Govt failing its citizens - DA

2005-04-12 15:33

Cape Town - Government is failing in its most basic responsibility: to protect its citizens from harm, said Democratic Alliance member of parliament Roy Jankielsohn on Tuesday.

Speaking during debate in the national assembly on the safety and security budget vote, he said this was evidenced by the fact that employees of private security companies outnumbered the police.

He said: "While we already have almost 20 000 murders, and about 53 000 reported rapes per year, crime statistics would be much higher without this additional private police force protecting those who can afford this service, including the police."

"South Africans are afraid of criminals and justifiably so."

'People fear crime in their homes'

The institute for democracy in South Africa's afro barometer survey on "public attitudes to crime and security in SA" showed that 57% of South Africans feared crime in their own homes.

Altogether 34% of people surveyed indicated they had had something stolen from their homes and 19% that they, or someone in their family, had been attacked at home.

"The heart of our families, the home, is no longer safe from criminals."

Another survey by the institute of security studies indicated that up to 50% of certain categories of crimes were not reported.

This implied that police statistics of reported crimes told only half the story.

Govt's primary responsibility

"People on the ground are not fooled by government's grandstanding on crime because they know from bitter experience that they have to face the criminals in their homes.

"Government's primary responsibility is to protect its citizens from harm. It is clear that government is failing in this most basic task."

Jankielsohn said: "Government is failing because it is obsessed with sideshows such as the Firearms Control Act and racial profiling of police stations instead of dealing with the real issues facing it."

The Firearms Control Act - launched on July 1 2004 - targeted law-abiding citizens, while criminals continued to use millions of illegal weapons.

Morale of the force, service delivery

"Another sideshow that is destroying morale and the proper functioning of the police is their shameful personnel practices."

The implementation of resolution seven, which enforced a national demographic profile onto provinces and individual stations, had a devastating effect on both the morale of the force and service delivery.

"Police officials are transferred far from their homes and often do not even speak the language of the community whom they are meant to serve.

"The use of racial criteria to determine promotions is also a cause of tension and dissatisfaction across all race groups within the service.

- SAPA