Vice-President Paul Mashatil addressed Parliament, assuring that South Africa is ready to address the crime and intelligence failures following the 2021 riots and plans to increase police recruitment and improve intelligence-led policing.
He said on Thursday that South Africa would not be let down again by intelligence failures, which occurred during the devastating uprising in KwaZulu-Natal in 2021.
“We are ready and improvements are currently being rolled out. We are equipping our intelligence services,” Mashatil said.
“We will not be taken by surprise or taken by surprise. We have learned our lesson. Our security forces are ready to deal with any incident that may arise,” he said.
He was responding to a follow-up question from MK Party leader Mmabato Mokoena Zondi during a Q&A session in Parliament.
In her lead question, Mokoena Zondi asked whether the Cabinet Committee on Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) had achieved its goals following a sustained increase in violent crime and unresolved intelligence failures.
In response, Mr Mashatil said violent crime remained a major concern for all South Africans.
“JCPS continues to monitor the implementation of the goals set. Current statistics show that there is visible progress in several areas.”
He also said the conviction rate for sex crimes is now over 77%, and joint operations targeting illegal mining and gang activity are leading to arrests and prosecutions.
“We are strengthening intelligence-led policing and modernizing our justice system to restore safety and trust.”
Mashatile pointed out that recent crime statistics released by SAPS show that although some improvements have been recorded in certain categories of crime, the overall level of crime remains of serious concern.
He added that the government will recruit 20,000 more police officers.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the deployment of members of the South African National Defense Force in collaboration with the South African Police Service. This deployment will help prevent and combat crime and, as I said, support and maintain law and order under Operation Prosper, which targets illegal mining and gang activity.”
Referring to the 2021 KwaZulu-Natal riots, Mashatil said it was clear that there was a lack of intelligence-led policing.
“We have now decided that to ensure success in the fight against crime, policing must be intelligence-driven. There are no indicators of this success now, but we will see examples of the success of this approach when we conduct our next review.”
Mr Mashatile said South Africa needed to integrate its justice system to succeed.
Mr Mashatil also said the role of the community in the fight against crime is important.
He noted with concern that community policing forums were not being prioritized.
“Many of us don’t think the community is important, but the community should always be the eyes and ears of law enforcement on the ground. There’s no better information than the information you get from the community.”
post
