economy?
Probably not.
Perhaps one day Mr Radebe will explain to us how it is that he
can come up here and explain all the reasons why a budget vote
is absolutely misguided, and then at the end of the speech
state that the IFP supports the budget. I look forward to the
reopening of Barneys and we can talk about that. Hon
Christians spoke about the student accommodation challenges.
This has pushed students into inadequate accommodation. Then
Hon Bara spoke about the culture at universities, not of
learning, but of rape, tribalism, violence and unacceptable

 
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behaviour. Just take the suburb of Bedworth Park which has
become a terrible place to live as students have crammed into
student housing and they run amok. Minister the opportunity to
learn should be cherished. It seems that much of the funding
is not hitting the right targets.
Hon Ndongeni, I am not sure who wrote your speech for you
today, but they need to come and spend some time in Sebokeng
and see the wonderful, intelligent, energised, smart young
people there, who have no opportunity to get into university
because of the poor education foundation they have had, as SA
Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu continues the work of
Verwoerd, keeping education at its lowest level, and making a
matric certificate a rare commodity.
As I conclude Chair, Cabinet does not have to call it zero-
based budgeting if that does not tie in with their ideological
obsessions, but they do need to seriously need to look at the
logic and desirability of focussing all of this funding in a
space where it continues to entrench poverty and inequality.
These programmes and this budget vote need urgent reassessment
rather than incrementalism. Please spend money on education,
but do it in the right place. I thank you.

 
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Ms M N GILLION: House Chairperson, allow me first to greet the
Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson and the Chief Whip of
the NCOP, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and
Innovation, the Deputy Minister, the Members of Executive
Council, MECs, all delegates and special delegates present.
Hon House Chairperson, it is no surprise that the DA speakers
are running all over the country. But not once condemn the
behaviour of the student incident in Stellenbosch. Now, hon
House Chairperson we are worried about out the outcomes of ...
[Inaudible.] ... university qualification accreditation, South
African Qualifications Authority, SAQA, which will negatively
impact graduates and students in the university due to the non
accredited qualifications.
This is a ... [Inaudible.] ... reality, and we share the pain
and frustration of the graduates and students impacted by this
tragic oversight. We call on the department and the
university, to undertake a thorough investigation, on the
matter. And ensure that heads roll and those who have caused
this tragic act are held accountable.
A crisis incurred by students and the time spent by the
students is irrecoverable. The delivery of teaching is a hefty

 
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cost, which highlights the massive financial loss by students
and the university, as no outcomes are achieved due to the non
accreditation.
This experience hon Minister, requires the department to
further support universities and strengthen quality assurance
systems, so that such acts do not prevail in our higher
education system.
A reputational damage on this university and our higher
education system should be mitigated through strengthening the
robustness of our systems. The Sixth Administration combined
the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of
Higher Education and Training into one ministry.
This development, is a critical development, as it recognizes
the interrelatedness of the two departments despites the
distinct roles. Higher education and science and innovation
are interconnected in the research and the development
ecosystem. The limitation this far is the systemic integration
of the two departments integrating its planning and budgeting.
We need to envision how we integrate the departments without
undermining the distinct core mandate. But to integrate them

 
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to enhance education and learning outcomes and to link
research in higher education with innovation, with our society
and economy requires. If we are to be competitive and to
develop new economic sectors and fourth industrial revolution
capabilities.
Without adapting our education and skill development system to
align with these changes will result in a slow developmental
trajectory relative to other nations which have invested
significant resources in artificial intelligence. The internet
of things, coding and robotics blog chain and other emerging
innovations.
Hon Minister, the University of Johannesburg has demonstrated
that institutions can take a paradigm shift in adapting to the
changing world. The university has not only positioned itself
as a key driver of the fourth industrial revolution in South
Africa, but as when improving in all critical indicators of
the universities.
Researchers from this university have developed a three
deprenting technique to build government funded houses in one
day. The use school of civil engineering and the built
environment is working on pilot project for the national

 
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Department of Higher Education Science and Innovation to
investigate the possible use of three deprenting for
constructing Reconstruction Development Plan, RDP houses, for
impoverished household.
Three deprenting houses allow for creating components on
unlimited architectural flexibility and higher precision,
reducing healthy and safety risk and increase production
efficiency. According to a cost analysis from the huger
quality surveyor, the world played all blog world in the
construction, could cost around R32 000 less than conventional
building methods.
This reflects strategic orientation of the university in
meeting domestic social needs and innovation to resolve
problems. We need to develop a Metrix that is safe, monitor
and evaluate work of the university in responding to our
domestic social and economic needs.
The coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated how difficult skills
and technology developments can become central in business
processes and the economy in general. While the Far Infrared
Ray, FIR, can introduce artificial intelligence and automation
of production, new opportunity industries, will also develop

 
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and the curriculum of the Technical and Vocational Education
and Training, TVET, sectors should adapt to these changing
conditions.
Adaption of education should not only be at the university
level, but across the post whole schooling education and
training sector. Failure to adopt our training and curriculum
will result in leaving many workers behind.
Hon House Chairperson, it is important to note that we need to
increase our doctorate graduates as a nation to increase our
research capacity. We also must increase the number of
doctorate academic capacity in our universities as the average
number of the academics with doctorates as the highest
qualification in the sector in 2019, was 47,7% which is
slightly below 2018.
This reflects an increasing demand for Doctor of Philosophy,
Ph.D. graduates in our economy, as universities struggle to
increase their doctoral capacity.
Hon members, to increase research output, funding needs to be
provided to increase. And the government remains the
significant contributor to research funding. Government even

 
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increase research funding during the pandemic height period
which yielded evident outcomes. We need to increase research
intensity across all universities. The fact that other
universities had a low output rate and low through put rate
requires the department to provide further support.
Hon Minister, we welcome the fact that since the
implementation of the research output policy, the South
African Higher Education sector has witnessed an increase in
the number of research publications produced by the
universities and across all publication types. The total
number of publications has increased from 7230 units in 2005
to 21 019 units in 2019. Which translates into a compound
average annual grow rate of 7,92%.
Hon Minister, we need to strengthen articulation in the
Primary Science Teaching Tust, PSTT sector. We also need to
address the inequality in institutions, in rural areas, which
are largely historical disadvantaged institutions.
And when we conceptualize the integration of higher education
and science and innovation, we must focus under economic
integration of universities with the low economic development,

 
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so that they become critical catalytic institutions, which
make an impact in the communities.
We must encourage our universities to work with local
government and various state organs to respond to challenges
faced these empowering students with real practical life
problems, which will enhance the learning.
Hon House Chairperson, the ANC supports this budget vote and
we recognize the tremendous progress made in improving the
Basic Skills Competency Test, BSCT sector. I thank you, House
Chair.
IsiXhosa:
Mnu M NHANHA: Heyi Ngconde, siyakufanela esi sihlalo usuke
wamhle.
English:
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M I Rayi): You are out of order.
Hon member, you are out of order.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION: Hon
Chair, I hope that my minutes were not taken by that comment
which I agree with, myself. I would like to thank hon

 
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Nchabeleng and all other members of the IFP who supported this
budget and also those who participated here from the ANC.
Thanks also for the recognition of the excellent work done by
this government in terms of improving access to post school
education and training.
You know, I do not really want to waste time and unfortunately
their fellow travellers, the EFF who are always seeing the
blind side of things. I just want to respond to this thing of
saying we have done nothing and there is no progress and that
this National Student Financial Aid Scheme, Nsfas is not
working. I want to say this for the country to know that 62%
of our students in our universities for example, are funded by
Nsfas and above the same number of graduates each year are
from Nsfas.
Research shows that student support by Nsfas on average
perform better than non-Nsfas students in the work that they
actually do. So, that is the achievement of this government.
There might be problems here and there which are attended by
the institutions and Nsfas itself. Also I do want to say that
DA cannot talk as if nothing is being done about the missing
middle class. This year, the state is likely to spend a
billion rand in supporting the missing middle whilst the

 
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Ministerial Task Team is actually attending to these matters
that I am raising.
I think also it is correct, by the way, to strongly condemn
the DA, Freedom Front Plus and their fellow travellers
AfriForum because they have been really mute on the
Stellenbosch incident. The DA has been like it is actually
having a hot potato on its mouth in terms of coming out in
condemning this. AfriForum has been quiet, the Freedom Front
Plus is also been quiet and they should actually be ashamed of
themselves that in this day and age in South Africa, they will
actually keep quiet about this. I think there is a problem in
the DA which has actually been captured by hon member Ryder.
Hon Ryder is against affirmation of black people in this
country, affirmation of women in this country and therefore,
the DA’s problem with Nsfas is that it is supporting black
students from poor families. That is the issue. They are
against the BBBEE. They are against Nsfas because it is
actually correcting the wrongs of the past and actually
empowering young black South Africans to become better. That
is what the DA has got the issue for. I am glad that hon Ryder
has managed to actually say it loud and clear.

 
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I also, by the way, would like to say to hon Radebe, thank you
very much for supporting for supporting us but we are doing a
lot by the way and we have done a lot to change the image of
the Tvet Colleges. Amongst other things, we have extended
Nsfas to support students at Tvet Colleges and we are now
increasing graduate placements. If students know that when
they finish they will get placement and 75% of the people who
get learnerships and apprenticeship end up getting jobs and
being employed.
We are also then by this facilitating what we call transition
from manage to work. Well, thank you for the IFP for its
support because at least you can actually understand this. Hon
MEC Gade, I think you are raising very important points about
the fact that we should see the education system as one single
continual and that foundational education is as important
because often the problems we deal with in the Higher
Education, Science and Innovation problems that have not been
dealt with in the earlier phases. That is why we work very
close with the Department of Basic Education.
I thought conclude one of the things that I should have said
is that our Department of Science and Innovation has been
playing a very important role even in the disasters of floods

 
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in KwaZulu-Natal with the technology that we have. I want to
say to you members of the NCOP that all the provinces and not
just KwaZulu-Natal we are available as the Department of
Science and Innovation to use our space science technologies
to be able to deal with the threats of climate change and the
disasters that they bring along. Thank you very much to all
the members and thanks to hon Chairperson.
IsiZulu:
Siyabonga.
Sepedi:
Re a leboga.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 28 — Police, Vote No 21 — Civilian Secretariat for the
Police Service, Vote No 24 —Independent Police Investigative
Directorate:
The MINISTER OF POLICE: Hon Chairperson, hon members, it’s
been a long day, but we are still standing. Hon Ministers on

 
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the platform, Deputy Ministers, chairperson of the select
committee, National Commissioner of the SA Police Service,
SAPS, National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime
Investigation, DPCI, Acting Secretary of Police, DPCI judge,
and everybody, good afternoon. Today, I present to the
National Council of Provinces the Budget Vote of the Police,
the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, and
the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service, CSPS,
respectively. Hon members, police stations remain our critical
point of service delivery. It is on that score that our
strategic focus during this financial year is to channel and
direct all available resources both physical and financial
including programmes that directs our policy and oversight
responsibilities to improve service delivery at police station
level. In this regard, provincial commissioners have been
directed to meet bi-weekly with station commanders to discuss
growing crime trends and deploy immediate intervention
measures.
The Civilian Secretariat for Police Service in collaboration
with the provincial Secretariat have been directed to
literally camp at police stations to ensure effective and
efficient oversight.

 
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While Minmec has taken a resolution to rotate the hosting of
this strategic meeting to different provinces, day one of
Minmec is characterised by police station visits to high crime
stations led by all MECs and provincial commissioners
supported by the Lieutenant-Generals from the national office
in that specific policing precinct that is hosting Minmec. In
addition to this, the national police management has been
directed to intensify the guardianship programme of police
stations. All strategic interventions are aimed at improving
service delivery at station level.
Chairperson, the notion of the legendary three-legged pot
perfectly embodied the working arrangement in the Ministry of
Police, together with the supporting entities which have
reinforced and regrouped in support of a call to action, of
taking steps to strengthen our democracy and reaffirm our
commitment to a Constitution that protects us.
Chairperson, even the strongest three-legged pot cannot
perform miracles in the absence of adequate collection of
strong firewood. Therefore, after constructive deliberations
and progressive diagnosis, we all agreed that the strongest
firewood that will make the three-legged pot, Police, Ipid and
the Civilian Secretariat to be effective and efficient, is the

 
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communities we serve. Hence, we dedicate this Budget Vote to
rebuilding and strengthening community relations in the fight
against crime. Today, we say, “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,
iphoyisa, iphoyisa ngomphakathi” [I am who I am because of
you, the police officer is a police officer because of the
community]. We are anchoring our police to the communities we
serve. We are advocating for progressive change. Communities
must be able to say these are our police and the police must
equally embrace communities and continue to serve and protect.
His excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa during the state of
the nation address said I quote:
Another area of immediate attention will be the re-
establishment of community policing forums to improve
relations and co-ordination between local police and
residents of the areas they serve.
Hon members, you would recall that the establishment of the
community police forums, CPFs, is provided for in section
221(2) of the Constitution and section 19(1) of the SA Police
Services Act, Act 68 of 1995. The CPFs and business together
with the police must establish and maintain a partnership with
the community, promote communication between the police and

 
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the community. Furthermore, they must promote co-operation and
ensure that the police fulfil the needs of the community in
respect of policing, improve the service of the police to the
community, improve transparency and accountability of the SA
Police Service and promote joint problem identification and
problem solving. To date, there are currently 772 functional
CPFs countrywide.
The death of over 300 people during the week-long lawlessness
that befell us in July last year, will remain one of the
darkest times in our democratic history. Hence we must work on
it. Equally, the civil unrest in July 2021 called for clear
reforms of security services and at the same time exposed the
divide between the police and the communities they serve. The
police needed the community and the community needed the
police. But it was clear community policing was at its weakest
and there was little to no trust between the police and the
communities.
The July 2021 unrests that engulfed South Africa posed a
serious security threat to the country’s economy and
highlighted some security gaps in intelligence-driven
collaboration between the private security industry and other
government law enforcement agencies.

 
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In responding decisively to the July unrests, a total of 19
instigators of violence were arrested including those who
meted untold brutality to another race group, under the
disguise of defending their community and property during the
unrest. To date 36 suspects have been arrested for their
alleged respective roles in the murder of 35 people and 31
people have been arrested for attempted murder.
Meanwhile, the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority,
Psira, has conducted an analysis to determine what went wrong
and what needs to be improved in terms of the private security
industry’s involvement as a force-multiplier in the fight
against crime and the protection of the country’s economy.
The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority believes
that a concerted effort in building relations between the
industry and other law enforcement agencies in terms of
information gathering and sharing will go a long way in
preventing similar incidents in the future. In line with the
many improvements to follow, the collaboration of Psira, SAPS
and the State Security Agency SSA will see the authority
launching a mandatory counter-terrorism awareness campaign in
the form of 40 hours of training for the private security
industry in the next two quarters of this financial year. The

 
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Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority and SAPS will
collaborate to ensure a practical working relationship between
the private security industry and State Security agencies in
line with the established and existing partnership frameworks.
Hon members, I deliver this Budget Vote with a clear
presidential directive in mind for the police to be embedded
in the communities they serve.
Chairperson, I present to you the SA Police Service Budget
Vote 28 for this financial year to the amount of
R100,695 billion, the Independent Police Investigative
Directorate Budget Vote 24, to the amount of R357 million and
the Department of the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service
Budget Vote 21, to the amount of R150 228 million. The SA
Police Service has allocated R10 million to support community
outreach programmes. The robust and progressive community
engagements through izimbizo will continue to gain priority
and momentum going forward.
Our visits to Pimville, Diepsloot, Botshabelo, Mahikeng,
Lusikisiki, Delft, Khayelitsha, Loskop Amangwe, Daggakraal,
Phoenix, Amaoti, Malamulele, Bushbuckridge, Paballelo and many

 
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more are evident towards achieving our goal of promoting
community participation in governance.
In responding effectively to public unrests, capacitation of
public order policing through recruitment has been
prioritised. The public order policing, POP, will receive an
additional 4 000 members during this financial year. An amount
of R150 million was allocated to the operational response
environment as part of once off allocations over a three-year
period for capital modernisation, including procurement of
armoured vehicles and aircraft. A further R9 million
allocation has been set aside for the procurement of
protective gear for POP members.
Provinces with the highest incidence of reported crime have
been prioritised in terms of the allocation of baseline
budgets. The top 30 high contact crime weight stations have
been prioritised in terms of resources, which includes an
additional budget allocation of R62 million. The Kwa-Zulu
Natal, Eastern and Western Cape provinces including Gauteng
will have over R10 million each in this regard.
An amount of R25 million additional allocation will be
directed to safety and security at police stations across all

 
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provinces. An amount of R100 million has be allocated towards
the resourcing of the family violence, child protection and
sexual offences, FCS, Units and geared towards the overall
gender-based violence, GBV, action plan. The KwaZulu- Natal,
Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Limpopo provinces
received the biggest allocation of funds in this regard. The
Gauteng province will receive the highest amount of this
budget with over R18 million and the KwaZulu- Natal province
and Western Cape have been allocated over R15 million each
towards the fight against what has been termed the second
pandemic.
A further R26 million additional funding will continue to
capacitate the antigang units in this regard. The Western Cape
province has the lion share of this budget with R10 million
allocated towards preventing, combating and investigating gang
violence in that province. This budget has also been allocated
to police organised crime involving gangs in the Free State,
Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
Hon members, this budget will support continued efforts and
operational plans to deal with stations that contributes high
murder and attempted murder statistics including other violent
crimes. The additional budget allocations over and above the

 
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baseline budget must make a difference in Umlazi, Inanda,
Plessislaer, Harare, Kraaifontein, Delft, Mfuleni,
Khayelitsha, Kagiso, Thohoyandou and Lusikisiki and others.
Station Commanders and their members, including provincial
commissioners and their management teams, will have to occupy
the streets more often than before and saturate these places
with continuous crime prevention and multidisciplinary
operations. This budget allocation must be spent to its
entirety. We will not accept any roll overs in this financial
year.
Key in achieving the ultimate goal of halving violent crimes
by 2030, policing at station level must be enhanced and
adequately resourced. This includes significant investment
towards boosting the morale of our members. No matter the
willingness of the communities to enhance partnerships with
the police, a demoralised workforce will not add value in the
fight against crime. We therefore call upon the National
Commissioner and his management to prioritise the wellness of
police members across the board. I am happy to announce that
the last leg of the agreement reached with organised labour
during 2018 will be implemented. This agreement will see 8 607
constables and sergeants promoted to sergeants and warrant

 
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officers respectively. These promotions will contribute
significantly to an improvement in employee morale.
The organisation seeks to renew the trust and confidence
amongst the people of South Africa through enhanced service
and performance. With every planned rebuilding project, there
is a design or a plan that must be followed. The required
materials to build a credible and solid structure are being
prioritised. After all, trust is earned when action meets
words.
There are four pillars that form the cornerstone of the
rebuilding project and they include increased recruitment of
more members to bolster police response times and police
visibility, adequate and increased funding of gender-based
violence and femicide investigations and programs,
capacitation and resourcing of critical and specialised units
of the SAPS and strengthening community organisations and
partnerships with law enforcement.
Equally, the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service as the
custodians of civilian oversight have allocated R4,8 million
to improving effective community partnerships in this regard.

 
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Meanwhile, CSPS, has developed the national policing policy
which provides the policy direction for responding to the
current policing, crime and violence challenges in the
country.
Chairperson, it is imperative to note a significant milestone
where in March 2022, Cabinet approved the integrated crime
prevention and violence strategy which is an implementing tool
for the 2016 White Paper on Safety and Security with the
primary objective of addressing the root causes of crime and
violence through whole of government and whole of society
approach to crime and violence prevention in the country. The
balanced yet independent approach in the functioning of the
SAPS, Ipid and CSPS will contribute positively in the fight
against crime. The three institutions will be forever be
encouraged to operate independently of each other when
responding to their respective legislative mandates. While
CSPS is providing policy advice and strategic oversight, the
Ipid is a significant watchdog in ensuring that the SAPS
constitutional mandate is realised. In this regard, the Ipid
plays a critical role in contributing towards the improvement
in police conduct by engaging in station lectures across all
provinces. In the previous financial year 33 station lecture
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lectures will be undertaken this financial year. Moreover, in
June 2021 Ipid launched access and awareness rural strategy
which is aimed at improving accessibility to Ipid services and
strengthening relations with stakeholders in rural areas.
During this financial year Ipid will continue to establish new
offices in other provinces. To date 11 new offices were
established in three provinces in the previous financial year.
This administration is working with agility to improve
community relations at all levels of governance. The three-
legged pot, SAPS, Ipid and CSPS is hell-bent in restoring the
trust deficit that impacts on our overall fight against crime.
As we roll out plans to rebuild and strengthen community
relations in the fight against crime, key to this is to
channel adequate and functional resources and manpower to
police stations to ensure that the fight against crime is
effective and efficient in winning public confidence in
policing. To qualify the above, the National Treasury
allocated additional funding for the recruitment of 12 000 new
police trainees over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework,
MTEF, with an allocation of R5,8 billion to rejuvenate and
improve policing capacity.

 
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Hon members, for the current financial year, the biggest
intake of 10 000 trainees is aimed at closing the gap of the
past two years where training was halted due to COVID-19
lockdown. To this end over R500 million has also been reserved
from the baseline for expenditure associated with trainees
undergoing basic police development. A further recruitment of
additional 5 000 new recruits for the next financial year will
commence in June 2022. While an additional 200 graduates,
mainly Bsc graduates, will commence training in August 2022.
To date, myself, Deputy Minister Mathale and the National
Commissioner we have visited two colleges where our young
people are training. Thank you very much, hon Chair.
Ms S SHAIKH: Thank you very much, Chairperson and allow me to
greet all the chairpersons, the Minister, the Deputy Minister,
the hon delegates of the National Council of Provinces and
fellow South Africans, the ANC understands that we have
inherited a very violence system from the apartheid regime in
colonial system.
According to Fanon, colonial rule is sustained by violence and
repression. With violence as the 'natural state' of colonial

 
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rule, it follows that in fact it is the colonisers who only
speak and understood the language of violence.
Indeed, this was also the case in the context of South Africa.
The apartheid regime thrives to violence means use of
excessive force. The violence South Africans experienced today
and in the has a direct implication in the kind of society we
have today. The ANC in its policy evolution from the Freedom
Charter to the ANC strategy and tactics to the 54th National
Conference in 2017 has consistently committed to creating safe
communities. The policy orientation of the ANC continues to
affirm this position of putting the safety of South African
people as its priority in the government commitment.
A safe society is a foundation that will allow for the
Economic Recovery Plan to be fully implemented. And indeed, it
is through a safe and secure environment that the Economic
Recovery Plan can fully use positive outcomes. Chapter 12 of
the National Development Plan, NDP, speaks about building
safer communities which further affirms the commitments of the
ANC to realise its vision. They then prefer the state that
between 2013 people living in South Africa set a tone and work
and they enjoy community life free of fear.

 
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Women walk freely in the streets ensuring place safely
outside. The ANC is working towards this kind of society and
believe that this will be achieved through a well resourced,
professional and single policy as stated in the strategic and
tactics of the ANC.
To achieve this vision, the NDP identifies key areas that
enhances the realisation of this goal. Amongst this is the
importance of mobilising the community to play a central role
in making sure that their communities are safe for all. The
building of safe communities using an integrated approach and
building communities aspersion in the process our instrumental
in propelling priorities to seek the Medium-Term Strategic
Framework which is social cohesion in safe communities.
Hon Chair, the President in the state of the nation address
alluded to the steps that will be undertaken to implement the
recommendations of the exist panel into the July 2021 civil
unrest as relate to the SAPS. The ANC welcomes the intend to
fill critical vacancies within the crime intelligence unit in
addressing the stopping of the Public Order Policing Unit to
be within acceptable levels in appropriately trend.

 
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In addition, to ensure that the SAPS urgently get the capacity
it needs. Resources will be made available to recruit and
train an additional 12 000 new police personnel. Furthermore,
to improve relations and co-ordination between local police
and residence for the areas they serve attention will be given
to the reestablishment of the community policing forums.
Hon Chair, the fight against corruption is of the utmost
importance in our country and we are aware the President
submission to Parliament on the plan of actions in response to
State Capture Commission recommendations. The Directorate for
Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, has prioritised
investigation of the recommendations as set for within the
state capture report in plans to addresses through a much
disciplinary approach in this year’s budget by the National
Prosecuting Authority investigative directorate has task in
leading the investigation into state capture.
The Department of Public Service and Administration will work
in co-operation with the Independent Police Investigative
Directorate, Ipid, alongside dedicated prosecutors. We are
pleased that 102 recommendations are currently under
investigation with nine prioritised for urgent attention and
the investigations are at an advance stage.

 
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Amongst the temporaries of the SA Police Service integrated
resource management strategy is the year of the Detective
Resource Plan. The purpose of which is to ensure the adequate
resourcing of all the operation capabilities that comprised
detective services capabilities, including the DPCI, the
detective services, the forensic science laboratory in crime
intelligence. While it is of concern that the DPCI is severely
under capacitated and has a vacancy rate of 30%
The department intends filling ... [Inaudible] ... The DPCI
received an allocation of R2,2 billion in 2022-23, which is a
minimal increase of R96,4 million of 4,64%. The said increase
remains concerning as the director saw it to be fully
hesitated in terms of personnel and specialised technological
and equipment.
... [Inaudible.] ... to ensure that they have an effective
investigation into state capture, Truth and Reconciliation
cases, investigation of serious corruption cases to the
unemployment insurance fund, corruption for personal
protective equipment, amongst others.
Hon Chair ... [Inaudible.] ... the fight against corruption
taking huge personal risk, reporting wrong doing and given the

 
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risk in tax and whistle blowers. We welcome the President
announcement that a system to protect whistle blowers will be
strengthened, review applicable to legislation. These two will
go a long way in the fight against corruption.
With regard to Public Order Policing, POP, the SA Police
Service has 51 POP units for the staff establishment of 5 892.
The SAPS has approved the recruitment of 4 000 additional POP
members that will receive specialised training to be on
standby should the needs arise.
Furthermore, the SAPS has implemented a nationwide resource
strategy to deploy members to unrest areas to assist the
civilisation and protection, use measures when it ensures that
any incidents of public unrest are doubtful efficiently and
effectively by the POP Unit.
Hon Chair, in 2019 the President initiated the District
Development Mode, DDM, to counteract government tenability to
work in sailors, which leads to lack of coherence and co-
ordination. The SAPS acknowledges that the establishing of
safe and secure communities what a conducive to socioeconomic
stability to support a better life for all is a prerequisite

 
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for the successful development and implementation for District
Development Model.
The DDM requires the SAPS to focus on the establishment of
safe and communities and to collaborate with all spheres of
government in establishing an integrated planning, budgeting,
implementation, reporting and monitoring process.
The programme of combating crime is instrumental in creating
the safe and secure community such as identify petty high
crime wage, police stations with high levels to contact crimes
and has ensure a multidisciplinary approach to a significant
reduction in the incidents of contact crime in the hot spots.
The invitational strategic framework will ensure collaborative
approach by all relevant stakeholders in the public and
private sectors using technologically driven approach to
integrating all upper related safety and security and service
delivery SAPS reported it has identified safe cities.
The safer cities strategy must have the buying of mayoral
committees and such as arrange meetings of mayoral committee
plan accordingly. SAPS is still identifying gender-based
violence hotspots. The SAPS is still establishing dedicated

 
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GBV just in all police stations in phases. The SAPS is
facilitating that over and above plan thereon. Compliance
inspection are also conducted with the Civilian Secretariat
Inspection Services.
The SAPS will also participate in the establishment of
function of community safety programmes in all 52 districts in
multi-projects areas.
Hon Chair, society has an important role in the fight crime in
South Africa. Indeed, fighting crime is not only the
responsibility of SAPS. The concept of community policing is
not a new phenomenon which has been tried and tested and it
has been proven that where there are more preparations below
the law enforcement agency of residents there is a high
potential for reduce in crime. There is progress in ensuring
that CPS structures are established countrywide and there are
currently 772 functions South African structures of the CPS in
the country.
Incidents of July 2021 unrest exposes weaknesses of relation
between police and the community, which creates a space for
criminal activities to take place. Is urgent to intensify in
the CPS forum in different communities. The government must

 
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ensure that these forums has facilitate resource for them to
play their roles successfully.
The ANC is committed to rebuilding and strengthening community
relation in the fight against crime and the success if this
depends on the ability of the department to correctly channel
adequate and function resources to men powers to police
stations to ensure that the fight against crime is successful
that will enable bring back the confidence of the public ample
services.
The ANC support and welcomes the Budget Vote 24, the
Independent Policing Investigated Directorate. The Equity Act
gives effect to section 206(6) of the Constitution and provide
the directorate with an extended mandate which focusses on
serious crimes committed by members of the SAPS and the
Municipal of Police Service, MPS. It further obliges the SAPS
and MPS to report matters for investigation by the Independent
Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, and the cities of
implementation of disciplinary recommendations made by Ipid
upon completion of investigation.
According to section 28(2) further provide that the director
may investigate matter related to corruption involving the

 
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police. Ipid has financial challenges the budget reduction
continues to make things difficult for Ipid to conduct its
constitutional obligation. Some of the investigation and
implementation management progress performance covers
recapturing for different investigations decrease compared to
the previous financial year which is concerning as is the
department core service delivery programme.
Due to drastic capacity within the Ipid, the National Treasury
has engaged with Ipid on its budget constraint and past
continue measures and has also identified an efficiencies and
possible serving the implementation and communication
technology outstanding for a year.
Furthermore, core vacant posts such as those of investigative
and quality assurance has been prioritised to be filled. In
order to address concerns raised by different stakeholders
regarding the quality of Ipid investigations, the department
in turns to recruit nine investigation quality assurance of
which six on hold and six fix contracts.
There is a team going to without apparent cases declining by
the national Prosecuting Authority, NPA, and to look at what
the reasons are.

 
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The Ipid is using quality assurance to improve evidence
submitted to prosecutors. The Ipid has already engaged the NPA
in this matter and are continuous to remedy the situation.
Hon Chair, Budget Vote 24 will enhance affordability to
conduct investigating thoroughly and successfully and further
improve the quality of investigations. This will also
intensify the fight against gender-based violence working with
the Police Service.
The following cases will be apparently, uses of rape, death,
torture and most importantly the corruption that must be
rooted out. During engagement with Ipid, it was highlighted
that SAPS compliance with Ipid recommendations stand at 50%.
The Ipid is also proactively addressing this to be
consultative forum consisting of Ipid, SAPS and the CBS. The
Ipid indicated that there has to be a process whereby Ipid
form part of the disciplinary process of the SAPS. Ipid and
SAPS should take review pressure legislation to strengthen the
implementation of disciplinary sanctions. The Ipid and SAPS
must ensure that they find a way forward to improve their
working relationship to effectively address this
implementation of aggravations.

 
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Hon Chair, collaborative engagement between all law
enforcement agencies were created successfully in fighting
crime, corruption and reducing incidences for gender-based
violence and femicide in the country. The ANC support Budget
Votes 28, 24 and 21. Thank you very much, hon House
Chairperson.
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Hon Chairperson, National Party Leader, D F
Malan, the erstwhile apartheid Prime Minister, said in
September 1931 that, and I quote: “Decentralisation would
divide, not unite the people.” In recent years, Minister, you
and your ANC Cabinet colleagues have followed with your
arguments in the footsteps of D F Malan, whenever I raised
this matter in the House.
“South Africa is a unitary state and do not need increased
devolution” said the old National Party in the 1930s. South
Africa is a unitary state and we do need increased devolution,
echoed the ANC in the early 2000s. Yet, Minister, despite your
party’s greatest desires for this to be a unitary state, South
Africa is, by definition, not.
Prof Kader Asmal of the ANC wrote in 1994 that in a federal
Constitution, and I quote: “The allocation of power between a

 
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federal and a provincial government is expressly set out,
rather than left to the discretion of a central government.”
In other words, the existence of a provincial and local sphere
of government is expressly enshrined in the Constitution and
they are not created at the pleasure of the national sphere of
government.
Provinces get their power from the Constitution, not from the
ANC. That is why this House exists on an equal footing with
the NA and that is why we are a federation, no matter how much
you downplay it. In fact, as of 10 March 2021, the Centre for
the Study on Federalism at Lafayette College has listed South
Africa as a federation on its homepage.
In the past, you have stood here explaining to us that the
Constitution ties your hands, that the Police Service cannot
be devolved, since it creates only one central and national
police service, that is not your fault and that it would
require a constitutional amendment for anyone to change this.
However, in a recent peer reviewed article, wrote by Martin
van Staden from the Rule of Law Board of Advisors of the Free
Market Foundation - and I would be happy to provide you with a
copy of this excellent article - your hands are everything but
tied.

 
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In a previous debate between us before this House, Minister, I
stated exactly what this article also confirms. Section 205 of
the Constitution, read with section 199(3) provides for other,
and I quote, “armed organisations or services” in terms of
national legislation, opening the door wide for the government
to allow provinces to play a bigger role in policing.
Section 206(4) also opens the door to provinces having
policing powers, and I quote, “assigned to it” in terms of
national legislation and “allocated to it” in the national
policing policy. Your hands are not tied, Minister, they are
just too busy elsewhere to bother.
Stronger federalism makes for a stronger democracy. In fact,
the whole purpose of a more decentralised system is that you
have a government that is closer to the people it serves, a
government that understands the dynamics of the provinces, has
its successes and safety at the heart of its agenda and has
offered, on numerous occasions, to assist in making a success
of the police.
There are numerous sound arguments for why greater
decentralisation makes for stronger and better governments.
Handing some of the responsibilities to the provinces will not

 
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only enable them to use their specialised knowledge of their
own needs to better the services, but it will also free up
time and resources for the national police to properly
capacitate their specialised units, which have, in recent
years, either been grossly underresourced, or where they have
posed a threat to exposing ANC corruption, completely being
disbanded.
I asked you not too long ago, Minister, in an oral question
whether, if it led to better safety and more effective
policing, you would consider devolving some of your power to
the provinces. You went on a rampage of how the Constitution
does not allow you to do so, but you would always act in the
best interest and the safety of the people. Now, there is not
only my voice and the voice of the DA anymore, but also voices
from outside saying that this is possible. These voices are
growing louder by the day.
I want to ask you today, Minister, to settle this debate. Why
don’t you approach the courts for a declaratory order and ask
them for clarity on this issue? If they say there is only one
police service, then this debate is settled, but if it comes
back that we are right, then you should use this opportunity
to give provinces more power, then your hands are untied.

 
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I fear you will not do it. You will not give our provinces,
our premiers, our MECs more of you powers to keep people safe.
You are scared that, if you give them more powers, the DA in
the Western Cape might do a better job than you. So, you
refuse, putting more lives at risk, allowing more women to be
raped, more children to be sucked into the cycle of
gansterism.
There is a D F Malan inside of you, Minister – power hungry, a
desire to be the boss, dictatorial, an ironfisted school
teacher who got made a general by a corrupt President, got
fired and will now not let go of his title or his powers. You
are drunk on the power that it gives you, while people out
there are literally dying because your department cannot
control crime on its own.
You have a militarised force, not a service, where those of no
ranks are too scared to tell those of higher ranks what is
wrong at their stations, in their provinces, in their regions
or where corruption simply gets covered up. Everything is
hunky-dory, but we don’t have cars or offices or specialists
or forensic labs. However, as long as Pretoria is happy, as
long as we can enforce our authority over the people of this
country and show them who is boss, then we all live in a

 
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blissful Utopia, until the next time when you have to think of
excuses of why the murder and rape statistics have gone up
again.
Our provinces should not only have specialised units, our
provinces should each have a specific policy, in terms of
section 206(2) of the Constitution that is unique to their own
circumstances, the resources that are available and the
threats that they are facing.
Gangsterism in the Cape is not the same and does not have the
same solution as gansterism anywhere else. Farm murders, stock
theft and cross border crimes are not the same in all our
provinces. Our resources, skills and needs are not the same.
Afrikaans:
Maar die ANC maak die bedjie op, waarin ons almal moet slaap.
English:
Minister, I cannot say this enough, because every time I say
it, you lose one more vote. Policing is currently a function
of the national government. The ANC and the ANC alone is
responsible politically for the police in our country, even in
the Western Cape. The DA-run Western Cape wants to help by

 
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making available resources and making people safer. I am sure
other provinces want to do this too, but Minister Cele and the
ANC government refuse. They refuse to explore the solutions
that I have today, for a second time, put on the table before
this House.
We welcome your announcement that trust between the police and
the community has to be restored, but I fear it is too late.
There is a culture that is established and deeply rooted in
the police. For this to be successful, you need to get rid of
the rot and for this to happen, you should fund the
Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, properly.
This has not been done in this budget.
To the public, the message is simple. If you want to get rid
of crime in this country, get rid of the biggest crime
syndicate of them all – the ANC. I thank you.
Ms F MAZIBUKO (Gauteng): Thank you very much, House Chair. Let
me acknowledge the Chairperson of the National Council of
Provinces, the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, the Chief Whip
of the Council, Minister of Police General Bheki Cele, Deputy
Minister Mathale, members of the executive council, MECs,
present, hon members of the NCOP, guests, ladies and gentle,

 
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all protocols observed. Hon House Chair, I feel privileged to
be with you today as we debate the Budget Vote for Police to
the people of South Africa. Our democratic government requires
of us to always reflect on what we have achieved as the
department and what we envisage to do to discourage acts of
criminality in our respective spaces. This is an integral part
of a responsible and caring government, which therefore calls
upon all of us to be always transparent and accountable.
House Chair and hon members, the Constitution of the Republic
of South Africa asserts that all citizens have rights to live
in a safe and secure environment as articulated in Chapter 2
of the Bill of Rights. It is incumbent upon all of us that
here in Gauteng, we continue to promote safety within our
communities in line with these rights as are enshrined in the
Constitution. House Chair, it is our considered view that
specific focus should be given to vulnerable groups such as
women, the elderly, children, people with disabilities and the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual,
LGBTQIA, community. The task of building and creating a safer
space for communities must resonate in words and actions. The
department will continue to work on initiatives aimed at
building safer communities. Our view is that those working

 
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relationships between communities and various law enforcement
agencies is of utmost importance.
House Chair, I will be the first to acknowledge that the need
to ensure the formation of street committees and block
committees has become more important than ever. The time has
come for all the members of law enforcement agencies,
including the private security companies, to work in
partnership with community structures to make communities and
public spaces safer and secure. In our province, Gauteng, we
have experienced the worst acts of social unrests in the
financial year of 2021-22, since the advent of democracy. The
chaos that engulfed the province around July 2021, happened
against the backdrop of socioeconomic instability and
inequalities exacerbated by the global coronavirus disease
2019, Covid-19, pandemic. While frontiers of poverty,
unemployment and crime continue to adversely affect our
people, the resultant mayhem has caused a serious damage to
our economy.
Hon members, our communities continue to experience cable
theft in their areas. This matter should concern all of us as
it during this time when communities are plunged into
darkness, which enables more criminal acts to be committed.

 
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We have communities mobilising themselves and confronting
these criminals that are vandalising and stealing cables in
our communities. I’m sure as a caring government we can’t be
folding our arms and watch things happen and communities
suffering. Our Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General
Mawela, has established a task team unit to specifically
tackle these types of crimes. We hope our communities will be
happy to know that police are acting swiftly even in visiting
those scrapyards that actually accept these cables that have
been stolen.
House Chair and hon members, the Department of Community
Safety will remain steadfast to implement the Growing Gauteng
Together plan programme of action, which is our GGT2030, with
effective implementation that is meant to ensure that our
commitments as a provincial government are ensured. The
department continues to contribute to the Growing Gauteng
Together, GGT, plan through police oversight, mobilising
communities to take charge against crime, and supporting the
implementation of the national action against gender-based
violence. Our core mandate and responsibility, which is police
oversight, will continue to monitor and oversee the
performance of these 143 police stations that we have in
Gauteng. Against the five-year policing plan as mandated by

 
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section 206 (3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa and the Civilian Secretariat for Police Act 11 of 2011,
we continue to put a lot of emphasis on the 55 priority
stations which contribute to the high number of statistics,
which are also hotspots here in our province.
In addition, as the Gauteng provincial government, we will
continue to ensure that the system of the war room against
crime is entrenched. The department will use this system to
mobilise stakeholders in the fight against crime, this include
private entities and sister departments to ensure that they
are on-board. In response to the most challenging acts of
crime and vandalism in our communities, the executive council
under the stewardship of Premier Makhura has approved the
establishment of the war room on crime and law enforcement.
The mandate of this war room is to address crime and
criminality in the public sector, cyber-crimes, gender-based
violence and femicide, illegal land invasion and occupation,
and vandalism of infrastructure. Central to this will be the
co-ordination between the different stakeholders and
accelerated efforts towards improving policing and community
safety in our province. The mandate is in line with the
National Development Plan vision 2030 which says, I quote:

 
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people living in South Africa feel safe at home, at
school and at work, and they enjoy a community life free
of fear.
In helping to beef up the police as the province we have
already allocated an amount of R36 million to improve police
visibility in this financial year. The work of establishing a
provincial integrated command centre is at an advanced stage
and will be rolled out in phases. In the past financial year,
hon House Chair, the department procured and donated 45 high
performance vehicles to the SA Police Service in Gauteng, and
this has already added to the cars that we’ve already donated
to them, the total amount now is 100 of these cars. Four
mobile police stations have already been handed over to the SA
Police Service, SAPS. In this financial year, the department
will hand over 50 patrol vans to the SAPS as well as the
remaining mobile police stations. We have intended to donate
to them 12 mobile police stations. These patrol vans will
assist in enhancing police visibility and police response in
crime hotspots, on highways and also in public spaces on a 24-
hour basis.
The integrated and co-ordination law enforcement is important
because it makes the work of the police and all law

 
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enforcement agencies to be very critical. The Gauteng Law
Enforcement Agencies Forum, GLEAF, continues to play a
critical role in the planning, integration, and co-ordination
of law enforcement operations in Gauteng as can be seen during
the executions of operation “O Kae Molao”. This structure
enables the law enforcement agencies in the province to work
in a collaborative and co-ordinated manner towards the
reduction of both road traffic fatalities and crime.
Our support in implementing the national action against
gender-based violence, GBV - House Chair, the scourge of
gender-based violence and femicide has multiple layer effects
on individuals and families. The pandemic has brought stark
inequalities squarely to the fore and served to compound all
existing forms of social injustice, including gender
inequality in its various manifestations of which GBV is the
most important abhorrent. Gauteng, as the most densely
populated province, an economic hub that attracts multitudes
across the province and across South Africa and beyond in
search of better life continues to bear the brunt of this
pandemic. The department through the gender-based violence
co-ordinating unit continues to monitor Gauteng provincial
government departments and all partners in ensuring that we
eliminate the GBV.

 
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House Chair, our five-pillar response plan on GBV is ensuring
that we work with relevant structures to co-ordinate the
multi-sectoral approach to strengthen partnerships and the
elimination of gender-based violence and femicide. This is
essential in providing a multi-sectoral coherent and co-
ordinated provincial response plan which involves the society
and private sector. Our focused interventions will also give
and ensure that there’s rapid response in ensuring that
gender-based violence and femicide at ward level we are able
to fight it and mobilise as many people as possible.
We will be rolling out 38 green doors in the five corridors
and ensuring that every police station we deploy a floor
manager. Recently, the Minister has announced that all police
stations must have the GBV desks. This will ensure that
there’s no secondary victimisation of people in our province.
We will continue to mobilise communities in ensuring that we
fight crime and ensure that Gauteng remains a better place for
all its people. This we do in ensuring that the functional
Community Policing Forums, CPFs, as outlined by Minister are
actually very active and the deployment of community
patrollers has force multiplier. Asserting CPFs as the organs
of people’s power is essential in the fight against crime. The
department will continue to mobilise and work with community

 
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safety structures as they are a critical component in fighting
crime.
In Conclusion, House Chair, let me indicate that school safety
is also important. Therefore, we need to ensure that we
protect our learners and our teachers at schools and make show
that schools are safer places where our children can learn.
Let us all work together in ensuring that we make South Africa
a better place and a safer place for its citizens. I thank you
very much.
Mr K MOTSAMAI: Thank you, Chairperson. Let me first greet the
freedom fighters, the leadership, the Commander in Chief and
the ground forces.
Setswana:
Ke rata gore, rona re le mokgatlho wa EFF, re ganetsana le
Tekanyetsokabo eno ya Sepodisi, Bolaodi jo bo ikemetseng jwa
Dipatlisiso le Bokwaledi jwa baagi ya Tirelo ya Sepodisi.
English:
Police in South Africa faces many challenges and dilemmas, as
ours is a country characterised by high levels of violent
crime, distrust in the police and political interference in

 
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policing. The SA Police Service, SAPS, faces challenges
regarding safety and security even amongst their own ranks, as
there have been a number of attacks on police stations, and
these continues to rise. We have also witnessed how in recent
years, there has been an increase in public protest action,
which ultimately means that crowd management function on the
parts of the SA Police is lacking. This department is plagued
by inefficiency and dysfunctional performance.
Last year’s July attacks on the country’s economic
infrastructure, exposed the weaknesses of the police at a time
of national crisis, as police stood by and watched as
thousands raided malls and shut down transport and supply
chains. The police also stood by and watched last month, on 21
April, when Namhla Singwa Mtwa, was assassinated outside of
her home in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape. It is well known
that, Namhla was a victim of gender-based violence, yet, the
police did nothing when her body was pumped with nine bullets.
The police only started to investigate when her sister started
speaking out on social media a month later. As the EFF we note
with deep concern how police performance and conduct has
deteriorated over the past two and a half decades, with
priorities remaining unchanged. Under the watchful eye of the

 
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SAPS, South Africa has over a period of two decades witnessed
an increase in crime statistics. South Africa also experiences
high levels of police brutality, with large numbers of
reported cases of police violence, even though there exists an
IPID oversight body that is responsible for making sure that
the police are accountable for their acts of violence.
Suspects are brutally beaten, punched and kicked, even when
they were not resisting arrest and pose no threat to the
police or society. Due to pressures to meet the police
targets, police officers often resort to illegal methods of
operating and such actions cannot be condoned under any
circumstances. Mr Cele, all this is happening right under your
nose and your inaction on cases such as these, is a huge
indictment on your person and on the state. Our police
officers are simply not well trained to do their jobs.
Their training does not speak to the challenges which officers
face on the ground. SAPS training needs to be reassessed and
improved. The crisis of July 2021 demonstrated this. The SAPS
and the ruling party are still but taking minimal steps in the
fight against crime and corruption, for there exists a lack of
will on the part of both the SAPS and government to counter
corruption. Such issues have no doubt contributed to the

 
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declining levels of public safety and poor performance of
SAPS.
This department has also allowed the firearms registry to
collapse, leaving thousands of legal South Africans gun-owners
and prospective gun-owners with nowhere to run, while exposing
guns and ammunition to connected criminal networks across the
country. The SAPS leadership has been in crisis for over a
decade. We need for a process which will see SAPS’s top
management downsised and police leadership positions opened up
in a transparent and competitive recruitment process with only
the most experienced being put in charge of running the
police, for the greatest challenge facing the police is a
political one.
You have thoroughly politicized and then collapsed crime
intelligence in this country, leading to aimless and
ineffective crime prevention strategies in this country. It is
as a result of this aimless policing that today we witness
mass shootings every single weekend in Khayelitsha in Cape
Town. A few years ago, you asked for SA National Defense
Force, SANDF, involvement in fighting crime in Cape Town, but
because that intervention was not led by proper intelligence,
it failed to deal with the daily murders in Cape Town.

 
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You have failed our people, sir. The people of this country
need satellite police stations that will open 24 hours, seven
days a week and in every ward in the country, where there is
no police station. We need to recapacitate community policing
forums and encourage formation of crime watch in the streets
and community hotspots.
Setswana:
Rona re le ba mokgatlho wa EFF, re ganetsana le Tekanyetsokabo
eno. Ke a leboga, Modulasetilo.
We reject this budget report.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M I Rayi): Thank you very much, hon
Motsamai. As I call on our next speaker, hon W Tikana-Gxotiwe,
I will also call upon hon Nyambi to continue with the
chairing.
Ms W TIKANA-GXOTIWE (Eastern Cape): Thank you, hon House
Chair. It’s unfortunate that I cannot link with my video. When
requested to speak I was trying to connect with the video. Hon
House Chair, hon Minister of Police, General Cele and hon
Deputy Minister, my colleagues from provinces, members of the
august House, delegates from provinces, distinguished guests,

 
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ladies and gentleman, I greet you all, the last two years has
been like no other due to the gradual emancipation from the
Covid-19 pandemic related regulations and restriction to the
lives as we knew it before the outbreak of Coronavirus in
South Africa.
The year 2021 was when we together with SA Police Service
started in earnest Covid-19 vaccination rollout programme as
we launched it in Gqeberha on 8 July 2021, I as the MEC of the
Department of Community and Safety together with the head of
the department and the then Provincial Police Commissioner
Lieutenant General Ntshinga led the line and took the jap. By
so doing we were showing our officers and the public at large
that the stigma and suspicions about being vaccinated should
be unwarranted.
We were standing a strong message that vaccination saves
lives. It was those baby steps that brought to us to where we
are today with no curfew, economic activities, social and
government activities open and a bit more. Sadly, it was in
the past year in August 2021 Women Month in South Africa that
we learnt of one of the most inhuman and gruesome gender-based
violence incident ever.

 
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The mother case of a 23-year-old final year law student at the
University of Fort Hare, Necixelo Ntebeni, whose dismembered
body was discovered staffed in a suitcase and dumped in
Quigney in East London an incident that took the province, the
entire country and the world over to its core.
Hon House Chair, let me refer to the case of Namhla, which was
reported to police. I want to state it categorically that
police acted immediately when the case was reported. They did
not act because they were informed by the social media. There
was already a task team that was set to deal with the case.
When it was brought to the media known by the people, the
police officers were already acting and establish a task team
to investigate that case. People may believe in what they
believe on but what we can say is that the police can never be
where incident of crime are taking place. But when crime is
reported timeously police always act but the issue of gender-
based violence is a difficult one for everyone because people
are not aware of it when it is reported. Social media is
another issue where people just think.
So, I want to state it categorically once more that, police in
the province led by Lieutenants General Dladla instituted a
team which is reporting on the progress which is taking place.

 
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Of course, we want to warn our people to report of abuse
incidents taking place in their homes, not for us to wait when
a person is deceased.
Hon House Chair, crime statistics as well as the recorded
incidents of gender-based violence and femicide such as the
recent brutal murder of the elderly woman and one elderly man
in Lady Frere direct us to do more in the cleansing of
communities of criminals.
Early in March, in the KD area two girls age 12 and 15 were
taken from their home and later found in the bush brutally
murdered. While the Isixoko family was attending to the evil
and barbaric incident another similar murder was recorded at
Ndwayana in the same municipal area. In an ever changing
socioeconomic environment, we need a constant source of new
evidence and research to drive our decision making.
Accordingly, we plan to increase our internal research and
analysis capacity by sustaining and taking advantage of the
recently contracted graduates and post graduates as interns
for the research unit.

 
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Domestic violence continues to characterise our communities.
We shall continue with our programme of monitoring the SA
Police Service compliance with the Domestic Violence Act. We
are also encouraging citizens to be vigilant and report all
Domestic Violence Act. Neighbours must be on the lookout for
this criminal actions and report them to the police
immediately.
The pilot of the programme has confirmed the need to expand
and further create a hotline system and mechanism for victims
for gender-based violence to report direct to parties. We
launched and piloted the Court Watching Brief with success in
Lusikisiki, Elliot Mbizana and Lady Frere District Court. Each
of these districts courts are serving an average of five
magistrate courts and approximately eight police stations. We
successfully rolled out the Court Watching Brief Programme to
all the eight districts offices of the province forming up
collaboration and preparation with the Justice Department,
National Nrosecuting Authority, the Police Service, the
citizens and in particular survivors of gender-based violence.
To this end, some cases that have been withdrawn have been re-
enrolled in court. As such out of 301 cases, 121 have been
finalised, 22 are pending and 71 remain on the court roll, 79

 
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of these cases are still under investigation. We can boast of
the following successes: 50% of the withdrawn stuck of the
roll were brought back to the court roll and 23% finalised
already.
The Queenstown FCS unit in two counts of rape and house
breaking secured, 12 years for house breaking, 15 years and
life imprisonment respectively for rape in two different rape
cases, two lives and eight years’ imprisonment. The finding of
the Court Watching Brief Programme necessitated the fast
tracking of the upgrading of DNA lab within Gqeberha because
most cases were withdrawn as a result of DNA evidence that was
pending.
The department has also made significance strides through the
justice crime prevention working group to ensure the
establishment of a functional safer city model in Nelson
Mandela Metro.
And I am delighted to report that thus far a successful multi
sectoral state and other engagement has been held and send of
said documents to strengthen the implementation of the safer
city model. Engagement has started to implement the District
Safety Model in OR Tambo District.

 
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Our oversight over the SA Police Service is further strengthen
by the good relationship between the department and Ipid.
There is positive response by the SA Police Service in
implementing the recommendation made by Ipid on police
misconduct.
I am happy to announce that there were no rapes nor torchers
in custody during this period. Despite that, I am sad to
report that death in custody total to 22 cases and assault by
police officers remain a thorny matter. We, however, addressed
the maters but we need to speed up our efforts.
Hon Chair, our latest crime statistics show both a positive
and a negative picture. We have seen 7,9% decrease in sexual
offences. That’s still not enough as we strive to completely
eradicate this act of sexual offences. We have also made some
in route in Lusikisiki loosely duped the rape capital in South
Africa.
With the Minister of Police, we continuous monitor the
progress in the area and provide resources both human and
capital to address these challenges.

 
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Civil society works hand in gloves with us and the various
government departments like Social Development, the NPA, Basic
Education and others have partnered with the department in
adapting the integrated approach to this challenge.
We further conducted an analysis of murder dockets over a
five-year period 2013 to 2017 within the Bethel store,
Lusikisiki and Mthatha areas. These police stations had the
highest number of murder cases during the said period.
The causative factors to these high murder rate, include, but
not limited to mob justice, revenge killings and others. As we
address the hotspots, as province we have established a
provincial task team to assist detectives of the police
stations on the fast-tracking investigation and finalisation
of dockets of murder, gang related violence and stock theft. A
special court for stock theft cases was established to fast-
track court cases.
Our role in the District Development Mode, DDM, across all the
eight districts of our province is improving. Our district
manager has been assigned the responsibility to ensure that
all work done through the DDM model has community safety as
transversal and critical element.

 
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The OR Tambo District is leading the department with specific
focus in the Ingquza Hill and Port St Johns municipalities due
to scourge of sexual offences, on other crimes including
business robbery, the creation of state—owned immovable
products emerge ...
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): As you conclude, MEC.
Ms W TIKANA-GXOTIWE (Eastern Cape): Thank you, hon Chair. We
are unable to resize and improve and move on our organisation
structure due to lack of funding. We are doing the best. We
can with the little we have. But I appeal to everybody to join
our hands as community members and with the Minister to fight
the scourge of gender-based violence. Thank you, hon Chair.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF POLICE: Thank you, hon Chairperson, hon
Nyambi; the Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele; other
Ministers, Deputy Ministers present, the chair and members of
the select committee, hon members of the executive council,
MECs, present here, members of legislatures, heads of
entities, members of the SA Police Service, distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all on behalf of all
the SA Police Service family.

 
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I’m honored to once again be afforded an opportunity to
deliver my inputs to the National Council of Provinces Budget
Vote debate under the auspices of the SA Police Service, a
department that is charged with an enormous responsibility of
keeping our nation safe. As the Ministry and management of the
SA Police Service, we will remain aware and committed to our
constitutional obligation to prevent, combat and investigate
crime to maintain public order, to protect and ensure the
inhabitants of the Republic and their property, and to uphold
and enforce the law.
This financial year through this Budget Vote, we recommit
ourselves to the spirit of the Constitution and other anchors
of our democratic dispensation, including the Freedom Charter
and the National Development Plan. We recognise that even
though we have made considerable strides in our journey to
achieve our intended goals there is still a long way forward
and we have to continue to try and do better as expected by
the people of this Republic. Our forbearers who drafted the
Constitution found it befitting to enjoin us as well as
provinces to inter promote good relations between the police
and the community.

 
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Chairperson, in line with the Minister’s statement earlier, it
is partly therefore reaffirming not only the President’s call
for us to focus on the re-establishment of community policing
forums to improve relations and co-ordination between police
and residents, but it is also in advancing and executing our
constitutional obligations that we dedicate this Budget Vote
to rebuilding and strengthening community relations in the
fight against crime. This particular approach to policing is
also aligned to the African National Congress 1992, Ready to
Govern document that directed a policy position to ensure
that, among other things, policing is based on community
support and participation.
Police remain accountable to society and the community itself
through its democratically elected institutions. Policing
continues to be subjected to public scrutiny and open debate.
Allegations of police misconduct are dealt with by an
independent complaints and investigation mechanism. The SA
Police Service continues to strive for higher performance
standards. Hon members, in the execution of our day-to-day
duties, we remain mindful that the battle against crime cannot
be worn by the police alone as much as it can also not be
divorced from the war on the triple challenges of poverty,
inequality and unemployment. As the SA Police Service, we are

 
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called upon to maintain law and order in the face of extreme
poverty, inequality and unemployment.
There is a saying that says - loosely translated - it means
hunger causes anger and aggression, without implying that
criminality justified under the consequences of hunger. I
believe it does make individuals more vulnerable and more
susceptible to being dragged into a life of crime and
criminality. It is therefore for this reasons that we are
advocating for an integrated approach to issues of policing
and social stability. For us to succeed in this approach we
need to work with other organs of state businesses,
nongovernmental organisation and the community at large. This
essence of partnership also finds traction in the National
Development Plan, which envisages a state where the police
work closely with communities where real partnership emerge
among the different organs of state to ensure that root causes
of crime and criminality are addressed before they pose a
major threat to our society.
Chairperson, it is for this reason that is part of our efforts
to closely and effectively work with communities in fighting
crime, the community in blue directives and reporting
templates were developed for implementation in all nine

 
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provinces. About 19 000 patrollers were recruited nationally
which is almost double the number we reported in the previous
financial year. The goal is to intensify to improve community
policing, focusing on the mobilisation of the community in
blue initiatives in order to improve visibility, particularly
in high crime areas.
We remain resolute in this regard through occurrences of
nature which were beyond our control, slow down a bit some of
these programs. We are also strengthening our approach, our
outreach programs in partnership with the civilian secretariat
for SA Police Service, national and provincial department as
well as other stakeholders including municipalities. We are
currently working on finalizing the outreach program to be
shared with the various targeted provinces to ensure proper
alignment. The office of the Eastern Cape premier is already
eagerly awaiting this planned outreach program, for example.
Further, under the stewardship of our visible policing, we
intend to strengthen our community engagement activities by
ensuring that our Imbizo do not just end up being talk shops
with no tangible outcomes. We are ensuring that issues raised
by community members are correctly recorded and followed up.
We have ensured that we hold regular posts engagement meetings
to monitor progress made on issues raised by the community

 
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members until closure of each case. In addition, Chair, as
part of Imbizo we intend to include public education on the
processes and functioning of the criminal justice system as a
whole.
It does come as a serious cause for concern to lag during our
engagements that our people do not understand how the justice
system works and are thereby unable to protect themselves in
the event that their rights are violated. Our partnership with
the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development,
amongst others, will go a long way in this regard as part of
our school and campus safety strategy and in consideration of
the increasing incidence of crime and violence against our
youth, we intend to intensify our safety and security
interventions especially in institutions of higher learning.
To this effect, we will be appointing safety and security
liaison officers in all campuses. Together with the Department
of Higher Education and Training, the institutions management
and student structures we will establish safety and student
care centers to support students who are victims of crime,
especially gender-based violence, GBV. Ladies and gentlemen,
although policing is a national competency, much work of the
SA Police Service happens in the provinces, in the district,

 
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in municipalities, townships and villages. Therefore, all our
interventions are viewed in that perspective.
It is incorrect what hon Michalakis said about the attitude
and the approach as led by the Minister that we don’t see the
role of provinces. Their interpretation and understanding of
how the Constitution of the Republic envisages how co-
operative government must be exercised is far-fetched from the
reality. We are committed to the principles of co-operative
governance and the Minister has been leading appropriately in
this regard. It is with this in mind that we took effort to
ensure that the baseline budget allocation to provinces for
operational types of expenditures was sustained compared to
previous baseline allocation.
Chairperson, we are consciously aware that we have a pressing
obligation to continue pursuing every effort that will deliver
a crime-free South Africa, where the population and everyone
within our borders live without fear of being attacked or
becoming a victim of criminality and where our women and
children do not live in fear of falling victim to gender-based
violence and femicide. Hence the civilian secretariats for
police service in conjunction with the various provincial
secretaries, SA Police Service, National Prosecution Authority

 
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and other relevant stakeholders we will be embarking on
community dialogues, engagement on gender-based violence as
well as revisiting and enrolling cases that are closed as
undetected.
They will also work towards resolving noncompliance and poor
service delivery complaints. Awareness and educational
campaign that seeks to educate the community on the role of
community policing forums, CPFs, SA Police Service,
Independent Police Investigative Directorate, IP, et cetera,
will also be conducted, focusing particularly on the
communities located within the top 30 policing precinct with
high gender-based violence related crimes. In light of the
recognition that eliminating gender-based violence, requires
the re-engineering of the mindset of the perpetrators and
potential perpetrators, we will also prioritise workshops in
partnership with the moral regeneration movement to add value
to the fight against gender-based violence.
The focus is on the co-ordination of the anti-gender-based
violence organisation, especially in areas like Thohoyandou,
which has seen a sharp rise in crimes related to this.
Awareness and value of the Independent Police Investigative
Directorate, Ipid, has been gradually gaining traction in the

 
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previous years, although the seemingly imbalance ...
[Inaudible.] ... has prompted Independent Police Investigative
Directorate, Ipid, to intensify awareness and stakeholder
engagement activities with a total of 166 engagements planned
for this financial year nationally.
The focus of this engagement will be on rural areas and
localities where there is a high case intake on specific
investigation classification as the Independent Police
Investigative Directorate, Ipid, Act, e.g. death as a result
of police action, death in police custody, raped by police
officers and discharge of an official firearm. Chairperson,
this year’s Budget Vote is indeed held post the stormiest
years of our recent history within South Africa and the world
emerging from the overwhelming effect of the COVID-19 pandemic
and the current flooding and storms we have experienced,
particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.
As I conclude, hon members allow me to state that we do not
recognize the fact that by its nature, the policing or law
enforcement environment lends itself to an imbalanced exercise
or execution of power. Necessary as this may be it needs to be
balanced in one way or the other. As an ancient historian,
Lord Acton stated; “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power

 
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corrupts absolutely”. We have therefore ensured that we
establish internal oversight institutions which are part of
the SA Police Service family.
However, they are tasked with independently maintaining
oversight checks and balances over SA Police Service as well
as ensuring monitoring and evaluation of its interventions and
impact. These institutions are aimed at providing the Minister
with independent objective assessment. Thank you very much,
Chairperson, for the opportunity you’ve let us to present our
budget. Let’s hold hands and make South Africa great. Thank
you very much.
Ms B M BARTLETT: Good afternoon, hon Chairperson, hon
Minister and all members present, South African Police
Services granted powers and functions from section 205 of the
South African Constitution and the South African Act of 1995.
The Civilian Secretariat of the Police Service was established
in terms of the Civilian Secretariat for the Police Service
Act 2011 and section 208 of the Constitution, which provides
for the establishment of the Civilian Secretariat of the
Police Service to function under the direction of the Minister
of Police.

 
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Hon Chairperson, in terms of the Act the Secretariat’s mandate
is to conduct civilian oversight over the police and provide
policy and strategic support to the Minister, including
administrative support concerning international obligations.
The Act also mandated Secretariat to monitor the
implementation of the Domestic Violence Act of 1998 by the
South African Police Service. The SAPS is not immune for
challenges faced by the community at large. As indicated in
the last report presented by the Minister of Police between
April and September, we have witnessed several members of
police services being victimised of domestic violence and they
were victims of domestic violence. There are several police
who are alleged perpetrators of domestic violence and they are
also members of the police. They have been convicted of
domestic violence, although the members of SAPS have a
responsibility to protect South African citizens. However,
some of them break the very same laws they are supposed to
uphold in such cases. They must be held responsible and face
the consequences of their actions.
Hon chairperson, the CSPS monitors the implementation of the
Domestic Violence Act. The other role of the CSPS is to ensure
that police are effective in their legal responsibility. There
is a need to improve the police service to regain the trust of

 
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the public in the SAPS and that can be done by ensuring that
there is service delivery. In a nutshell, hon Chairperson,
this entity exists to provide support to ensure that the SAPS
is efficient and effective in its operations. CSPS also exists
at provincial level and operate within the provincial sphere
of government. Hon Chairperson, the CSPS seeks to ensure that
what is raised in the National Development Plan, NDP, will
become a reality. Part of its task is to mobilise citizens and
the encourage more active citizenry to reduce the violent
crimes which are in line with having an integrated and
holistic safety and security across government department and
civil society.
Hon Chairperson, there is a need to bring back the hope and
the trust of the people in the police service and that can be
done in various ways. A localised way of addressing crime need
to be developed. It will be inclusive of all people in our
society, hence the need to facilitate the implementation
program of the partnership strategy and framework. We seek
mobilise key role-players in ... [Inaudible.] as a social
capital in communities by facilitating greater involvement of
various community safety structures. The ANC in its
resolutions highlights the importance of having all community

 
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forums working together with the police in the fight against
crime.
Hon Chair, the 2022 Budget Vote of CSPS will enhance the work
of the department, which is to provide the oversight
responsibility, which provides guidance and ensure that it
monitors the members of SAPS. This will ensure that police at
all times shall conduct themselves within the confinements of
the law. Hon Chairperson, all these efforts can only be
attained if there are strong working relations between the
community members of the SAPS, and those relations shall be
and should be identified by the CSPS.
Hon Chair, a strong CSPS will ensure that the South African
Police Service is corrupt free. All those that have committed
any malicious and demonstrated problem behavior will be held
accountable. It is through such that police will be able to
implement different crime prevention strategies. Therefore,
the Budget Vote will enhance the work of this unit in the
African National Congress. The African National Congress
supports this Budget Vote 28, 24 and 21.
Hon Chairperson, the Civilian Secretariat for the Police
Service is a custodian of the civilian oversight and

 
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responsibilities to improve the effective and efficient
community partnership. In playing that role, the CSPS has
developed a national policy which seeks to give guidance in
responding to the challenges that are faced in fights against
crime, violence and enhance the policing in South Africa. The
ability to respond effectively to the challenges and community
members, the relationship between these two stakeholders is
critical to fighting crime and the police will never win the
battle against crime on their own. CSPS has a responsibility
to facilitate strong relations between the two stakeholders.
Hon Chairperson, the unity of these different stakeholders
will enhance the fight against corruption and fraudulent
tendencies that might have been committed by the members of
the SAPS. This will further create a smooth implementation of
different crime prevention strategies and were a result of
work done by the CSPS. The CSPS and the SAPS operate
independently from each other when performing the functions.
However, CSPS continues to contribute immensely and positively
in the fight against crime. These institutions are encouraged
to work independently when responding to the legislative
mandate. Indeed, the CSPS provides SAPS of policy advice and
strategic oversight.

 
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Hon Chairperson, we know the budget reduction in the different
programs and their continuous present challenges for the
department who are able to perform its responsibility fully.
However, the department shall continue to work with funds at
his disposal in trying to fulfill the mandate. The CSPS must
effectively implement 2016 White Paper on Safety and Security.
Therefore, the budget will enhance the work for this unit and
the ANC support Budget Vote 21.
However, it must be known that a baseline budget reduction for
the department does not necessarily translate to the poor
service of reduction or service delivered by the police. There
must be new innovative ways of policing like the digital
policing as a CSPS developing the e-policing policy towards
the modernisation of the SAPS, and ensure that the police work
smarter and they are more effective and efficient. The people
who will benefit from this Budget Vote will be the poor in the
working class. It continues to experience crime on a daily
basis and will benefit when there are effective crime
preventative measures and strategies, the proactive policing
system will benefit the poor and therefore the budget votes
will benefit the people who are historically oppressed. I
thank you, hon Chairperson.

 
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Ms P NKONYENI (KwaZulu-Natal): Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy
Chairperson, hon Minister Gen Cele, hon Deputy Minister, hon
members of the NCOP, good evening to all of you. I rise to
echo the sentiments shared by our hon Minister when he
presented his policy speech that our people are tired of crime
and that criminality must be effectively dealt with. The
budget presented by the hon Minister directly responds to
challenges faced by people of KwaZulu-Natal in particular, who
are being terrorised and harassed by criminals on a daily
basis. However, no financial injection will ever be enough in
the fight against crime, hence we always invite community
members to continuously work hand-in-hand with the police in
order to curb the scourge of crime.
As the province of KwaZulu-Natal we remain extremely concerned
about the escalating levels of crime in the province. Several
police stations are featured in the top 30 of high crime
police stations across the country. As the provincial
government we have developed a clear and implementable plan in
order for us to respond to challenges raised through various
monitoring institutions. The plan of action will obviously
need co-operation and partnership between the police and the
general public.

 
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As the department of community safety and liaison in KwaZulu-
Natal we have already presented our budget allocation in the
second week of May under the theme “Galvanising Community
Participation Towards A Crime-Free Province”. This theme
clearly resonates with our call of encouraging communities to
be involved in the fight against crime. It is also informed by
our firm belief that only when we are united as a people, then
we can make a meaningful dent in ending crime and other
societal menace. It can’t be left unchallenged that our
province will be known as a murder capital or the province
that produces hit men. We are encouraged by the words of the
former President of the ANC, O R Tambo, who once said and I
quote: “The fight for freedom must go on until it is won;
until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of
the community of man, we cannot rest.”
We are therefore determined to fight criminality to the bitter
end. We cannot let our beautiful province be ravaged by
criminality. In all satisfaction surveys, crime always feature
as the number one concern to the people of KwaZulu-Natal. Like
the hon Premier Sihle Zikalala mentioned in his state of the
province address, fighting against crime is one of the eight
priorities of the current sixth administration. Central to our
resolve to address the levels of crime in the province and

 
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build safer communities are the resolutions we have taken in
various makgotla – the lekgotla of the Provincial Executive
Council, makgotla of the ANC, the manifestos and the National
Development Plan and our own provincial growth and development
plan, PGDP.
The Department of Community Safety and Liaison has a
constitutional mandate to exercise civilian secretariat
providing oversight over the SA Police Service, the SAPS.
Among the functions of the department, through its provincial
Secretariat for Police, the department is expected to monitor
and evaluate the implementation of policing policies within
the province, monitor the SAPS compliance to Domestic Violence
Act and other pieces of legislations, evaluate and monitor
police conduct and assist the Civilian Secretariat for Police
Service with any monitoring and evaluation projects.
In giving effect to its mandate, the department conducted
oversight visits to 25 police stations across the province of
KwaZulu-Natal for quarter four of the 2021-22 financial year
to monitor the SAPS compliance and the implementation of the
Domestic Violence Act.

 
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Part of the challenges that were identified during the visit,
including the visit by the hon Minister, the Deputy Minister,
and also the visit by the members of the NCOP, comprises the
fact that most police stations have very poor infrastructure,
some of the victim friendly rooms are not suitable for
professional consultations and counselling to victims. Rural
areas are the most affected by infrastructure challenges, and
in some areas, police stations were built far away from
communities. It is worrying that access to some police
stations by disabled communities is still a challenge. Of
course, we can only attribute that to the attitude of the
apartheid government that never bothered about people who are
residing in rural communities, in particular.
In order to improve the performance of the police, the
department engages with the police in all districts to
initiate turnaround strategies where there is poor
performance. The top 30 priority stations is a case in point.
When shortcomings are identified in the management of the
Domestic Violence Act, workshops are done working with the
management in the Police Service. These workshops also involve
expertise from the National Prosecuting Authority as well as
the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
Monitoring and evaluation programmes are conducted

 
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continuously to ensure improvement of the performance of the
police.
With regard to gender-based violence and femicide, we wish to
indicate that this is another pandemic that we are wrestling
with. The high density of these crimes is within the top 10
police stations which are around eThekwini Metropolitan
Municipality and uMgungundlovu District Municipality. Police
stations such as Inanda in eThekwini and Plessislaer in
uMgungundlovu have stubbornly remained a thorn in the flesh.
The positive gesture though, is that these crimes are reported
to police. However, for communities to have confidence in the
police we need successful prosecution and for that we need
convincing evidence. As the department we embarked on the
process of assessing and resuscitating the victim friendly
facilities. We believe that all police stations should have
these facilities where victims will feel dignified during
their visit to the station. Our aim is to see all 184 police
stations having these facilities, however, the priority is
given to the top 30 crime leading police stations and
subsequently all must prioritise the dignity of the victims of
crime.

 
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We must acknowledge and appreciate the good working
relationship between our department and the police in the
province of KwaZulu-Natal which is led by our Provincial
Commissioner Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi. We also wish to
appreciation the fact that the SAPS management have now filled
all vacancies pertaining to the district commissioners. They
are all filled including that of the deputy provincial
commissioner for support services, where we saw Major General
Ngcobo being appointed. We firmly believe that this move will
greatly assist our endeavour of turning the tide against the
scourge of crime and to reclaim our streets from hoodlums and
criminals.
In a renewed effort to fight the rampant crime, the provincial
government will host a two-day Crime Prevention Summit in
Durban from 3 and 4 June 2022. The Crime Prevention Summit
presents the most co-ordinated effort by the provincial
government to take the war to the criminals by closing every
square inch of their space. All stakeholders across the
Justice, Crime Prevention and Security, JCPS, Cluster,
academia, and all the other experts in the fight against crime
will get together in order to solicit solutions on our
continued fight against crime.

 
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Innovative crime prevention tactics, especially the use of
technology such as drones, community policing forums, the
resources of the JCPS cluster, increased collaboration with
the private security industry will also be enhanced. Have I
exhausted my time, hon Chairperson?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): You still have a minute
to conclude.
Ms P NKONYENI (KwaZulu-Natal): Okay. I must also indicate that
KwaZulu-Natal is one province that has been hardest hit by the
flood damages. We lost our officers as well, and some
sustained injuries. Our dedicated Sergeant Busisiwe Mjwara
from the Pietermaritzburg Search and Rescue Police Diving Unit
perished when trying to save three floods victims in Henley
Dam. Canine Leah also perished trying to save Sergeant Mjwara.
Another young and hardworking Constable, Thandazile Sithole,
who was attached to the Durban Central Police Station, also
perished when her home collapsed on her. As government we pay
respect to these female officers and many members of the
security cluster who lost their lives during this period and
those who perished in the line of duty. May their departed
souls rest in eternal Peace.

 
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Equally, we had a number of police stations that were damaged
by these floods. As I conclude, a total of 30 police stations
were affected by the floods, and they are in various
districts. We wish to support the budget policy speech, hon
Chairperson. Thank you so much. [Interjections.]
Afrikaans:
Mnr S F DU TOIT: Agb Voorsitter, ek afskop deur al die vroue
en manne in blou, wat daagliks hulle lewens op die spel plaas
en onverpoosd, ten spite van politieke druk en inmenging,
beperkte bronne, vervalle polisiestasies, en uitdagende
werksomstandighede, steeds die goeie stryd stry, die
gemeenskap dien en in die lig van regverdigheid, alles in die
stryd werp vir hul gemeenskappe. Ons het groot respek vir
julle.
Minister Cele het tydens sy begrotingstoespraak op 20 Mei
2022, direk nadat hy die toespraak aan alle SAPD-lede en die
personeel opgedra het, sy generaals aangespreek. Ek haal aan:
...
English:
... Chairperson, I would like call upon all the Generals, all
executives and all senior managers to understand the role of

 
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leadership. Let us appreciate our members and all our
employees. Without them, there is no service delivery; without
them there is no government. Hence their morale must be our
utmost priority. Stop victimizing them for no reason; stop the
workforce cruelty of purging and patronizing them. For once,
stop the workforce bullying and serve in the position of power
with dedication and humility.
Minister, you must heed against generalizing accusations the
Generals and executives, with your statements, not everyone
has an unprofessional approach. And if you are aware of such
dealings, why don’t you act? One could almost come to the
conclusion that the Minister is aware of irregularities in the
top-structure and fails to act. But could this be Chair? Is it
possible that under the leadership of this Minister, there
could be any corruption in the SAPS? One could almost ask why
the National Commissioner of Police that was appointed by
Jacob Zuma, was suspended in October 2011 and removed from his
position in June 2012, as a result of misconduct allegations.
Is it possible that corruption could exist in the SAPS
procurement and supply chain and PPE procurement to the tune
of R1,9 million? With 12 000 new recruits that wanted to
secure a place at the national police training college,

 
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individuals that will pledge to uphold law and the
Constitution of South Africa, how can it be that student
allegedly bribed an SAPS official R5 500 per student, to get
placed. How ironic, being corrupt and then applying be
enrolled to apprehend the corrupt.
Afrikaans:
Minister Cele, daar is soveel polisielede wat uit hul pad gaan
om wet en orde te handhaaf en in die belang van die land op te
tree. Hierdie lede se mandaat word egter gyselaar gehou weens
beperkte hulpbronne. ’n Tekort aan werkende SAPD-voertuie by
stasies knou die vertroue van gemeenskappe in die mag. Die
toestand van die blitspatrollie en polisievoertuie van die
openbare orde laat veel te wense aan.
Ek het namens die VF Plus op meer as een geleentheid mosies
ingedien en versoek dat voertuie van polisie van openbare orde
met toerusting vir brandbestrying en eerstehulp toerus word,
maar tot op hede was daar geen vordering in die verband nie.
English:
These POPS-members are in life-threatening situations, being
stoked with Molotov-cocktails, with not Fire brigade and or
first responders on scène. They do not have the equipment or

 
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medical aid to look after themselves. It is time that you
start looking after your members. We urge you Minister, to
ensure that the Police Force, including POPS, Rapid Response
Teams and flying squads have the necessary resources and
equipment to fulfil their mandate to the best of their
ability. South Africa deserves better - better than to be held
ransom by thugs and politically motivated criminals that
restrict free movement and a safe environment.
Afrikaans:
Ons ondervind tans ’n toename in geweldadige protesaksies in
verskeie dorpe en stede in die land, maar veral in die Noord-
Wes provinsie. Die N14-kruising in Ventersdorp is op hierdie
oomblik aan die brand. Daar is sprake dat dit nie aan
dienslewering toegeskryf word nie, maar aan die magstryd in
die ANC in die provinsie. U moet indringend ingryp, Minister.
English:
The local economies can’t afford further disruptions, blocking
of roads and protest actions. ... [Inaudible.] ... Don’t blame
apartheid when you failed you build police stations in 28
years’ time, almost three decades. Hon Shaikh, it is
unbelievable that you still blame apartheid for the failures
of the ANC influence in the SAPS. Maybe it is because the ANC

 
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Crime Syndicate has been deployed in the protection services –
the July 2021 unrest support this possibility.
Afrikaans:
Die vraag is of wolf skaapwagter is. Dankie.
Mr N M HADEBE: Hon Chairperson, the National Development Plan
outlines a utopian society, where:
People living in South Africa feel safe at home, at
school and at work, women walk freely in the streets,
children play safely outside and the police service is
well-resourced.
I think we can all agree that we have a long and challenging
road ahead if we are to realize such lofty vision and goals.
Recent crime statistics however indicate the stark reality.
Murder statistics for the third term of the 2021-22 financial
year, horrifyingly revealed that more women were killed in the
last quarter of 2021, compared to the same period the previous
year, while the murder rate also increased by 8,9%, year-on-
year.

 
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As a society, we have become indifferent to violent crime. It
has become an accepted societal norm. This must change and it
is up to SAPS to ensure that criminal activity in our country
is met with effective law enforcement. To achieve the goal of
effective law enforcement requires not only well trained and
dedicated police officers, but also a properly resourced
police service.
Chairperson, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, POPCRU
raised serious concerns pertaining to:
The continuous decrease in the Visible Policing budget;
the ineffectiveness of Community Policing Forums; and the
lack of resources and infrastructure at police stations,
especially in rural areas and townships.
This apt summary encapsulates the current state of policing in
the country. These issues must be prioritized for redress. Our
people must feel and be safe. In the province of KwaZulu-
Natal, many police stations in rural areas and townships are
housed in unsafe and dilapidated structures. This leads to
ineffective policing and creates fertile ground for criminal
activity.

 
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The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, DPCI must
be fully capacitated as it is reported that it only currently
functions with a 48% workforce. This lack of capacity dooms
their investigations to failure before they even begin. The
IFP further notes and is in support of the committee’s
observations and recommendations regarding the Civilian
Secretariat for Police Service, CSPS as well as those relating
to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, IPID.
As regards IPID, the IFP agrees that it is completely
unacceptable that the total backlog is currently 37 116 cases.
Drastic action is needed. Chairperson, SAPS requires a back-
to-basics approach, and government must ensure sufficient
capacitation. Subject to the above reservations, the IFP
supports the Budget Vote. I thank you.
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): Thank you so much Chairperson, I
trust that I am audible.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): You are audible.
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): Chairperson, hon Minister, hon
Deputy Minister, as well as hon Members of the NCOP. It’s been
a month, two days and 11 hours since my appointment as the

 
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Western Cape MEC of Police Oversight and Community Safety. But
prior to my appointment, I was the Chairperson of the
Community Safety Portfolio in the Western Cape Provincial
Parliament.
In this day, I want to say that the men and women in blue
across this province are working tirelessly to keep residents
safe, and to ensure that they fulfil their constitutional
mandate just last night Chairperson a SA Police Service, SAPS
officer was brutally murdered in Nyanga. Two weeks ago at New
Somerset Hospital, an officer also succumbed to his injuries
after being shot. This is a direct attack on our democracy and
I have engaged the families, and once again want to send my
sincere condolences to the entire SAPS fraternity and safety
stakeholders as a whole.
Since becoming chairperson in 2019, my commitment to fast
string working relations with the SA police officers has not
been wavered. In fact, as part of the executive now, my aim is
to ensure that, this is strengthened while I am in office and
have a great appreciation for the work that SAPS does. The
reality is that, many of our officers are working in under
resourced conditions that are not conducive to effective crime
fighting. How can it be expected that these committed

 
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officers, the men and women in blue be effective in what they
do, in serving residents and to continuously be hamstrung to
having little or not having too little resources? The basic
resources that are required to do their job.
This is something that will never make sense to us because we
have seen under difficult circumstances, these men and women
are still putting their lives on the line for the residents.
So my question today is, where is the budget going because we
need to see the effects of the budget? The irony is that, year
after year in this House budgets are debated, but it has never
made any significant difference to how resources are
allocated.
In the Western Cape, we were due to receive 1 939 new recruits
in the current financial year. Now we are only receiving 1 118
to arrive in this financial year. This is 821 fewer officers.
We have not been told why we are receiving fewer officers.
Perhaps there is another ...[Inaudible] ... who needs to be
bailed out who knows. Because, the reality is, it has been
happening year in and year out. This is a highly significant
figure because the province is already grossly under
resourced, as we are sitting with a 10% vacancy rate in our
province.

 
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Chairperson, we are consistently and constantly hearing that
this province is in fact the most resourced. As among others.
there is an anti-gang unit which other provinces do not have
but the reality is and the truth is that, these are not new
members that came into the service or the unit. These are
members that are taken from other sections and stations, but
they have not been replaced at those sectors or stations.
So to be adequately resourced is and should always be a
priority for the national government. So again, what are these
budgets really being used for? Because Chair, in this province
we care about the people. We care about the safety and
wellbeing and ultimately, we want to ensure that our residents
live in a dignified manner. This is part of the reason why we
have launched the Western Cape Safety Plan in 2019. Part of
the Western Cape Safety Plan was to deploy 1 000 law
enforcement advancement plan officers in hotspot areas. This
is a Western Cape government initiative, which is
operationalised by the City of Cape Town.
Chairperson, we now actually have 1 228 law enforcement
advancement plan, LEAP officers within the Western Cape that
are currently being deployed in 13 of our least safe areas, of
which 10 areas form part of the top 10 murder areas here in

 
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the Western Cape. These include areas like Delft, Gugulethu,
Harare, Khayelitsha, Site B, Kraaifontein, Mfuleni, Mitchells
Plain where I grew up, Nyanga, Phillipi East and Samora
Machel. The other high crime areas we they are deployed are
Atlantis, Bishop Lavis and Hanover Park, and recently,
Lavender Hill, Steenberg and Grassy Park as well.
These placements are strategic and backed by data, because in
addition to the LEAP offices, and in being innovative and
incorporating technology, last week we launched our Provincial
Safety Dashboard. This dashboard is updated every three days,
and is currently being automated to further provide daily
updates, to provide real time data to provincial safety
stakeholders.
Chairperson, this is significant as the dashboard such as the
one that we have launched last week, is that we are able to
use a data-led approach and evidence law in terms of our data-
led approach and evidence based from deployments here in the
Western Cape, while also guiding us in terms of our violence
prevention interventions. This means that we are able to
direct LEAP officers into areas in conjunction with the SA
Police Service to places and spaces where they are most
needed.

 
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Chairperson, this is on the ground in a province, in a
municipality effectively deployment of law enforcement as we
know what our needs are. Pretoria is fully aware of what the
needs are here because every year we submit a policing needs
and priorities report as well. So when the Deputy Minister
earlier on said in response to hon member Michalakis that, it
is far from the reality, the reality is that choices are made
in Pretoria that affect the Western Cape when we have seen our
policing needs and priorities are not taken into account, year
in and year out. Hence we have been calling for SAPS to be to
be devolved, so that we can be innovative in our approach.
We have been doing the same thing over and over from a
national point of view. We obviously need to think of it in a
more innovative approach, because some of us have fantastic
eyesight. It appears that we are able to clearly see the
distance of over 1 500 kilometres all the way from Pretoria.
But Chairperson, to show that in this province, we don’t just
work in isolation, we have further made this dashboard
accessible to Western Cape safety stakeholders, including the
SA Police Service and the City of Cape Town and SAPS officers
will inform you about how these LEAP officers are making their
job a little bit easier under very difficult circumstances.

 
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We will gladly showcase this technological initiative to the
national Minister to the deputy and to safety stakeholders
across the country, because we want to see how we foster
working relationship and how we work together. Ultimately, we
want to see more action and this is important as through the
excellent co-operation between LEAP, between the SAPS, between
other law enforcement agencies in the City of Cape Town, we
have now ensured that an area like Nyanga is no longer known
as the murder capital of South Africa.
We also ensured that the murder rate in Kraaifontein could be
reduced in the last quarter by more than 40,5%. This is all
due to strategic and effective deployment. We don’t deploy
from Pretoria, but we do it in terms of our data-led approach
and our evidence-based strategies and it’s working with SAPS.
It is working with neighbourhood watches. It is working with
community policing forum, CPFs and all stakeholders to bring
about their change because whenever any sphere of government
fails to step in, we have been more than able to step up in
that regard.
Chairperson, nothing ultimately can beat boots on the ground
and visible policing, and this is very much in terms of the
first crime prevention steps that needs to be taken. Between

 
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16 and 22 May this year, and through the efforts of LEAP
offices 176 perpetrators were arrested for a variety of
offenses, and this week alone 161 arrests were made. In a
space of two weeks, 337 arrests were made.
We are all happy about these arrests and the criminals are
being removed from our streets. The cases then handed over to
the detectives and that’s sadly, many times we it falls flat
because the story is becoming all too common. Once again
Chair, how can it be expected if we say that our detectives
were based at a station like Nyanga are sitting with a
caseload of one detective for over 300 dockets? For example,
in Grassy Park, it is also one detective with a caseload of
250 dockets to investigate.
All these matters that they do effectively, it becomes humanly
impossible, and it demoralises the work our detectives are
doing. So once again, what are these budgets being used for?
Because in our attempt to ensure that our streets become
safer, we’ll soon be able to see the effect of the LEAP
deployment, and working with all safety stakeholders. We are
also relaunching an initiative that will reward the citizens
for reporting an illegal firearm. We’ve had this programme
prior to 2019. We will now be reintroducing this fantastic

 
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initiative, in conjunction with this SA Police Service as the
relationship between the Western Cape government and the
Police Commissioner here in the Western Cape has been solid
and will continue to be solid, as we have the same vision to
see that the Western Cape becomes a safer area. I have always
been clear that if I must choose between a vote and a life, I
will always lean towards doing everything in my power to
ensure that the residents are safer.
So as I conclude Chairperson, you’ve heard some of our
interventions and initiatives here in the Western Cape. I
would like to invite the Minister and the Deputy Minister to
come and see for themselves as well. We do know we have
pockets here and we are working with the City of Cape Town, to
see how we address some of the underlining issues that are
still affected in some of our communities. But we are ready
for further action, but action is always required. So we would
want to build that relationship, because we do know that in
being innovative and being creative in our approach, will
ultimately lead to a reduction in crime.
I would like to say that in creating safer environments, it
should never ...[Interjections] ... it is the residents. We
are working hand in hand with an array of stakeholders in this

 
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process and we will overcome crime in our province. We need
national government to step up and work with us so that, we
can always be on the same page, and we can see crime being
reduced.
Thank you so much for the opportunity today and I am looking
forward to further engagements at the Minmec and to foster
those valuable relationships in the interests of residents but
also to strengthen the hand of the SA Police Service here in
the Western Cape. Thank you.
Ms C LABUSCHAGNE: Hon Chairperson, hon members, and hon
Minister, we have in this debate not heard a single inspiring
idea from a single ANC member. We have heard nothing new from
those benches or the Minister compared to what has been said
in previous years. It is as if we do not have 111 people
getting raped and 64 people getting murdered every single day
in this country.
Let us not forget that it is this very ANC that has brought
the police service to its knees. With the exception of George
Fivaz, every single police commissioner since the dawn of
democracy, almost 30 years ago, left in shame. Seven
commissioners, from Selebi, Cele to Phiyega and Sithole. Two

 
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had boards of enquiry recommended that they be dismissed, one
was suspended and later faced charges for corruption. And the
last one facing allegations that he was involved in attempted
procurement fraud.
The current Minister was appointed in 2009 along with Richard
Mdluli as the Head of Crime Intelligence, both then allies of
Jacob Zuma. They enabled him. The ANC got rid of Hawks head
Johan Booysen on trumped-up charges because he had integrity.
Then Minister Cele, as the Commissioner of Police, got
investigated by Thuli Madonsela for R1,7 billion procurement
irregularities on building leases for the SAPS; was fired. Not
because he was corrupt, but because Zuma believed he was
plotting against him. Despite the Public Protector’s report,
he left keeping the title of General, to this day.
A self-important man who unlike Churchill, fought Nazi’s on
the beaches of Normandy, picked fights with ordinary families
on the beaches of Clifton.
Then came Riah Phiyega, who misled the Farlam Commission on
the Marikana Massacre, and a recommendation that she be

 
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dismissed was given. But the ANC kept her under paid
suspension.
Enter General Sithole, the Minister’s old friend. Between the
two of them, the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was
doing, rendering the police ineffective and an embarrassment
during the looting incidents in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last
year. All of this on the ANC’s watch, whilst members in this
House heckled as we pointed all of this out to them. They
supported every single budget that enabled the decline of the
SAPS.
Chairperson, between 2012 and 2020, the SAPS budget increased
by 65%. Despite this, violent crime increased by 25% and the
ability to solve all reported violent crime declined by 19%.
This is according to a recent article written by Gareth
Newham.
At the same time, IPID’s budget has in this period in real
terms practically not increased at all. The police’s ability
to hold internal hearings declined from 5 786 hearings to
1 682 hearings in those seven years. That’s a decline of 71%.
95% of IPID’s cases are closed without any sanction imposed.

 
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Only 3,2% of cases result in disciplinary action and only 0,4%
of police officials were dismissed as a result.
Let me put this in understandable terms. If we apply these
average figures, of the 410 times in the last year a police
officer killed a civilian or of the 223 times a civilian died
unarmed in police custody, or the 193 times a civilian was
tortured by the police, or the 99 times a police official
raped someone, only 0,4% of those police officers responsible
for the deed, got a dismissal. The rest – those murderers,
crooks and rapists are still in the service and getting paid.
Hon Minister, you say there was a mistrust in 2021 between the
police and the community. Will that trust ever be there? And
yes, Minister, there are wonderful police officers out there.
And yes, we do realize how the honourable ones amongst them
put their own lives and the lives of their families at risk
every day. You use this to defend police brutality, but
meanwhile back home, but do very little to support them
mentally. That is why every year for the past few years, we
have heard of police officers killing their spouses and
children and then themselves. It is not only the stress of the
job, but the stress of honourable people trying to survive in
a police service that has become a crime syndicate. But the

 
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IPID cases do not refer to honourable police officers
defending themselves, Minister. These cases were of people in
police custody, unarmed, but killed and raped by your service
officers. No one rapes out of self-defence.
Minister, there are solutions. Hon Mazibuko, the war room on
crime at this stage, unfortunately, I think, might sound like
an ANC congress rather than a solution. Let us look at the
solutions that will work: Co-ordinating security efforts, not
only between the different departments and units responsible
for security and intelligence, but also with provinces;
professionalizing the police, which includes getting rid of
the scum, having properly trained police officers with
integrity in all spheres, rethinking the police structure,
allocating budget to where it is needed, away from VIP
protection towards community safety. A Bobby on every street
is not going to solve it. We need effective intelligence,
trained and supported officers on the ground; and finally,
working on targeted strategies in areas that are crime hot
spots.
The provinces can help with this as you have heard from
Minister Cele. They want to help with this. But I fear we have
long passed the point where the ANC is capable of turning the

 
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ship around that they themselves sunk through their cadre
deployment policies. Your budget shows this. It shows that
things are business as usual. That you have not fully grasped
what is wrong with the police service in this country.
Therefore, the people can prepare themselves for another year
where the police won’t have vehicles and those that they do
have, will be in for repairs for months. Four months just to
replace a car battery or tyres. And if the new policy fails,
it will again take them 10 years to change it.
Another year where another 720 people will escape directly out
of police custody or with the help of police. Another year
where 99 women will be raped by police. Another year where 64
people get killed per day. Police is a national function,
whether you are in the Western Cape, Gauteng or KwaZulu-Natal.
The ANC government is responsible for police. They know
everything that I have said in this speech already. They still
attack us for saying it but their budget still looks the same.
Ultimately, cleaning up the police is going to require us to
vote out the ANC in 2024. Only then can our lives begin to
feel as if it is of some value again. I thank you.

 
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Ms L C BEBEE: House Chair, greetings to you Minister and
Deputy Minister, MECs of the different provinces, special
delegates from the different provinces and hon members, the
ANC is committed to ensuring that every South African has a
right to security as stipulated in both the Freedom Charter
and Chapter 2 of South Africa’s Constitution, which speaks
about the Bill of Rights. And it is stated that, “Everyone has
the right to freedom and security of the person.” Which
includes section 12(c) which says, “Everyone has a right to be
free from all forms of violence from either public or private
sources.”, which is emphasised and done by the ANC’s
commitment to creating safer communities for all South African
citizens. The ANC has made a special commitment to making sure
that the most vulnerable people in society remained a
priority.
Women, children and the elderly are the most vulnerable
people. And also, the ANC is committed to protecting these
categories from all kinds of abuse and violation. Black women
in South Africa experience what is called the triple
oppression in the apartheid system, which was meant to oppress
and exclude black women on the basis of their race, gender and
class. The coronavirus lockdown across different countries has
proven how women are suffering. Right across the world, the

 
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number of cases reported to the United Nations of gender-based
violence was increasing in various countries.
The rising cases in South Africa and even the recent case of
Namhla Mtwa, who was brutally killed by her alleged boyfriend
proved that indeed we are not immune from the global
challenges as gender-based violence continues to be a national
crisis that will require immediate attention from all South
Africans. The ANC has committed again to liberating black
people in general and the African people in particular. The
ANC is prepared to change the structural system that was
created by the apartheid regime to oppress women. And the ANC
is also committed to liberating women from all forms of
exclusion and oppression.
The fight against gender-based violence will require different
stakeholders to come on board like civil society, faith-based
organisations and the police must work together to combat this
pandemic. The National Strategic Plan against GBVF must be
implemented fully and continue to mobilise different parts of
society by joining hands in the fight against gender-based
violence. The problem is deeper and more structured and would
require more substantive measures to fight it. A patriarchal
society favours the dominance of one gender over the other.

 
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And it emanates from simple things like gender roles in a
household. Furthermore, there is a need to improve the justice
system and close any gaps that might be there.
Recently, the Criminal Law Forensic Procedure Amendment Bill
was adopted by the Portfolio Committee on Police. It is a
victory in the fight against gender-based violence as this
legislative amendment continues to improve the justice system.
Indeed, this is a massive step towards bringing justice to the
victims of gender-based violence and femicide. This Amendment
Bill will continue to assist in decreasing the DNA backlog we
have witnessed. We commend the work done by the SA Police
Service, SAPS, in reducing the DNA backlog and we have also
witnessed a 38,71% reduction in the DNA backlog. And this is a
progressively significant reduction.
The Budget Vote of 2022 further allocated extra funds to
ensure that the DNA backlog is further reduced. In recent
years, we have witnessed the government injecting funds to
enhance the war against this pandemic and this Budget Vote is
not different from the others. There is an additional budget
allocated to fight gender-based violence. And also to ensure
the vision of creating safe communities for children and women
in South Africa. This is not only the vision as it is outlined

 
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in Chapter 12 of the National Development plan but for it to
become a reality. The department further allocated funds to
provide support to all the programmes related to the Gender-
Based Violence and Femicide Action Plan and provide support to
the hotspot stations.
The ANC will remain committed to ensuring that gender-based
violence and crimes against children are receiving serious
attention through the formation of various specialised police
units to investigate crimes against women and children. In
trying to intensify the fight against gender-based violence,
there are gender-based violence desks at police stations,
particularly in gender-based violence hotspots like Lusikisiki
in the Eastern Cape. These desks have well-trained staff who
understand gender-based violence and femicide well, to provide
support to the public. Furthermore, many police officers have
been capacitated and trained on gender-based violence and
femicide and related issues to ensure that there is a safe
environment created for those who are victims of gender-based
violence. The ANC in its commitment against gender-based
violence at its 54th national conference commented that those
who are found guilty of having committed crimes against women
and children must be subjected to stricter and harsher
sentences. Oh my Lord! Sorry, Chairperson, you know these

 
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technological things. I am sorry about that, Chairperson.
Furthermore, thanking the working relationship between the
police and the social workers, to provide the necessary
support to the victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
There is a need to continue having joint programmes between
the police and social workers to create a safe space for the
victims. This will help to reduce the withdrawal of gender-
based violence cases and bring back the trust of the public
for the SAPS. This can be done by creating a friendly
environment for the victims from the very movement they enter
the police station. A safe and private space must be created
for the interviews. And this is to ensure those police
officers respond promptly and make the victims feel protected
at all times.
The Budget Vote will help in the fight against gender-based
violence and the most vulnerable people in society stand to
benefit from the commitment of the ANC to creating a safe
environment is attained and South Africa will be a better
place for all. We, therefore, as the ANC welcome the Budget
Vote and let us continue serving the people of South Africa to
the best of our ability, and do not grandstand and talk like
you are talking about the apartheid regime, whereas we are

 
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cleaning up your mess of 300 years. We are only 27 years along
and it is difficult to just promptly clean whatever mess that
you have made.
In conclusion, the ANC continues to increase the effort in
fighting gender-based violence in South Africa. The struggle
is deeply rooted in the patriarchal society that we live in
today. And hence there is a need to change the mind-set of
society and how different genders view each other. The ANC is
also committed to creating a democratic, prosperous South
Africa in which there is a quality non-racial and nonsexist
South Africa. As the ANC, we support this Budget Vote as it
will be the instrument to fight gender-based violence. This
Budget Vote will benefit all South Africans, in particular,
the poor and working class.
IsiZulu:
Sihlalo wami weNdlu, kuyangimangaza mina uma amaqembu
aphikisayo uma esezothi awasiseki lesi sabelomali ngoba
bakhalaza ngokuthi futhi abasebenzi abekho, akwenziwa lutho,
banoMagaye shaqa. Kanti uMagaye uhlanza wonke umonakalo wabo
abawenza ngesikhathi sobandlululo. Phambili, Magaye.
Siyaliseka iVoti Lesabiwomali lakho, somnyango wakho.
Niqhubeke nozakwenu.

 
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English:
I thank you, Chairperson.
IsiZulu:
Ngiyabonga kakhulu, Sihlalo wosuku. Yebo.
IsiZulu:
UNGQONGQOSHE WAMAPHOYISA: Ngiyabonga Sihlalo, ngicela ukukhuza
ilungu elihloniphekile uMechalakis ukuthi akahlukane
nokugcwanekela kumina. Yena uma enenkinga ngalezinto azishoyo
uyazi ukuthi kufanele aye kuMthethosisekelo. UCele akanalutho
ngokwehliswa kwamandla amaphoyisa ezifundazweni yinto le
yoMthethisisekelo.
Okwesibili, angiyena umfana wakhe mina. Angiyena u-garden boy
wakhe othi angihambe ngiye enkantolo uma efuna ukuya enkantolo
eyokhuluma ngalezi zinto akaye enkantolo. Ngi-right mina, si-
right ngalendlela esisebenza ngayo. Izinkinga zakhe angazenzi
izinkinga zethu.
English:
Hon MEC Allen, forgets to tell the country that the last time
of the intake was in 2019, where there were 5 000 police who
were taken in South Africa, and 1200 of them went to the

 
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Western Cape. The whole country shared only 3800. I don’t know
why he forgets that they received a big share.
Secondly, he shouldn’t invite me to the Western Cape. I spend
more time in the townships and Cape Flats in the Western Cape
than him. He doesn’t spend his time in Khayelitsha and Delft
he learns that in geography.
Thirdly, on this matter, we are sending 200 police from
different provinces in the country every month from last year
to work in that province. So, if he doesn’t see them it means
he doesn’t go where they are.
Lastly, people who were killed in Khayelitsha -I know he
visited the same place I visited. That place was under this
high mass light, it doesn’t work. There is no camera there. He
must go and fix those things. On that point, he has given
money to everybody in the Cape Flats for cameras except
Khayelisha. I am prepared to come down, sit-down and just to
talk about these things and fix them. He must stop telling
people things that do not exist.
Chairperson, we are very much happy with the support we
received. The question of strengthening community remains our

 
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priority. The question of the gender-based violence remains
our priority. We will be creating lots of units that will be
dealing with the crimes that are killing the country. Training
of 10 000 police is progressing very well of which next year
it will be 5 000. That will increase our numbers and help us
to enhance the policing in the whole Republic of South Africa
not just in one province, as some people think that their
provinces are equal to the country. We have the responsibility
of looking over the country and South Africans must be safe
wherever they are whether in Khayelitsha, Thohoyandou, uMlazi,
or Galeshewe. Thank you very much, Chairperson.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J Nyambi): Thank you very much,
hon Ndosi, allow me take this opportunity to thank Mr Cele,
Minister Mathale, special delegates and permanent delegates
for being available for this very important debate.
Debate concluded.
The Council adjourned at 18:24.

 

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