CORE FUNCTIONS
1 Summary of Service Delivery Environment and Challenges
1.1 The Department of Community Safety and Liaison is required to develop integrated responses from all role players in safety and security. This involves extensive consultations supported by co-operative agreements between departments and institutions to ensure that the mandates of the Department are implemented.
1.2 The Department has been actively engaged in the development of new National Policy for community policing. In addition, with the continued change in crime trends and the high incidence of serious and violent crimes in the country, the South African Police Service has had to improve strategies to combat any increase in such incidences and develop measures to prevent crime. Accordingly, the Department’s responsibility lies in the monitoring of the effectiveness of these new strategies as well as the evaluation of the impact of the Crime Combating Task Groups.
1.3 Social crime prevention also took on another dimension, which required expansion of the Department’s focus on matters of the violation of the rights of women and children. The Department has had to examine whether policy responses such as the Anti-Rape Strategy, Protocol on Child Abuse and Sexual Harassment, provide the means for a sustained and appropriate response.
1.4 It naturally follows that these expanded responsibilities must be accompanied by a commitment from the Province towards providing the necessary resources to support the Department’s policy and attainment of its strategic goals.
1.5 In terms of monitoring and oversight, the Department is required to examine troubled areas and crime statistics in the Province, and report this information to the MEC for Community Safety and Liaison and to Parliament.
1.6 The Department’s ability to follow through with the many complaints forwarded by members of the public has always been hampered by the shortage of line-function staff; however, it is anticipated that with the recent appointments in the relevant Directorate, this will be resolved.
1.7 The Department is currently expanding its partnerships to address provincial crime priority areas. Alignment of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy with the Integrated Development Plans of local government is the key instrument through which the Department will provide dedicated support to assist municipalities in ensuring that sustainable social crime prevention work forms an integral part of these plans. Capacity building of stakeholders includes training on how they can fast track the effective implementation of new safety and security-related legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act and the Child Justice Act.
A more comprehensive budget is urgently required to expand this work from its pilot phase to cover the entire Province and to ensure that a signi. cant number of stakeholders are capacitated to put this ground breaking legislation into effect.
1.8 One of the major challenges for the Department is the measurement of the impact of its services on the communities of KwaZulu-Natal. Based on client feedback, signi. cant progress is being made. However, to better measure and con. rm Departmental progress, a scientific measurement system must be introduced.
1.9 Increasingly sophisticated criminal network operations present many challenges to police service delivery at Provincial and local level.
1.10 The Department believes that increased budgetary support is required for innovative solutions that seek to address these challenges and provides the Department with the means to forge multi-sectoral partnerships for crime prevention. This will ultimately lead to the attraction of investment opportunities, and thereby improve the economic position of the province.
2 Summary of Service Delivery, Organizational Environment and Challenges
The Service Delivery, Organizational and Environmental challenges faced by the Department may be summarized as:
2.1 Shifting operational priorities due to the changing crime environment;
2.2 Lack of technical information to support decision-making;
2.3 Inadequate harmonization of geographic service delivery areas – between Local Government, the Department of Justice and the South African Police Service, Government departments and between Government and NGO’s;
2.4 Inadequate vertical and horizontal integration between Government agencies;
2.5 Policy gaps following the expiry of the White Paper in December 2004 pending the drafting of a new Safety and Security Act.
SERVICE COMMITMENT CHARTER
Service Charter for Victims of Crime in South Africa.
LEGISLATION / MANDATE
In determining the executive function of Provincial Government in relation to safety and security, the following legal documents inform the functions that must receive attention from provinces:-
1 The South African Constitution, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996); Chapter 11 de. nes the role of Provincial Government in policing as follows:-
The South African Constitution section 206 (2 & 3 a, b, c, d and e):
S206 (2) the national policing policy may make provision for different policies in respect of different provinces after taking into account the policing needs and priorities of these provinces.
S206 (3) Each province is entitled to:–
Monitor police conduct;
Oversee the effectiveness and ef. ciency of the police service including receiving
reports on the police service;
Promote good relations between the police and the community;
Assess the effectiveness of visible policing; and
Liaise with the Cabinet member responsible for policing with respect to crime and policing in the province.
Sub-section (4) further stipulates that a provincial executive is responsible for policing functions vested in it by this chapter, assigned to it in terms of national legislation and allocated to it in the national policing policy.
2 The South African Police Service Act, 1995 (Act 68 of 1995) – In terms of this legislation the Provincial Secretariats must support the Provincial MEC for Community Safety and Liaison by:
Providing advice;
Ensuring civilian oversight of the South African Police Service;
Promoting democratic accountability and transparency in the South African Police Service;
Providing a legal advisory service;
Providing communication and administrative support;
Monitoring the implementation of policy of the South African Police Service; and
Conducting research and evaluate the functioning of the South African Police
Service and report thereon.
6.3 The White Paper on Safety and Security, 1999 – 2004 (expired but not superseded) indicates that the Department’s provincial responsibilities are:
Initiating and co-ordinating social crime prevention programmes;
Mobilizing resources for social crime prevention programmes;
Co-ordinating a range of provincial functions in order to achieve more effective crime prevention;
Evaluating and supporting the social crime prevention programmes at local
government level;
Implementing and taking joint responsibility for social crime prevention;
Establishing crime prevention programmes in areas where local government is poorly resourced or lacks capacity and the establishing of public and private partnerships to support crime prevention.
6.4 The National Crime Prevention Strategy, 1996 (Revised 1999) – re. ects that the department has a responsibility to establish a Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy for the province.
6.5 Firearms Control Act, 2000
6.6 KwaZulu-Natal Commissions Act, 1999
6.7 Domestic Violence Act, 1998
6.8 Child Care Act, 1983
6.9 Maintenance Act, 1998
6.10 Criminal Procedure Act 1977
6.11 Administrative Mandates
Legislation that governs the administrative functions of the Department include the:
Public Finance Management Act, 1999 and regulations
Public Service Act, 1994 and regulations
Labour Relations Act, 1995
Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997
Employment Equity Act, 1998
Skills Development Act, 1998
Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000
Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000
Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000
Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, 2001
Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002
Regulation of Interception and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act, 2002
State Information Technology Agency Act, 1999
