Warwick Bruce Chapman

Why are we not focusing on crime prevention in South Africa?

“South Africa has had a comprehensive crime prevention policy agenda for some time in the form of the 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy and the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security. Despite this, prevention has remained very much a second cousin within the South African criminal justice family, notwithstanding the fact that there is widespread agreement that it warrants far more attention.” — Julie Berg and Clifford Shearing in “The practice of crime prevention”

Crime prevention – 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) *

This is South Africa’s overarching policy on crime prevention. It was intended to be the guiding framework for a wide range of interdepartmental programs aimed at increasing safety. The four “pillars” of the NCPS covered improving criminal justice functioning, environmental design, community values and education, and transnational crime.

At its peak, the NCPS was seen as one of six pillars of the country’s National Growth and Development Strategy, a far-sighted move that recognized the vital role safety plays in development. However, the change of administration in 1999 ushered in a new approach to how government would deal with crime. Political pressure was mounting on government to deal with the rampant crime problem, and the longer-term approach of the NCPS was not appeasing the fears of the public or of politicians. In the end, shortrange thinking prevailed, the Growth and Development Strategy was shelved in favour of the Growth, Employment, and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR).

With the possible exception of victim support, most of the social programs envisaged by the NCPS never came to fruition.

Law enforcement – 2000 National Crime Combating Strategy (NCCS) *

The 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy was largely drafted by a panel of civilians and was widely distributed for comment. The NCCS, on the other hand, was produced in-house by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and has never been issued as a public document. The NCPS was, in theory, an interdepartmental policy, while the NCCS is explicitly a security cluster matter.

These differences are indicative not only of the shift towards an overtly law enforcement approach to crime reduction but also of the pressure to respond quickly – which partly explains the lack of consultation and the NCCS’s focus on the police.

Adapted from the ISS’s “Crime and Crime Prevention in South Africa: 10 Years After“

The eThekwini Municipality has, at great expense, installed a fibre optic network known as MetroFibre. Since its conceptual stage, MetroFibre has been envisaged as key to providing more cost effective and more accessible broadband services in the municipality’s attempt to bridge the so-called digital divide.

The Connected Schools project aims, in this initial phase, to connect 86 schools to the Internet in areas like Umlazi, KwaMashu, Phoenix, Inanda, Sydenham and Overport . Quite simply, the more access our learners have to the Internet, the more learning and skills development we are going to see taking place.

This sort of project, once properly implemented and maintained, is an example of the sort of positive interventions which municipalities can make, in partnership with other spheres of government, to effect positive change in the lives of people looking for a way out of poverty. We know that in the 21st century knowledge is power.

Providing access to the Internet means providing access to the single largest repository of Information on the earth. Let’s do much much more of it in the years to come.

The Local Government Systems Amendment Act (Act 7 of 2011) was signed into law by the President on 2 July 2011.

In March when it passed unanimously through Parliament the Acting Minister, giving us a hint of the importance that this legislation holds, said, “Local government will never be the same again. This Bill will open a new chapter in local government and help turn it around into a responsive, accountable, efficient and effective local government system that will help accelerate service delivery.”

The Departmental press release from April this year reads, “in some cases Municipalities … are staffed with employees who are not necessarily qualified to undertake their duties. It is for this reason that this Bill makes it mandatory for Municipalities to employ appropriately qualified and competent people.”

The Department goes on to say, “the … Act is aimed at professionalising local government for improved service delivery and performance management…”

National CoGTA Circular 19 of 2011 says of this Act that it “outlines government’s resolve to professionalise local public administration.”

Section 3 of the Amendment Act, (adding section 54A and amending section 56), provides strict new rules governing the appointment of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers to the extent that “any contract of employment entered into between the municipality and [the appointed municipal manager or manager directly accountable to the municipal manager] is null and void if the appointed person does not have the prescribed skills, expertise, competences and qualifications…”

Section 5 of the Amendment Act (inserting a new section 56A), requires that a municipal manager or manager directly accountable to a municipal manager may not hold any political office in a political party, whether in a permanent, temporary or acting capacity.

There can be little doubt that these changes seek to address the cancer of cadre deployment at the level of senior municipal management. For nearly 15 years now, political cadres have been deployed to positions of management regardless of qualifications. This Amendment now requires unambiguously that managers henceforth not be politically active and are qualified and able to perform the job at the level required for the turnaround of local government.

The states aims of this act include:

1. Professionalise local government by ensuring that the administrative apparatus of municipalities is staffed by appropriately qualified and competent persons to improve on service delivery.

2. Require employment contracts and performance agreements of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers to be consistent with the uniform systems and procedures set nationally.

3. Prevent staff dismissed for serious misconduct (financial misconduct, corruption, fraud) from being re-employed in any municipality for 10 years. Other categories of misconduct now carry prescribed waiting or rehabilitation periods before a dismissed member may be re-employed.

4. Prevent the bloating of municipal administrations in areas that do not constitute the core business of municipalities by requiring municipalities to pass a staff establishment through council and only positions indicated on that establishment may be filled.

5. Amend the Code of Conduct for Councillors to make it illegal for councillors to vote in favour of a resolution which conflicts with any local government legislation.

There is little doubt that this legislation is a response to the ANC’s abysmal performance in Local Government. The opposition in this council has a responsibility to ensure that the measures taken in this Amendment Act are applied in this municipality henceforth.

Note: The answers are listed below the questions.

The Speaker – eThekwini Council
Councillor Logie Naidoo
City Hall
DURBAN
14 October 2011

Dear Mr Speaker

QUESTIONS IN TERMS OF SECTION 17 OF THE RULES OF ORDER

The enforcement of speeding on our roads is a critical exercise to reducing fatal accidents. “Speed Kills” we are told but there are some serious questions about the ability of Metro Police to enforce speed on our roads.

It is in this regard that I table the following questions:

1. The National Department of Transport has recently committed itself to the International “Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020”. Is the eThekwini Municipality aware of this initiative and are we willing to commit this municipality to support the initiative?

2. How many calibrated and functional mobile speed enforcement equipment does the eThekwini Municipality have currently?

3. Are the cameras referred to in 1. above deployed to enforce speed every day, ie. Are there days when the equipment is not all being used for speed enforcement?
3.1. If not, why not?

4. How many prosecutions for speeding were made in the 2010/11 financial year?
4.1. Of those, how many prosecutions were made on the M-roads and N-roads in eThekwini (eg. M13, Western Freeway, M19)?
4.2. Of those, how many prosecutions were made on other classes of municipal road?

5. Is it true that speed is only enforced on residential roads if the average violation is over 20km/h over the limit? (eg. On a 60km/h road, there must be large number of vehicles travelling at over 80 km/h before enforcement will take place)

6. Are there any plans to increase the amount of speed enforcement taking place in eThekwini?
6.1. If yes, have any targets been set?
6.2. If no, why not?

7. Why do Metro Police continue to place unmanned speed cameras on bridges despite a court order ruling this action unlawful?

8. Given the necessity for increased speed enforcement in residential areas, should the cameras in 7. above not be used to make our residential roads safer.

Yours faithfully,

Councillor Warwick Chapman
Democratic Alliance

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Answers as provided at eThekwini Council Meeting on 30 October 2011:

Councillor ZRT Gumede in her capacity as the Chairperson of Health, Safety and Social Services Committee provided the following respective responses:

1. Yes, Council would commit to and participate in this initiative in any way possible.

2. There are five calibrated and functional mobile speed devices in use.

3. Yes, every day with the exception of when there is severe rain or unplanned departmental requirements, i.e. strike action.

4. A total of 134 712 prosecutions were initiated for the 2010/11 financial year, of these 76 236 were enforced on highways, freeways and main roads. We do not do enforcement on national roads; this is undertaken by KZN RTI.

5. An instruction from the KZN Director of Public Prosecutions is that no prosecutions may be initiated for vehicles travelling less than 20 km per hour over the speed limit.

6. Yes, there is an initiative to increase speed enforcement in eThekwini. We are in a process of converting a large number of red robots cameras to speed cameras thus motorists will not only be charged for crossing red robots but also for speeding.

7. Mobile speed equipment and devices are not left unmanned; however enforcement personnel are not required to sit right next to the equipment. This is for personal safety and health reasons, i.e. sun. There is no such court order preventing enforcement on bridges.

8. Speed enforcement by laser camera equipment may only be performed on sites that have been inspected and authorised by the DPP’s office. The DPP’s office has authorised 72 sites for eThekwini mainly on highways, freeways and main roads and urban roads where the stopping of vehicles is considered dangerous to drivers and pedestrians.

Dear Editor

Asset losses as a result of cable theft in eThekwini over the past five years amount to nearly R100m. This figure does not take into account losses to consumers caused by the resulting outage or power surge.

In the 2006/7 financial year, cable theft losses in Cape Town were recorded at R22-million. Just a year later losses had been reduced to R496 800, representing a 44-fold decrease from one financial year to the next.

What could possibly explain such a dramatic decline in just one year? The answer is simply that the Cape Town council took a policy decision not to tolerate cable theft any longer and to invest in combating the crime. The council established the Metals Theft Unit or “Copperheads” as a specialised unit of the Cape Town Metro Police to combat the theft of copper and other metals.

The 12-person unit, through tip-offs from the public, as well as proactive intelligence-gathering, was mandated to find, catch and arrest copper thieves. The unit arrests between 200 and 300 per year of which about 50 are council workers. Theft of brass water meters was reduced from 1700 per month in 2007, to 10 per month in 2009.

There is no reason why this success cannot be replicated in eThekwini and other metros. eThekwini’s own attempt to combat cable theft is a unit established in 2009 with a R29m budget and six posts. It has been unable to attract the investigators required to fill the vacant posts in the unit. There have been no convictions of scrap metal dealers in eThekwini since the unit was established.

At a National level, the Second Hand Goods Law which was passed in 2009 has not yet been implemented by SAPS. It creates a solid framework for law enforcement to pursue and prosecute copper thieves and must urgently be implemented.

Copper theft has a direct impact on the lives of our people, and always hits poorer communities hardest. eThekwini then has to spend additional resources replacing infrastructure instead of rolling out more services to the poor.

In my opinion, even if it costs us R30m per year to prevent R30m of cable theft, the measures are worthwhile as they reduce loss of productivity and costly damage to consumer equipment.

Cllr WB Chapman