President Cyril Ramaphosa says violent crime is taking its toll on every South African. To crack down on it, he has announced wide-ranging plans from pumping money into the police and safeguarding whistle-blowers, to holding the corrupt to account and bolstering an emergency helpline.

“Communities across our country live in fear for the safety of their families. This situation cannot continue.”

Delivering his 2023 State of the Nation Address in Cape Town on Thursday evening, President Ramaphosa announced several plans to try and bolster the South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

“With more police on the street, with functioning community policing forums and an effective and independent prosecution authority, our people will be able to count on the protection of the state,” Ramaphosa said.

‘Emergency calls will be answered’

While last year he focused on overhauling South Africa’s security structures by filling critical vacancies, this year he addressed how crime and corruption were being dealt with.

One of the broad measures Ramaphosa spoke about was improving the 10111 emergency helpline. Last month Daily Maverick reported that 10111 call centres were massively understaffed and that millions of calls were dropped over three years.

During his address on Thursday, Ramaphosa said measures were in place, including partnering with the private sector, to ensure the proper functioning of the helpline.

“This is to ensure that when people call the police, their calls are answered and their emergencies are attended to,” he said.

Women and children

Regarding crimes against women and children, Ramaphosa said such incidents “remain a deeply disturbing feature of our national life”. 

“One of the great successes of our effort to fight gender-based violence is the extent to which social partners have rallied around the National Strategic Plan,” he said.

“In January last year, I signed into law three key pieces of legislation that afford greater protection to survivors of gender-based violence and ensure that perpetrators are no longer able to use legislative loopholes to evade prosecution.”

A focus of the National Strategic Plan was the empowerment of women.

“Through the Women’s Economic Assembly, we have seen industry associations and companies committing to industry-wide gender transformation targets,” Ramaphosa said.

“We must all play our part, as individuals, institutions and leaders across society, to end these crimes against women and children.”

Cancelling State Capture

Addressing corruption within government, Ramaphosa referred to the State Capture Commission and its final report, which was submitted in June last year.

It made several recommendations regarding individuals who should be held to account, and measures that could be introduced to protect state institutions from corruption.

During his address on Thursday, Ramaphosa said those recommendations were being implemented “so that the systemic weaknesses identified by the Commission are addressed and State Capture is never allowed to occur again”.

He added: “The National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, consisting of people from across society, is in place to advise on suitable mechanisms to stem corruption, including an overhaul of the institutional architecture for combating corruption.” 

Accountability

Action was being taken against individuals and companies who were allegedly involved in State Capture.

Ramaphosa said the NPA’s Investigating Directorate, established in 2019, had managed to get 187 individuals accused of crime to court in 32 State Capture and corruption cases.

Read more on Daily Maverick: Funding boost for NPA, SIU, SAPS and courts, Ramaphosa announces in delayed address

“Over R7-billion has so far been returned to the state from State Capture cases,” he said. “To date, R12.9-billion of funds and assets have been frozen.”

Ramaphosa announced the Investigating Directorate would become a permanent part of the NPA.

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Better whistle-blower protection

He also focused on a critical issue in South Africa – the safety of whistle-blowers. Ramaphosa said work was being done to capacitate the Witness Protection Unit. Amendments would also be introduced to the Protected Disclosures Act and Witness Protection Act.

“Work is already under way to improve access to the witness protection programme for public servants that expose maladministration, corruption and unethical conduct,” Ramaphosa said.

More cops, specialised teams

“Significantly more funding” would be available for the SAPS, the NPA and Special Investigating Unit. More police would be deployed on the streets and there would be specialised teams focusing on specific crimes. 

“Last year, we undertook to recruit 12,000 new police personnel,” Ramaphosa said.

“Since then, more than 10,000 new recruits graduated from police academies and a further 10,000 will be recruited and trained this year.”

Specialised police teams were looking into crimes including kidnapping, extortion and illegal mining, and Ramaphosa said several arrests had been made in connection with those investigations. A dedicated SAPS team had also been established to deal with theft and corruption at several power stations that had contributed to the power crisis resulting in daily blackouts. 

“Intelligence-driven operations at Eskom-related sites have so far resulted in 43 arrests,” Ramaphosa said.

Economic sabotage crackdown

Economic sabotage and related crimes were damaging the economy. Ramaphosa said that to counter this, Economic Infrastructure Task Teams were operating in 20 hotspots. He said last year he focused on “the enormous damage caused by the theft of copper cable and metal from our electricity system, train lines and other public infrastructure”.

Since then, police had been targeting cable thieves. Ramaphosa added: “In December, Government introduced a temporary ban on the export of scrap copper cable and certain metals to disrupt criminal syndicates and enable a new trading system to be put in place.”

Acting on Sona 2022

During last year’s Sona, Ramaphosa announced that critical vacancies in the State Security Agency and Crime Intelligence would be filled. He also said there would be leadership changes in the country’s security structures.

There was indeed a shake-up. Within two months it was announced that the national police commissioner at the time, Khehla Sitole, who was facing a wide range of accusations relating to his time as cop boss, would step down. He did so at the end of March last year and Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola took over as national police head.

In December another significant appointment in the police service was announced – Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo took over the beleaguered Crime Intelligence unit. DM