A ministerial briefing on a national strategy to prevent crime heard fighting crime is everyone’s business and illustrated the role of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in “facilitating co-ordination in the discharge of national priorities by the different spheres of government”.
The speaker was NCOP chair Amos Masondo who told those sitting in on the briefing it intended to provide information that would “co-ordinate and enhance” oversight work. This would be across national government, through the NCOP; provincial legislatures and local government, municipalities via SALGA (SA Local Government Association).
Referring to government’s National Development Plan, Masondo said it directed that by 2030 South Africans feel safe and “have no fear of crime”; people are safe at home, school, work and “enjoy an active community life free of fear”; and women can freely walk the streets and children can play outside safely. Additionally the “police service is a well-resourced professional institution staffed by highly skilled officers who value their work, serve the community, safeguard lives and property without discrimination, protect the peaceful against violence and respect the rights of all to equality and justice”.
To achieve this, Masondo said required a co-ordinated approach and “the participation of every one”.
