| 2024/11/14 |
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Media Statement NORTHERN CAPE – The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in the Northern Cape, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola, together with the Deputy Provincial Commissioner for Corporate Services, Major General Thabo Mphuthi has been presiding over the 2nd Quarter Review session over the past two days in Kimberley. The session commenced on Wednesday, 13 November 2024 and will conclude today, 14 November 2024. In her opening remarks, Lieutenant General Otola congratulated the recently promoted 162 members as well as the medal recipients who were awarded 30, 20 and 10 year medals for loyal service the past two weeks in the Namakwa, ZFM and JTG districts, and those who will be receiving their medals next week in Pixely Ka-Seme. In addressing the members during her opening remarks, General Otola indicated that Provincial components and Districts will be reviewing their performance over the next two days. General Otola made her expectations clear as what she expects in terms of the Readiness for the Festive Season. The province must be ready and we will not open the doors for criminals coming into the province to commit crime. Districts must intensify the patrols on all national roads by highway patrol, roadblocks must be focused and proper inspections and searches of vehicles must be done. Event matrix must speak to the crime threats and address specific crimes in hotspot areas. The issue of tuckshops is a national concern and problem and it will be gazetted soon, where SAPS will part of the collective teams conducting inspections to tuckshops in conjunction with Municipalities and other relevant departments. During the programme of day one, the Labour Unions, SAPU and POPCRU as well as the Provincial Community Police Board delivered messages of support. Day two, of the Review Session was attended by the MEC for COGHSTA and Transport, Safety and Liaison, Mr Bentley Vass, who addressed the Provincial, District and Station Management on a virtual platform. In his address, the MEC stated that the review session is probably two of the toughest things a person or an organisation can do, which is self-introspection and self-critic. You host this review session, to look at yourselves in a mirror and seek to address issues of performance towards the achievement of our strategic goals. Most employees may dread performance reviews, seeing them as an opportunity for their managers or seniors to tell them everything wrong with their work. Equally, our review may raise performance issues that are not entirely satisfactory or that disappoint us as a team. These sessions can work as a realignment to prevent misunderstandings and as a way to pause, step back, and recalibrate tasks and workload. We must however, also take this review session as an opportunity to tap ourselves on the shoulder for achieving excellent outcomes in some of the areas of our work. MEC Vass, urged the 92 police stations in this Province, to become centres of excellence and ensure safer communities for all the residents of this Province. Our communities must have the necessary confidence to approach any of our Police Stations and each of our Men and Women in Blue, to report crimes in this Province. We can only do this by working together and involving all of society in our efforts to fight crime. With the release of the Crime Statistics for the last quarter of the previous financial year and first quarter of 2024- 2025 in September, the MEC stated that he was particularly happy that all Districts reflected decreases for the first quarter of this financial year. Colleagues, as we intensify our crime fighting efforts during this festive season until 31 January 2025, we must ensure heightened police visibility across the Province. The residents of this Province, will expect to see law enforcement visibility in their communities disrupting criminal activities that may want to pose a threat to law-abiding citizens who worked hard throughout the year and want to enjoy the holidays in a peaceful environment. MEC Vass indicated that he will be in the province throughout this Festive Season and will support stations as the police execute their duties to ensure a Safer Festive Season for all our residents across this Province. A Special MUNIMEC meeting was convened with all Municipalities in the Province and attended by several MEC’s. The purpose of the meeting was to reflect on the issue of what is commonly called food poisoning occurrences that has spread across the country and that is starting to be an issue in our Province emanating largely from the selling of food items and products that are either expired or that are not supposed to be consumed. By-laws will be gazetted and implemented through their respective Municipalities before the end of December 2024. The illicit economy as focus area four is a crime trend that we must work harder to clampdown. Let us combat illicit drug trafficking, illicit mining, and counterfeit goods. This illicit economy cannot continue unabated under our watch. This Festive Season and beyond we must enforce legislation in respect of firearms, liquor, second-hand goods, including enforcing the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act (SASREA) to enhance safety of residents. During the two days, Provincial components, districts and stations presented their performance and also indicated what their challenges and corrective measures were put in place to address the deviations. The review session was facilitated by the Deputy Provincial Commissioner for Corporate Services, Major General Thabo Mphuthi together with the Provincial Head for Organisational Development and Strategic Management, Brigadier Merle Coghlan and her personnel. Ends
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