The recent restructuring of the department for safety and security signals a deliberate shift in departmental interests, away from longer term policy development which occupied the senior levels of the department for much of George Fivaz’s tenure as national commissioner, to a quicker, hard and fast operational response to dealing with crime. This is reflected in the way the department has been restructured.

There can be little doubt that president Thabo Mbeki’s government has recognised the need for a hands-on, hard and fast approach to confronting the high levels of crime in the country. The first and most public indication was the appointment of the tough-talking Steve Tshwete, one of the ANC’s "fixers", as minister for safety and security. Second was the appointment of another ANC insider, Jackie Selebi, as national commissioner of the SAPS.

Less public though, but equally indicative of the new approach, has been the recent elevation of the SAPS’s operational chief, Andre Pruis, to deputy national commissioner, the restructuring that accompanied this and the downgrading of the status and role of the secretariat for safety and security. Indeed, anyone who doubts the depth of these changes need only pop into the 8th floor of Van Erkom building, the former home of the secretariat, where they will find commissioner Pruis’ "Ops Room" — staffed by police and army personnel — in the office previously occupied by the secretary for safety and security.

After the rainbow

Five years ago, when George Fivaz was appointed from relative obscurity as national commissioner, the initial departmental priorities were internal. Primary amongst these was the amalgamation and rationalisation of the 11 police agencies into a unified SAPS, and the transformation of the organisation into an accountable and effective service. Much attention was therefore paid to the political requirements of establishing oversight structures like the secretariat and Independent Complaints Directorate, the technical requirements of amalgamation and rationalisation and producing an appropriate organisational design.

Further, a new agenda was required for policing and the management echelons of the department quickly became involved in the development of overarching and sometimes very ambitious policy. Examples here are the National Crime Prevention Strategy, the Community Policing Policy Framework and the later White Paper on Safety and Security.

For the SAPS, these initial prerogatives also meant openly accepting the emerging values of the new "rainbow" nation. This translated into the appointment of four deputy national commissioners — each, happily, "representative" of one of South Africa’s population groups — the retrenchment of those disaffected by the change, tainted by their histories or both; and a focus on internal policy issues like affirmative action, labour relations, discipline and promotions. Further, regulatory frameworks on issues like the use of force, prevention of torture and crowd management were developed.

Given the focus on meeting the requirements of the immediate transition, it is not surprising that the department was not particularly well geared to addressing the sharp and steady increase in crime. Increasing concern regarding managerial deficits in the SAPS and a fallout between the then minister and the secretary on the one hand, and George Fivaz on the other, related mainly to the performance of the police. This resulted in the appointment of Meyer Khan to the hastily created post of chief executive officer of the SAPS.

This has all changed now. Fivaz, Kahn and three of the four deputy national commissioners are gone. Gone too are the former secretary for safety and security, Azhar Cachalia, and much of his secretariat, trimmed from 51 staffers to 22 and integrated into the ministry.

Now attention appears to be much more focused on the operational ability of the SAPS. This is indicated by the promotion of commissioner Pruis, who joins the last of Fivaz’s ‘deputies’, Morgan Chetty, as deputy national commissioner and the increase in the capacity of the SAPS head office in Pretoria. Further, two other promotions have been announced. Tim Williams, the head of the SAPS intelligence functions has been promoted to deputy national commissioner responsible for the crime intelligence and detective divisions. Louis Eloff, head of the SAPS management services, has been promoted to deputy national commissioner responsible for all SAPS support services. Morgan Chetty has been allocated the function of Inspector-General.

Ready to go?

Shortly after his appointment, the new national commissioner announced that he would ensure that senior managers in the SAPS sign performance contracts holding them accountable for their work. In addition, he indicated that much of this work would focus on:

Achieving maximum impact in the shortest possible time.


Aligning police resources with priorities.


Making policing intelligence and information driven.


Integrating policing and social crime prevention initiatives.


Developing the capacity of the SAPS.


Establishing partnerships and building relationships with communities.

To do this, five new divisions have been created at SAPS national level. This has been motivated by the need to upgrade effectiveness in the operational divisions and especially by the need to delegate responsibility for support and maintenance functions away from that of operational command. A spin-off of this restructuring has been the increase in the representivity of the SAPS’s senior management.

For the operational divisions the key changes are:

The creation of a crime intelligence division. This effectively separates this function from that of the detective service and aims at ensuring that while intelligence continues to inform the investigation of crime, it begins to play a greater role in initiatives intended to prevent crime.



The creation of a crime prevention division, headed by commissioner Makhubela. This separates the visible policing functions from the more specialised operational response capacity of the public order and border control units and aims at enhancing targeted crime combating operations. The functions of the secretariat related to coordination of the national crime prevention strategy have been moved, with staff, to this division.

For the support divisions the key changes have been:

Splitting the human resource functions into three divisions, namely career management, training and development and personnel services to separate human resource development from personnel administration.



Creating a separated division for financial and administrative services, and in doing so, separating financial control from the procurement and inventory management of the logistics division.

For the secretariat, the first sign of minister Tshwete’s intentions came with the appointment of Lindiwe Mtimkhulu as his special advisor, a role which had been associated with that of the secretary. This was quickly followed by the "re-deployment" of Azhar Cachalia, the down-grading of the post of secretary to deputy-director general and a hard and fast rationalisation of the secretariat’s structure and staff.

This restructuring directly contradicts some of the provisions of the White Paper on Safety and Security, approved by Cabinet in September 1998, which enhanced the functions of the secretariat, particularly those related to strategic planning and financial over sight in the department — the key policy levers.

Nevertheless, on February 16 minister Tshwete announced that the North West Province secretary for safety and security, Len Rasegatle, had been appointed to head up the restructured secretariat. He will head up an organisation designed less as a structure of oversight and rather more as an administrative support and advisory service for the minister.

For the SAPS then, it appears as though the restructuring of the department has cleared and streamlined the systems — all ready to go. It can only be hoped that this has also cleared the way for more efficient and effective service delivery.

Eric Pelser
Institute for Security Studies