SPEAKERS NOTES: MEDIA SESSION IN PORT ELIZABETH ON SUNDAY 3 AUGUST AT 13:00

The Provincial Commissioner of the Eastern Cape, Lt Gen Binta.

Maj General Chipu, National Head: Operational Co-ordination and Major General Motlhala, Acting
National Head: Visible Policing.
All Deputy Provincial Commissioners present.
The Cluster Commander of Mount Road, Maj Gen Rabie and the Cluster Commander of
Motherwell, Maj Gen Siganga.
Provincial Heads, Station Commanders and Unit Commanders present.
All officers, members and employees of the SA Police Service.
Members of Community Police forums present.
Members of the Media.
Ladies and Gentlemen.


Good afternoon, Molweni, Goeiemiddag,

Please allow me to express my appreciation to the members of the media for their willingness to join us
on a Sunday afternoon. The SA Police Service is thankful for your support in the fight against crime and
for assisting us in conveying our messages to the communities we serve.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has the Constitutional mandate to
ensure that our communities are protected against criminals and thugs, therefore we have noted with
concern over the last year the increase in the number of serious and violent crime incidents in two of the
Clusters in the Nelson Mandela Metro, especially the gang activities in the Northern Areas of Port
Elizabeth.

The most worrying effect of this is the loss of innocent lives, children that become victims to the violence
due to fights and rivalry that erupts between the different gang groups.

When we evaluate the situation in the Northern areas we know that the gangs identified in these areas
have splintered over the years and various new gang groups were formed. We have compiled profiles on
the 21 groups operating in the area. Their activities are being monitored by the SA Police Service, some
of them have already been arrested through our operations and many of them are now facing charges in
court relating to drugs and violent crimes.

These gangs are mainly involved in crimes such as Murder, Attempted Murder, Gang rapes, Drug
peddling, House breaking and theft, Intimidation, Illegal possession of firearms, house and business
robberies and the perpetuation of violence particularly shooting incidents, with the purpose of :-

Pursuing their illegal businesses and marking their turfs.
Intimidating opposing gang members.
Intimidating witnesses and their families and.
Generally terrorising the communities where they operate.

Since last year the Provincial Management of the Police in this Province have started to put strategies in
place in order to counter these gangs and their activities.

This included amongst other things the establishment of a dedicated Gang Task Team which consists of
seasoned detectives and intelligence officers. The team is focusing on the investigation of case dockets
relating to all incidents of violence and crime perpetrated by gangs and they have been very successful.

Since their inception during June last year, the task team has confiscated 21 firearms and large amounts
of drugs such as Tik, Mandrax and Dagga. More than 199 arrests have been made in connection with
this. They have also over a very short period secured six convictions for Murder and House Robbery.
Sentences from life imprisonment to 52 years imprisonment have been handed down in our courts to
gangsters and their accomplices.

In terms of a proactive approach the Provincial Commissioner has provided additional resources to the
Mount Road and Motherwell Clusters and members of the National Intervention Unit (NIU) have been
deployed together with local TRT members and Public Order Police.

These provincial and cluster initiatives resulted in us observing some decrease in the number of serious
crime incidents but not to such an extent that we can say this threat to the safety of our communities have
been eliminated.

In addition, SAPS Management also established a dedicated and well-resourced task team to deal
specifically with the detection of perpetrators of serious and violent crimes such as house robberies,
business robberies and car jacking. They have since January this year, made more than a 105 arrests
in these type of cases.

Therefore Ladies and Gentlemen, I have heeded to the request of the Provincial Commissioner to
allocate additional manpower to the Province in order for them to deal more effectively with the curbing of
violent crimes in this Metro.

At the same time our alarm were raised with regard to contact crimes escalating in the Motherwell
Cluster, especially in the station areas of New Brighton, KwaZakhele, Motherwell and Kwadesi. This
refers to crime such as robberies, murder, attempted murders and rape.

On Friday, the Provincial Commissioner welcomed to Port Elizabeth members from the National
Intervention Unit and Public Order Policing from KwaZulu Natal, Head Office and other parts of this
Province.

These members will be deployed in the Mount Road and Motherwell Clusters at identified hot spots and
execute together with the local police officials an operational plan that was put together by the Province.

I know that you will want to know how many additional members will be deployed and detail on our plans
but we cannot provide this, as it is operational information which we normally don't make it public but we
trust that they will see the positive results of our actions very soon.

Furthermore, we rely heavily on the support that we receive from our community police forums and
community safety forums as they are critical structures in the eradicating of violence in our communities.
This afternoon, I will meet with the executive members of the Cluster CPF boards of Mount Road and
Motherwell and I am hopeful that we will have fruitful discussions on the partnership between the
community and the SAPS.

It is clear that the hold that gangsterism and crime have on our communities can be broken when we
strengthen our relationship and make our communities part of the solution to the challenges we face-
Unity is strength!

This means that communities will actively support our men and women in blue and not give refuge and
help to criminals, will refuse to buy stolen goods, not aid and abet drug lords and their pedlars, but
instead - to report their activities and to support the efforts and interventions of law enforcement agencies.

Let me also take this opportunity to commend the initiatives and active partnerships the communities and
other government role players have established with the Police , such as the Tavern Owners Forum, Taxi
Owners Forum, Foreign Nationals Business Forum and several other Religious and Business groupings,
to mention just a few existing in the Motherwell Cluster.

I was also informed this morning of very special projects and partnerships operating in the Northern Areas
such as Safety and Zone patrollers who are supported with resources such as bicycles by the SPAR,
local Pastors Forum focusing on enabling families to resist gang influence, the Victory Ministries
Rehabilitation programme with ex-gangsters and parolees and the School Patrollers Programme initiated
by the Provincial Department of Safety and Liaison.

Having said all this I want to once again appeal to the community of Port Elizabeth to work together with
the Police in the fight against crime and expose those who are involved in the heinous crimes negatively
affecting the safety of people in this area. I believe that when it comes to the fight against crime,
someone, somewhere, somehow knows something about crime.

I have total confidence in the Management of the SAPS in this Province and the citizens of the Nelson
Mandela Metro that they will achieve success on the plans that they have developed.

Lastly, to the men and women in blue - we must ensure that service deliveries to our communities
improve and that the publics expectations from the police are fulfilled, because we are serving with
integrity, professionalism and promptness at all service delivery points.

Gear yourselves up for the onslaught of criminal elements and be assured of the support of the Top
Management of the SAPS. Gods speed!

I thank you.