Mthethwa indicated that government would want to reduce violent crimes which were common in the country.

Referring to Zuma’s speech, he said in the past it had been criticised for lack of detail “but this one was detailed”.

During his Address, Zuma said government would forge ahead with programmes that would ensure South Africans felt safe and were safe.

“The crime statistics for the period 2010/2011 indicate that our country witnessed a decline of 5% in the number of reported serious crimes compared to the previous year. We will, however, not become complacent.

“The Multi-Agency Working Group on procurement led by the National Treasury, SARS and the Financial Intelligence Centre is reviewing the entire state procurement system to ensure better value for money from state spending,” said Zuma.

Initiatives aimed at achieving this include the vetting of supply chain personnel in government departments.

He said that security would also be improved through the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Department of Home Affairs and the banking industry that will see an online fingerprint verification system rolled out at participating banks.

This system, he said, would assist in fraud prevention and detection.

Zuma also welcomed the Corruption Watch initiative launched by trade union federation Cosatu and the recent agreement between government and business to implement anti-corruption programmes.