"Our journey to date in building SAFER communities"

On the 15th of May 2008 former Western Cape MEC for Community Safety, Leonard Ramatlakane delivered his budget speech entitled "Our journey to date in building safer communities" (the full text is here)

I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. The Department of Community Safety and our policing agencies will NOT sit down and watch our children destroy their futures with drugs and involvement in gangs.

Speaker, it should be remembered that when we took over, gangs ruled this province. Gang wars and gang shoot outs resulted in the killing of innocent children. They were monitored and no action was sufficiently taken to stop them. When we took over, the gangs were dealt with. We told them: "You stop or be stopped". Today the situation is different. The life of gangs and drug lords is being made unbearable. No amount of threat has deterred ...

To those who continue to peddle drugs such as TIK, our law enforcement agencies and the integrated plan will turn the screws even tighter in all the identified 21 areas and beyond. Five years ago no High flyers were arrested but today 1 658 high flyers were arrested over four years {257 in 2004/05, 384 in 2005/06, 250 in 2006/07 and 767 in 2007/08}. (What is a High flyer? By what measure? Flashy clothes? Flashy car? FLASHY HEADLINES?) At the same time 465 drug outlets were closed and 4 797 drugs related arrests were affected.

Speaker, the partnership between SAPS and the Assets Forfeiture Unit investigated 83 cases, with 18 houses referred to the council for evictions. At the same time, in the last five years, the following were seized by the police:

* Dagga with a street value of R21 million
* LSD tablets R77 150 (Way too low if they mean LSD the drug in total)
* Crack to the value of R5.4 million
* Heroin to the value of R4.92 million
* Cocaine street value of R354 160 (as opposed to Cocaine 7 lines below?)
* TIK to the value of R33 million
* Unga Heroin to the value of R96 000
* Cat to the value of R256 200 (Also way to low - even if you include the methcathinone below)
* Mandrax with a street value of R20 million
* Methcathinone to the value of R107 100
* Ecstasy to the value of R743 370 (What a hoot - the clown thinks this is something to brag about)
* Cocaine to the value of R24 million

The total weight of the seized drugs and substance equals the total weight of 22 one ton Bakkies. In monetary value, the confiscated drugs is equal to the salary of 1 028 million individuals for a period of three years with a monthly salary of R3 000. And yes he's making a GREAT argument for legalization.

As a demonstration that our strategy against drugs is effective, we have recorded a 100% success rate in the seizure and bust in drugs. We have driven an aggressive programme to close down drug and TIK factories an action that translated into thousands of arrests of people for possession and the consumption of drugs. (Oh really Leonard! You're one HIGH porch-monkey? A 100% success rate... 100% of WHAT? South Africa is practically the wild west - we are number one in murders with firearms per capita. No wonder you've been canned!)