The South Africa Police Service (SAPS) National Police Commissioner, General Kehla Sitole who is the current Chairperson of the SADC Chiefs of Police Sub-Committee/SARPCCO of the Inter-state Defence and Security Committee under the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation paid a courtesy call on the SADC Secretariat on 26 January 2022 in Gaborone, Botswana.
Speaking during the courtesy call, the SAPS Commissioner shared his vision for his tenure as the Chairperson, envisaging SARPCCO as the regional policing model of the world where innovation and creativeness permeate and drive all its operations. The Chairperson emphasized the region to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to fighting Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) in the region. To this end, he put some emphasis on the need to curtail the modus operandi rather than reacting to symptoms of crime. The Chairperson also highlighted the Regional Strategies lined up to counter the threat of emerging and transnational organized crimes including terrorism which have to be commonly and effectively implemented.
The SARPCCO Chairperson further underlined the need for policing institutions in the region to embrace and adopt technology in the fight against crime taking into cognizance that criminality is going virtual and perpetrators are increasingly using the cyber space to spawn their heinous activities.
Speaking on behalf of the SADC Executive Secretary, the Director of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs (Organ), Mr. Jorge Cardoso, congratulated the SAPS Commissioner for taking up the Chairpersonship of SARPCCO while reassuring the Secretariat’s readiness to assist and facilitate the implementation of key decisions and policies towards combating TOC.
The Director of the Organ highlighted the significant role the Police Sector plays in the Socio-economic development of the region through preventing and combating emerging and transnational organized crimes. The Director of the Organ also emphasized the need for the region to heighten implementation of the existing regional mechanisms in order to effectively address the emerging threats to peace and stability in the region, amongst others: the Strategy to Prevent and Combat Transnational Organized Crime; the Counter Terrorism Strategy and its Action Plan (recently revised) as well as the Protocol on the Control of Small Arms, Ammunition and other Related Materials.
General Sitole was accompanied by the acting head of the INTERPOL RB Harare (SARPCCO coordination Office), Mr. Ignatius Nangombe, Lt General Liziwe Ntshinga, Deputy National Commissioner, Crime detection, Lt General Mothala and Brigadier Sounderajan Naidoo, Spokesperson for the National Commissioner.
The Director of the Organ was accompanied by Senior Officer Police/SARPCCO, Ms. Thanyani Gumede, Transnational Organized Crime Officer, Ms Barbra Mchenga and SARPCCO Liaison Officer, Mr Simbarashe Manjera.
