Long road ahead to create a professional SAPS

NATIONAL POLICING PLAN

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ON WEDNESDAY, May 14, the Cabinet approved the Draft National Policing Plan (NPP). This policy aims to create professional and quality policing, provide efficient and effective policing service delivery, improve legitimacy and trust between communities and the police, and build a strong and ethical leadership, management and governance infrastructure architecture within the SAPS.

Certainly, the policy is hailed by some but will be questioned by others — especially those who have seen other good policies failing to produce the intended results due to a plethora of reasons.

Addressing the media soon after the approval of this plan, the Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni stated that the newly approved plan outlines the government's plans to address shortcomings in the mandate of the SAPS to combat crime as a response to previous failures.

The motivating factor behind the drafting and subsequent adoption of the NPP is to address issues such as the small number of police stations across the country which makes it difficult for the SAPS to serve the South African public. The second factor is the capacity issue. It was felt that the SAPS needed serious capacitation if it were to execute its mandate well.

The third and most important issue which necessitated the drafting of the NPP was crime. Both national and provincial police officials constantly present shocking crime statistics. The impact of crime cuts across various spheres of life. These include, but are not limited to, the tourism sector, investment and economic growth, and South Africa's public and global image.