As Women’s Month draws to a close, female leadership in the police have met at the annual Public Service Women Management Week to rebuild good ethics, uplift staff morale and instil a sense of pride among members in line with the Batho Pele principles.
The gathering, held in East London, has afforded senior women leadership with a platform to engage and address matters affecting vulnerable groups such as violence against women, something the local community grapples with.
Deputy National Commissioner for Human Resources Management, Lieutenant General Bonang Mgwenya, addressed trainees and police detectives about the important role they ought to play in putting a stop to gender-based violence (GBV).
“This Women's Month, we are reminded of the critical role that we play in ensuring the safety of our citizens, particularly our women and children. Our priority is to ensure that we detect, prevent and combat crime as well as put criminals behind bars.
“If a victim lays a complaint of abuse against his or her spouse at a police station, our responsibility is to investigate and effect an arrest. Do not turn away a survivor of GBV. Let’s continue to ensure that we address the scourge of women and children abuse” said Mgwenya.
The week-long conference will culminate today with the launch of the SAPS Women Empowerment Agenda. This is a five–year plan aimed at addressing women empowerment within SAPS.
The overall objective of the SAPS Empowerment Agenda intends to promote gender equality in the SAPS and to ultimately ensure women remain at the forefront of detecting, preventing and combating crime in communities.
The senior managers were also deployed to communities in and around the area. The community outreach programmes were aimed at enhancing the relationship between the police and the community as well as mobilising communities to participate in crime prevention initiatives.
They made unannounced visits to local police stations to assess the state of service delivery to communities regarding GBV and conducted door-to-door visits to note residents’ concerns about crime. - SAnews.gov.za
