Reflections on first year in office
Good morning colleagues and members of the media,
Thank you very much for joining us on a Saturday morning. Some of you may recall that when I was appointed some 15 months ago, I indicated that I would be engaging regularly with the media. This being our first engagement, this is going to be a rather lengthy speech and I ask that you bear with me.
I therefore thought it prudent to call this media session today to reflect on my first year in office as the National Commissioner and to share my thoughts about the future direction of this important institution. The South African Police Service is one of the key organs of government and we are consequently accountable to the people of South Africa.
I was appointed to this post on 12 June 2012 and, as I reflect on the past year, I realise that my views about the police have been reaffirmed. Back then it was just a perception, but now it is a reality. Policing is a tough and often thankless job, and I suppose it is very similar for everyone in the public sector. But I want to believe that policing is made much more difficult by its complexities and the risks involved. Some of our beloved colleagues have paid the highest price possible as a direct consequence of their belief in the ideals of the Service.
I have already visited all the nine provinces and whenever my schedule allows, I visit the local police station. In many ways, the hundreds of men and women in blue that I have interacted with so far, regard their work as a calling.
The police service is a well-resourced institution with highly skilled officers who value their work, many of whom are selflessly committed to serve the community. Theirs' is to safeguard the community's right to life and property, and protect them against lawlessness. Their blood is blue, just as mine has become. These men and women are our light of hope and I will ensure that the light shines so brightly for everyone to see the good work they do in safeguarding our country and its people.
Two months after my appointment, the nation had to grapple with the Marikana tragedy, and I have no doubt that we will still reflect on it in the future. This tragic event gave me a rapid but thorough understanding of our operational environment. In a way, it hastened my orientation into the police. I have therefore, in a short time-span, learnt a lot about the SAPS.
Many people have remarked about the fact that I'm not a career cop and therefore I should not be the one leading this complex organisation. After one year, I now know for sure that management of the police is no different from the management of the many organisations I have worked for. The same management principles are involved in the banking sector, parastatals, a mining company or retail store, are applicable to police management. LtGen Petros is a good example of this.
He is a qualified Mathematics teacher but he joined the police and became a very successful manager and leader of the police.
Many of you have seen my CV and would therefore have an appreciation of my management experience. I'm what you can term a ‘general manager'; you can give me any organisation, no matter how big or small: I have all the requisite leadership and management skills to run it.
Let me reiterate what I shared with the SAPS Top 1500 Management Forum on my 180th day in the SAPS: I am not here just for a job and a salary - I am here for a higher purpose, which is building a better country.
Ladies and gentlemen, you don't need to be a career cop to understand that, to have properly functioning police stations, you need network points and not just computers. We have invested in buying computers, and yet a significant portion of those computers aren't loaded with our programmes, a significant number of people that need to use those computers don't have the required training, and the majority of our police stations don't have the necessary cabling.
To remedy this, I have diverted funds from another programme to ensure that our stations are cabled so that the computers can be used.
This is a priority for me and I have instructed that all our 1135 be cabled within the next two years.
I am doing this because police stations are the heartbeat of policing. If they are neglected and allowed to become dysfunctional, then we will never achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.
The world we work in today has become so complex that we need commanders with a broad understanding of people management, leadership and financial management skills, a broad knowledge of the law and a good understanding of the political, social and economic landscapes. Police management is more than just giving instructions and this is particularly important within our democratic dispensation.
I believe that my term of office is about going back to the basics, laying a foundation for future policing in South Africa as outlined in the National Development Plan and setting up supporting structures for what we need to achieve. Together with the management team, we will re-ignite the passion, reignite the sense of pride and re-energise police officers from station level upwards.
A police station is the most important unit of the police administration. It is at the police station that the public are most in touch with the police and the police with the public. The public expectations from the police can only be fulfilled if the public are satisfied with the integrity, professionalism, fortitude, impartiality and promptness in the services rendered by police station.
I'm also proud of our successes. This demonstrates our commitment to delivering service excellence to every sector of our constituency. It is not generally considered or realised that the SAPS is South Africa's largest single employer, with about 200 000 staff members and an annual budget of about R68 billion.
The successes include a significant increase in the number of arrests for all manner of crimes, successes in stolen vehicle recovery and drug-related arrests and confiscations.
We are not ‘beating the drum' loudly enough. While the public's attention tends to be focused on our shortcomings, there is an imbalance in providing exposure of our achievements.
For instance, there has recently been a significant improvement in the forensic support of investigations. We have fully resourced detective environment, including intense focus training.
For the first time in the history of the SAPS, I hosted over 600 detective commanders to deliberate and come up with a ten-point plan. Our resolve was that we should continue to tackle crime. Our success rests on two major changes. We will soon begin a process of bringing retired detectives back into the Service to assist us. They will also help with mentoring and coaching.
Furthermore, specific areas that have achieved ‘turnaround status' include ‘visible policing', investigative successes by detectives, policing of illicit mining and recent successes in the fight against the scourge of drugs, particularly in our poorer communities.
When considering how these successes have been achieved, it is more and more apparent that community involvement and commitment plays an increasingly important role in any and every policing initiative. The work done by Community Policing Forums as well as ordinary citizens who tell us about crime in their communities is invaluable. This is because I believe firmly, that someone, somewhere, somehow, knows something about crime in their community.
It is no secret that the SAPS faces many challenges and, after a year at the helm, I can confidently say that I have a really good appreciation of them. I am certainly not going to attempt to itemise them all for you today.
However, I am going to address some of those that I feel are most critical for informing an effective transformation process. They are:
Leadership is not the sole responsibility of the National Commissioner or Provincial Commissioners or Station Commanders. It is a team effort. There is a need to cultivate a culture of robust and frank engagement at all levels of leadership.
I am focusing on changing the department's methods and mind-set. The first step, is to draw leaders close to the planning process, SAPS should be an organization of inclusion, where people are not afraid to come up with innovative ideas. The most important reform we are making is localization of leadership.
That is, devolving power to the cluster and station commanders. These local leaders need genuine authority. The clusters and stations are the primary unit of policing, they are policing equivalent of corporate line managers. The cluster commanders effectively run what amount to miniature police departments. It is for this reason that we are embarking on a serious enhancement of local leadership by cluster commanders. We are clarifying their roles we are demanding more accountability from them.
Key decisions must be informed by strategic thinking and deliberations. Appropriate structures must be put in place in order to create a conduciveenvironment. This will lead to a collective ownership of programmes and initiatives. In the pack you will receive a copy of the governance structures I have established.
To be effective, we need to channel palpable passion for the badge and the uniform in the right direction by forming strong multi-disciplinary teams at all levels
There is a lot of goodwill within the organisation, but there are instances that generate ill will, and this often overshadows the good work that is performed on a daily basis. The issues of ill will include unlawful arrests, investigation of fellow police officers, and nonsensical acts.
To turn the SAPS around requires robust leadership that is accountable, courageous, receptive to new ideas and visible. We need to facilitate a move away from ‘disruptive engagements' towards ‘nourishing interactions' that will engender organisational development and success.
We have to remake SAPS into an effective and focussed organisation. We need a sharp on crime. We have to develop strategy and tactics that would prevent and uproot crime rather than react to it.
To achieve all these, we need fresh thinking. I have thus taken a decision to streamline our organisational structure.
I congratulate the new leaders who have been promoted and others who have taken on new responsibilities. I wish to also take this opportunity to thank Lieutenant General Petros for being a loyal servant of the Service. He is the epitome of a professional police officer. Today is his last day as Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng. We have been engaged in discussions about his future role in the police. He indicated his desire to move on and pursue other interests. I have tried hard to ensure that his skills are not lost to the SAPS. He has kindly agreed to stay on until the end of this year to focus on a number of special projects.
Let me conclude by saying that the changes I have introduced are not about individuals. They are about the interest of the organisation and our country. There are many other issues which I could have addressed here but I have elected to concentrate on a few key issues. However, I am determined to institute a process of ‘public understanding' of SAPS transformation and the only way that I can achieve that is through an informed media.
I am confident that you will all find this sufficiently worthwhile to report on the transformation of the SAPS. In pursuit of this ideal, I commit to holding a quarterly media briefing as I am optimistic that rapid and meaningful changes in the SAPS will demonstrate the values of our refreshed approach to policing.
This is going be a long journey. Today, we have taken the first step.
Statement issued by the Office of the National Commissioner, South African Police Service, August 31 2013
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