Parliament zeroes in on police lifestyle audits

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Lifestyle audits for senior members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the allocation of resources will come to the fore during today’s meeting of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police.

The chairperson of the committee, Francois Beukman, said the committee will focus on lifestyle audits for senior members of the SAPS, the allocation of resources to the various provinces and crime hotspots, the crime intelligence turnaround strategy and alleged corruption in the SAPS procurement division.

Beukman said the management of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) and the Civilian Secretariat for Police will also appear before the committee during the hearings, which get underway today and end on Friday.

The committee has also invited police unions, civil society and anti-corruption non-governmental organisations to form part of deliberations today.

The various organisations will give their views on the SAPS budget for the 2018/19 financial year.

“It is critical to get the input of the broader community and stakeholders on the performance of the police and crime-fighting agencies. Parliament should take cognisance of the input of the public during the budget hearing process. Gaps in service delivery should be identified and communities that are under siege by criminals should be able to articulate their concerns,” said Beukman.

He said the committee believes that stability in police management is vital to ensure effective crime detection and investigation.

“It is the first budget hearing of the new National Commissioner and we expect that resources should be prioritised towards the core function of the SAPS and tangible plans should be put on the table to ensure that violent crime is tackled head-on.

“Following various new appointments at the top level of SAPS, it is essential that the new Deputy National Commissioners and Divisional Commissioners ensure that low targets and weak performance is replaced with high performance target and consistent performance at divisional and station level,” said Beukman.

Parliamentary Programme 

The Portfolio Committee on Police meeting comes as Parliament’s programme for the term gets underway this week.

This includes plenaries, questions to the Executive, budget votes, the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) Local Government Week and Youth Parliament, among others.

The NCOP will kick start its programme today with a focus on questions to the Social Services Cluster Ministers (Arts & Culture, Basic Education, Higher Education & Training and Sports & Recreation).

On Wednesday, the House will hold a debate on the outcomes of the ‘Report-Back Session: Taking Parliament to the People in Eastern Cape’, which was held in March.

The rest of the Social Services Cluster ministries (Health, Human Settlements, Social Development and Water & Sanitation) will appear in the House for questions on Thursday.

The National Assembly will hold its first plenary sitting on Tuesday, 24 April, where reports of committees, motions without notice, Members’ statements and notices of motion will be discussed.

Deputy President David Mabuza will return to the House during the same week to make oral replies to questions. - SAnews.gov.za