8. ELECTION OF OFFICERS

During the period under review the following people carried out the work in the following portfolios for the Executive Committee:

The re-election of the Chairperson and the existing Committee was unanimously accepted.

A point was raised with regard to the shooting of dogs in the area and a request was made by a    resident that this be brought to the attention of the authorities.Wendy agreed to include this in the next electronic letter.There being no other business the meeting closed.Refreshments were served at the close of the meeting.

THE HONOURABLE FEROSE CACHALIA, Provincial MEC of Community Safety, Gauteng

Mr Cachalia thanked the Chairman for inviting him to speak at the Annual General Meeting.He informed the forum that he had only been in this position for 2 weeks.He said that he was most grateful to the CRA for their invitation and the opportunity to address the AGM as he had already heard a lot of positive comments about the CRA.

He said that the high levels of crime in our society are one of the most important challenges that we face.He fully shares the concerns of the people of this country on this subject and was very angry that our citizens were being ‘imprisoned’ in their own homes, which was not acceptable.He said he had no sympathy for the criminals who commit acts of aggression against law-abiding citizens.It is our responsibility, on the Government side and on the side of our police forces, to work together to see if we can make a difference.

He told the audience that he came from a legal background and felt tremendously privileged and honoured with this great responsibility that he shared with others.We are not helpless and we do not have to live through this experience as victims.He believed that there are some essential ingredients for an effective strategy to combat crime.In our community we need to find objective scientific ways of addressing the problems that we face.We need an active, resilient organised community who confront the problems and contribute to addressing this challenge in this community, exemplary throughout and across our country who need to learn from your own positive knowledge and active spirit.

He said that he had been briefed on the 7 highest crime areas in our province.He went on to say that he was impressed with the successes with the application of sector policing in some areas.

The Sector Policing Approach

There had been significant improvements in hijacking with the introduction of special courts where no bail is given.One of the challenges of our department will be to develop the capacity to analyse patterns of criminality, working with the police through the monitoring function of the police service.We need to exercise this responsibility to assist the police.My job, as the political head of this department in the province, is to work with police and help them in any way possible to get the job done.Fighting crime must be our priority and I am confident that we will achieve success.I do think that there are indications that some kinds of crimes, according to the Institute of Security Studies, at some levels have stabilised.I have the responsibility to deal with this question.It is important for our people to know that there are good reasons to be realistically optimistic.To look at the whole picture over the last 10 years, it is important to note that, together with the performance of the economy, we are making progress in our country.We need the active participation of the community to work on two sides, both on the causes and consequences however, it is also true to say that some kinds of the crime may be due to lack of employment.

If we are going to deal with this problem, not only for the Department of Safety but the provincial government need to develop programmes dealing with youth crimes.We need to look at housing development and issues of environmental design.These are critical, for example, at the Grasmere Toll Plaza, N1 highway we are trying to develop a long term and rational strategy to assess which roads have safety problems and develop approaches which prevent the kinds of crime that we have seen on all our roads, deploy our resources and establish co-operation between provincial and local government.It is very important for the next five years to develop a coherent, co-ordinated approach to these challenges in the province.

700 traffic police offices have been transferred to the department of community safety who are responsible for crime and public safety and will also have some responsibility for traffic safety issues.The CRA is part of the story of how democracies work.1994 was not a solution to all our problems but does create the possibility for reflection on important aspirations and gives us ways of solving problems pragmatically.The way democracy should work is from the establishment of voluntary work that take problems to the decision makers who are accountable, elected and obliged to pay attention and be accountable to our concerns.One of the essential ingredients for improving the way the bureaucracy works is to allow oneself to be accountable to the community.

The question of hawkers has to be regulated.It is not appropriate for them to be allowed to sell in residential areas.They should trade in a regulated way in the city centre and not existing roads which lead to a degeneration of the city.In attempts to regenerate the city the regulatory existing specific facilities for informal trading is an ingredient of the problem.Special facilities have been established for hawkers, however under conditions of such high levels of unemployment it is proving very difficult to control and contain the problem completely successfully.In lots of areas of the city they are trading in contravention of the law and contrary to policy.This is an economic problem.However, government has a responsibility to protect residences.

The number of police on the streets would have to increase to 150 000.In 1994 there were 24 000, and an increase of 30 000 in the next 5 years.There are challenges to deal with fraud in the system.Begging is a matter for local government.

The Chairman thanked the MEC on behalf of the Executive Committee.