STATEMENT BY THE RT HON PRIME MINISTER
DR B.SIBUSISO DLAMINI
AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE ROYAL SWAZILAND POLICE SERVICE STRATEGY DOCUMENTS
HAPPY VALLEY HOTEL, EZULWINI
WEDNESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2015
Programme Directors
Honourable Ministers
National Commissioner of Police
UNDP Representative, Mr Israel Dessalegne
Country Director for ICAP, Dr Ruben
Officers of the Royal Swaziland Police Service
Ladies and Gentlemen
As Minister for Police Affairs I am very pleased to officiate at this landmark ceremony to launch the three policy and strategy documents for the Royal Swaziland Police Service. Firstly we have the Corporate Development Strategy and then the two documents which focus on health and wellness in the Police – that is the Health Policy and the Health Strategy.
For any organisation moving ahead there has to be a clearly articulated vision, with objectives and a realistic and cost-effective conversion of those objectives into strategies and activities.
As with any branch of the Public Service, the Royal Swaziland Police has to embrace many of the characteristics of a corporate enterprise. It has to establish a planning, monitoring and evaluation process that will assist in the achievement of a continuous improvement in operational performance, human resource development and financial accountability, while installing the capacity to adjust to the changing circumstances as they are met. With this in mind the Corporate Development Strategy is the starting point and the essential guideline.
Among the numerous challenges that the Police face in this task is the need to counter emerging crime trends such as trafficking and terrorism, while embracing technological innovation to either improve the ability to prevent and detect criminal activity, or simply to negate the transnational and technological weaponry of the criminal world.
It is encouraging to note the extent to which the Corporate Development Strategy of the Police Service aligns itself with key Government plans such as the National Development Strategy, Vision 2022, the Decentralisation Policy, Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Government Programme of Action 2013-18. A key over-arching objective is the provision of a rock-solid safety and security landscape, not only to meet a basic human right of our people but also to create a highly important signal and incentive to investors to help us grow our economy at a faster rate.
On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I wish to thank our development partners, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for sponsoring the strategic development process for the five Government agencies, including the Police Service, that were selected to pilot the project. I commend the Police for its commitment to this exercise and I thank the Ministry of Finance for engaging the technical support and for guiding the Police Service to ensure that the Strategy is in line with the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
Health and Wellness in the Public Service is an initiative that has been taken seriously across the Service. Indeed, it is one of the eight priority focal areas in Government’s Programme of Action 2013-18. The starting point in this initiative was the development of the National Health Policy in 2007. The Public Sector Workplace Policy and Wellness Programme were derived from those guiding documents, and Government agencies were required to draw up Wellness policies and strategies to fit their own operational environments.
Good health is a prerequisite to sustaining the staffing of any public agency but, given the special risks and health hazards faced by a serving police officer, it was essential that the Royal Swaziland Police took early and energetic steps to meet these Wellness requirements. It is therefore very pleasing to see the Police Health Policy and Strategy documents before us today. This is also the opportunity to recognise the very valuable assistance that was received from a number of organisations. On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I therefore thank the International Centre for AIDS Program, an agency of the Government of the United States of America, for the substantial support that it provided. In fact, the United States Government is to be thanked for its very substantial assistance given towards our fight against HIV and AIDS.
We are also grateful to our own National Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA) for providing funding support in the exercise, and the Ministry of Health and the University of Swaziland’s Consultancy Training Centre for their respective inputs.
In terms of style and presentation these three documents are of an excellent quality, both with regard to content and style. As Minister for Police Affairs I shall be very happy to take these strategy documents forward. My colleagues, familiar as they are with Government’s Performance Targeting and Appraisal Programme, will be very aware of the importance of ensuring that there are quantified and measurable output targets in respect of all of the targeted outcomes, and of regular reporting on performance against those targets.
It is now my honour to declare the three documents of the Royal Swaziland Police Service : the Corporate Development Strategy (2016-20), the Health Policy and Strategy (2015-20) officially launched.
Thank you.