Potchefstroom - Newly appointed North West provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Baile Motswenyane aims to clamp down on illegal mining and restore the pride of the police.
“I am intending to revamp the operational strategic direction of the province which includes the policing of port of entry, the policing of service delivery protests and the clamping down on illegal mining,” she told journalists in Potchefstroom on Thursday.
She was outlining her plans to stabilise crime in the province, as well as upholding the back-to-basics approach, which is aimed at restoring the culture of discipline, hard work and people-based policing.
Illegal mining in the North West province is concentrated in the gold mines around the Klerksdorp area.
Motswenyane's plans also include the clamping down on corruption and paying a greater focus on rural safety. She said she also wanted to ensure that people in the North West received equal services, in line with government's batho pele principles.
“I want to make members of the service in this province to be proud of who they are, and must be to the community of our province.”
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Motswenyane took up her her duties as the new provincial commissioner of North West on February 1.
She has been a serving police officer for over 27 years, with 14 of those at a senior management level. Before her appointment as North West commissioner, she was the operations officer at the level of deputy provincial commissioner in the Free State.
She also served as the deputy provincial commissioner responsible for operational services in the Free State. Motswenyane holds a national diploma in police administration and a baccalaureus technologiae degree in policing.
She also holds a postgraduate diploma in gender studies from the University of the Free State. Motswenyane took over the provincial policing reins from General Zukiswa Mbombo who retired last year. Mbombo was the provincial commissioner during the Marikana tragedy in 2012 which left 34 mineworkers dead.
She testified at the Farlam Commission probing the incident. In her testimony, Mbombo said there were blunders in the police communication systems used on day of the incident, August 16, 2012.
“Our biggest challenge was the communication problem and the issue that we also seriously injured people. Our people could not take enough photos of the scene,” she said at the time.
On Tuesday, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate confirmed in Parliament that it had filed criminal charges against suspended national commissioner Riah Phiyega and Mbombo.
Israel Kgamanyane told Parliament's portfolio committee on police that on September 8 last year, cases were registered against Phiyega and Mbombo who are being investigated for giving misleading testimony before the Farlam commission of inquiry into the Marikana killings.
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY