DR B.S.S.DLAMINI

 

DURING THE COURTESY CALL BY THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF THE NAMIBIAN POLICE/CHAIRMAN OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN REGIONAL POLICE CHIEFS COOPERATION ORGANISATION (SARPCCO)

 

AT THE CABINET OFFICES

 

THURSDAY 8 MAY 2014

 

Honourable Ministers

Lieutenant-General Ndeitunga, Namibian Inspector-General

National Commissioner of the Royal Swaziland Police

Representatives of the Media

Ladies and Gentlemen

 

Lieutenant-General Ndeitunga, I am delighted to have the opportunity to meet you today. On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I welcome you to Swaziland and to my Office.

You come, of course, not only as Inspector-General of the Namibian Police but also as current Chairman of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation. Quite a long name so this is one of those situations where an acronym – in this case SARPCCO – comes in very useful!

And it is under your SARPCCO hat that you are visiting Swaziland and we thank you for including the Kingdom in your programme for assessing progress, among SARPCCO member countries, in implementing the SARPCCO resolutions.

I take this opportunity to reiterate Swaziland’s full support for SARPCCO’s role in promoting collaboration between the police forces in the region. Given the extent of cross-border criminal activities, national police forces cannot work in isolation. Through you, we do thank SARPCCO for the joint operations that are targeting transnational crimes such as stock theft, and illegal firearms, drugs and human trafficking.

Stock theft has to have a special mention today because the extent of it has reached very serious levels. On average, around 100 cattle are stolen every day in Swaziland and smuggled to other countries. We ask you, therefore, to extend all possible support to bringing this crime under control, possibly including it as an agenda item in the SARPCCO annual general meeting to be held later this month.

Trafficking in illegal firearms is also a criminal activity I would like to highlight today. Many firearms are entering Swaziland and then used in the commission of serious crimes. Perhaps this matter could also be raised separately in the forthcoming AGM. Nevertheless, a great deal will have been shared and learned on this subject at the recent meeting of the Regional Coordinating Committee to combat trafficking in illegal firearms. We thank you for holding that meeting in Swaziland.

We also appreciate the SARPCCO training courses which our Police officers attend. Keeping abreast of modern policing methods and developing skills to tackle emerging crimes, such as human trafficking and pharmaceutical counterfeiting, is highly beneficial to the Royal Swaziland Police Service.

 The strong working relationship between regional police forces will have received a boost from the sporting interaction during last year’s SARPCCO Games, hosted by your country, Namibia. We congratulate the Namibian Government and its Police Force for what proved to be a very successful event. We are aware of the instruction given to the Namibians to not let medals and trophies leave the country and I take the opportunity to apologise for the part played by Swazi athletes making it impossible for the instruction to be fully implemented!!

 And, finally, allow me to ask you, in your capacity as Namibian Police Inspector-General, to receive our thanks for letting us have two officers to share with us numerous issues of policing best practice. We should be happy to reciprocate by sending our experts to Namibia when you request this from us.

 Thank you, Inspector-General, for visiting Swaziland. We hope you have a most enjoyable stay in the Kingdom.

 

Thank you.