Pretoria - Rural safety, improved service delivery and safety at the country's schools were all high on the Police Ministry's agenda, Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.
Responding to questions during a Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster briefing to the National Council of Provinces in Parliament, Mthethwa said the ministry had crime prevention programmes in place to address these areas of concern.
Mthethwa was asked if his ministry had a systematic national programme to deal with search and seizures at schools, and if this random approach might not leave learners traumatised.
He confirmed that the SAPS issued guidelines for schools-based crime prevention at national level.
"We work closely with the Department of Basic Education to build and ensure collaboration, at local level, between police stations and schools in their areas, in the interest of school safety.
This approach addresses school safety by dealing with both prevention programmes and ensuring appropriate responses to safety concerns."
Search and seizures were done in co-operation with the school management, school governing bodies or the Safe School Committee in order to address concerns about drugs or dangerous weapons in a school.
Mthethwa said part of police's school safety approach was to build a positive relationship between the learners and the SAPS, to ensure that they trusted the SAPS enough to report crime and share their safety concerns.
Turning to the subject of rural safety, Mthethwa said it was an issue that the ministry took very seriously.
A comprehensive Rural Safety Strategy was developed last year and is currently being rolled out at provincial level.
A Rural Safety Priority Committee, which is made up of all the role players in the rural and farming community, is also functioning at national level, Mthethwa said.
"Our aim is to ensure our rural safety strategy not only responds to the immediate safety and security needs of the rural community but also ensure an effective and sustainable policing approach.
"We would like to encourage all stakeholders to work together in a coordinated and integrated manner and engage at all levels in our planning and implementation of this strategy," the Minister said.
Responding to questions about his unannounced visits to police stations, Mthethwa said he visited police stations regularly to experience police service delivery first hand.
The Civilian Secretariat for Police had also been visiting police stations to access service delivery and constantly updated Mthethwa on the outcome of the visits.
"Given the number of police stations in the country, it is important that we try to visit as many stations as possible and this includes stations not visited by Parliament because it is often these stations that have not received attention," he pointed out.
