Green Paper on Policing: DA will oppose the creation of a single police service

Note to editors: The following statement was distributed at a press conference hosted in Parliament today by the DA's Shadow Minister of Police, Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, the Western Cape Minister for Community Safety, Dan Plato, and Mayoral Committee Member on Safety and Security in the City of Cape Town, Alderman Jean-Pierre Smith. The submission can be downloaded here. The presentation can be found here.

The Civilian Secretariat for Police has released the Green Paper on Policing. The document is sub-standard and reads more like a history book than a well-researched crime-fighting plan for the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Not only does it fail to provide concrete plans and measurable mechanisms to achieve key objectives which have already existed for the last 20 years, it has also excluded a number of important recommendations on policing contained in the National Development Plan. In fact the NDP's ten pages on policing provide more concrete action than the Green Paper does within its 70 pages.

At the heart of the problem in the document are five problematic components:

• The single police service;
• Exclusion of specialised units;
• Retention of military ranks;
• Failure to set out the appointment of the National Police Commissioner; and
• Lack of concrete steps to address corruption and misconduct.

The single police service:

This proposal would centralise all law enforcement agencies under SAPS and remove control of municipal and provincial law enforcement from the municipality and province. This ignores section 206(7) of the Constitution which explicitly allows for the establishment of municipal police services and is therefore possibly unconstitutional.

The DA is vehemently opposed to this move which should be interpreted as nothing more than a political attempt to usurp the powers of provinces and metros where the ANC is not currently in government, or will not govern in the future. 

It is part of the broader action taken by the Minister of Police in opposing provincial competencies regarding community safety as evidenced by the court challenge to the Western Cape Government's Commission of Inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha, as well as to the Western Cape's Community Safety Act.

The ANC is clearly concerned about the success the DA-run City of Cape Town's Metro Police has experienced since we assumed office. This includes, over the last year:

• 1614 drug-related arrests
• 1485 drug, alcohol and illegal firearm operations; and
• 8720 by-law offences issued.

Specialised Units:

One of the crucial elements which the Green Paper fails to address is the need for specialised units. The DA has advocated for their re-instatement since they were disbanded and this is supported by the NDP. We need, amongst others, that the Narcotics Bureau, Anti-gang, Rural safety and Stock Theft units to be re-established. SAPS needs units with dedicated, specialised officers to target specific crimes. 

This is why in the DA-run City of Cape Town specialised Gang and Substance Abuse Units within the metro were established to crack down on drugs and gangs. Last year, the Unit undertook 283 crack-down operations resulting in 387 arrests. 

Demilitarisation and Police Brutality:

Minister Mthethwa has continuously made references to improving command and control over recent months as his reaction to situations where police have been accused of brutality and a lack of professionalism. 

This was in fact the reason given for remilitarising the SAPS in 2010. The DA has opposed this since it was first proposed. The militarisation of SAPS has resulted in a police force, rather than a police service. This militarisation has resulted in a marked increase in police brutality.

The Green Paper, however, argues that there is no need for the military ranks to be abandoned as they have not had an impact on the police service. 

This omission is compounded by the failure to properly address policy brutality in the paper. It is in fact mentioned only three times and this is purely within the context of apartheid. It appears as if the Civilian Secretariat is as blind as the Minister of Police and the President in recognising that this is a systemic problem which needs to be investigated and addressed as a matter of urgency. This should have been the hard lesson learned by the government following the devastating Marikana Tragedy last year.

Appointment of the National Police Commissioner:

The Green Paper continuously refers to professionalising the police service yet makes no suggestions as to how to ensure we have a professional police officer as the head of SAPS. 

We have seen three successive civilian National Police Commissioners who have not been suitable for the job. One went to prison and another was fired and faces criminal charges. The latest appointment of Riah Phiyega is yet another example of a National Police Commissioner who is failing SAPS and South Africa.  

The National Police Commissioner must be a career police officer who has a non-broken service from the day they joined until they reach the highest rank, proven his or her abilities and is appointed by a multi-party parliamentary committee.

Corruption and Misconduct:

The Green Paper does not provide sufficient concrete proposals as to how to address corruption and misconduct beyond improving command and control. The NDP, however, provides very concrete proposals on how to handle this which includes immediate suspension upon being charged with misconduct. 

The Green Paper is the document which will guide our country's national policing strategy and should follow the recommendations made by the NDP which is the plan for our country over the next 20 years. It must also be based on evidence and provide concrete action and ways of measuring these actions. 

If this does not happen then we will continue to have papers and policies which are never implemented and a dysfunctional South African Police Service which is unable to combat crime in our communities.

The Civilian Secretariat for Police must go back to the drawing board and redraft the Green Paper. South Africa needs a concrete plan to improve the South African Police Service and to successfully fight crime.

The Green Paper must therefore be redrafted to include the following key dynamics:

• International best practice;
• Statistical research;
• Concrete plans of action and measurable outcomes;
• Specialised units;
• Accept that the Constitution allows for municipal and metro police services to enforce municipal by laws and act as a multiplier in the SAPS fight against crime;
• Provide concrete steps to address SAPS corruption and misconduct;
• Demilitarisation of the SAPS; and
• Ensure the SAPS is led by a career police officer respected by his or her colleagues throughout the Service.

If this does not happen, and the proposals contained in the Green Paper, including the creation of a single police service are legislated, the DA will oppose such legislation in Parliament.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, June 26 2013

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