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Parktown The MEC of Community Safety and Liaison, Mme Faith MazibukoAll Deputy National Commissioners and Divisional Commissioners present todayMembers of the mediaLadies and gentlemen Good evening We have called this press conference this evening to announce the filling of two critical vacancies in the management structure of the South African Police Service. The announcement of the Divisional Commissioner responsible for Visible Policing and Operations, as well as the Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng. These two positions are both critical in ensuring the deployment of capacity and resources in the execution of our mandate as enshrined in Section 205 of the Constitution of our country. This will bolster our efforts to heighten police visibility in our communities towards preventing, combating and investigating crime and ultimately putting perpetrators to justice. Let me start off with the appointment of the Divisional Commissioner of Visible Policing and Operations. The Visible Policing and Operations Division is key as it encompasses Crime Prevention, Border Security and Specialised Interventions sub-programmes. This Division provides direction on the effective combating of crime through the provisioning of a visible policing service. The mandate of the Division is thus to discourage all crime, by providing a proactive and responsive policing service that strives towards the reduction of crime levels; and to instil community confidence in the SAPS. The unit also renders its services by developing, implementing, monitoring and executing regulations, policies and Acts. It gives me great pleasure to announce that the new Divisional Commissioner Visible Policing and Operations is Major General Maropeng Johanna Mamothethi. The member is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General with effect from 01 March 2024. She brings to the position a wealth of experience in the visible policing environment. The member has 28 years’ service and holds a Diploma in Policing, a B-tech degree in policing, and a Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management. During her illustrious career in the SAPS, the member has served as a Deputy Provincial Commissioner for Support Services in the Northern Cape and also served as the Component Head for Social Crime Prevention where she was responsible for enhancing partnership policing programmes. In addition, she was responsible for ensuring we heighten our response to GBVF and enhance our awareness campaigns in response to youth substance abuse, amongst others. As the component head of Firearms, Liquor and Second-Hand Goods, she was instrumental in reducing the backlog in firearm licensing and firearms amnesty applications by 94%. In the 2021/2022 financial year, she oversaw the finalisation of 531 thousand, two hundred and forty nine firearms related applications. The effective management of the amnesty applications reduced the number of illegal firearms in circulation in the country. Since April 2022, she has overseen the destruction of more than 72 000 firearms that were voluntarily surrendered to the state and confiscated during crime combatting operations across the country. At this point, I take this opportunity to thank Major General Pienaar for acting in this position. As many of you may be aware, the position of Gauteng Provincial Commissioner has been vacant from 1 February 2024. Since Gauteng is the economic hub of the country, we expedited the process of filling this vacancy in the interest of ensuring continued crime fighting efforts. I would like to take this opportunity to announce that Major General Tommy Mthombeni who has been acting as the Gauteng Provincial Commissioner in the last month, is now appointed in the post of Gauteng Provincial Commissioner, at the rank of Lieutenant General. His appointment is effective from the 1st of March 2024. He too brings to this position, a wealth of policing experience. He has been serving as the Deputy Provincial Commissioner responsible for Visible Policing since 2020. Lieutenant General Mthombeni joined the SAPS ranks in 1986 and has 37 years’ service. He has held several senior positions including that of Cluster Commander and District Commissioner of Tshwane, and the station commanders of Jabulani Police Station in Soweto and Station Commander for Pretoria Central Police Station in Tshwane. He holds a National Diploma in Police Administration, and a National Higher Diploma in Policing and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. He has been instrumental and a key figure in developing and implementing crime combatting strategies to reduce levels of crime in the province and we have full confidence that he will continue to lead and contribute in ensuring that serious and violent crimes in this economic hub are dealt a blow. We do believe that working together with other key stakeholders in the Justice Crime Prevention Cluster (JCPS), collectively he will turn the tide against crime in Gauteng. We once again thank retired Gauteng Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Mawela for his role in holding the fort in protecting and serving the people of Gauteng. Ladies and gentlemen, the filling of critical vacancies is a top priority for SAPS management and it is done to ensure accountability and stability within the organisation with a view of enhancing service delivery to our communities. The appointment and filling of these critical vacancies is of chief importance in the organisation and forms part of my strategy to create and sustain an environment that will ensure a fully capacitated and functional police service that responds to the needs of our communities. We have full confidence in the both of you. Congratulations to both Lieutenant Generals, we wish you well on your new roles and we hope that you will find your new positions fulfilling. I will now request the MEC to assist me in conferring the ranks on these newly appointed members.
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/SAPoliceService
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