Pretoria - Despite recent successes, government will guard itself against becoming complacent in the fight against crime, President Jacob Zuma has assured South Africans.
During his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, Zuma said government would forge ahead with programmes that would ensure South Africans felt safe and were safe.
"The crime statistics for the period 2010/2011 indicate that our country witnessed a decline of 5% in the number of reported serious crimes compared to the previous year. We will, however, not become complacent," he said.
Government would not let up on the fight against corruption either.
"The Multi-Agency Working Group on procurement led by the National Treasury, SARS and the Financial Intelligence Centre is reviewing the entire state procurement system to ensure better value for money from state spending," the President said.
Initiatives aimed at achieving this include the vetting of supply chain personnel in government departments.
Security will also be improved through the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Department of Home Affairs and the banking industry that will see an online fingerprint verification system rolled out at participating banks.
The system will assist in fraud prevention and detection.
Zuma also welcomed the Corruption Watch initiative launched by trade union federation Cosatu and the recent agreement between government and business to implement anti-corruption programmes.
"These interventions will complement the work of government in combating corruption," Zuma said.
