SOUTH AFRICA BUSINESS GROUPS JOIN TOGETHER TO FIGHT COMPUTER CRIMECreamer Media's Engineering News Online, South African Industry News :: News TodayCrime busters
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In the postapartheid corporate environment, crime is increasingly playing a significant role in business-development strategies, compelling most companies to invest in sophisticated security solutions as a necessary operational cost.
The current high crime levels have necessitated the creation of a number of crime-reducing and criminal-justice-enhancing initiatives between government and the South African business community, and facilitated by Business Against Crime South Africa (Bacsa), which seeks to support government’s efforts by complementing its resources with entrepreneurial, managerial and technological skills.

Consequently, Engineering News spoke to Bacsa CEO Kenny Fihla regarding the factors promoting criminal activities, the state of the criminal-justice system, and what initiatives are being implemented by Bacsa to reduce the escalat- ing crime levels.

Historical context With the advent of nonracial democracy in 1994, minority groups feared that the transition would bring with it a breakdown in the criminal-justice system, which would result in widespread anarchy enveloping the country.

Although crime statistics released by the Department of Justice did reveal an increase in re- ported crime after the April 1994 elections, which was inevitable considering the incorporation of the homeland regions and the transformation of government structures, South Africa did not descend into lawlessness, as was originally feared.

Nevertheless, according to Fihla, the increase in crime compelled former president Nelson Man-dela to urge the local corporate community to partner with government in the fight against crime.

“This initiative resulted in the establishment of Bacsa, whose original objective was to second senior business leaders to government departments in an attempt to facilitate the establishment of new criminal-justice institutions,” Fihla tells Engineering News.

“Through the creation of strong justice institutions, business believed that the crime situation in the country could be resolved within three years.

“Unfortunately, this initiative was to prove overly optimistic as there was a gross underestimation of the underlying causes of crime.” However, Fihla argues that this initiative of seconding people to government and simultaneously facilitating an interaction between business leaders and government departments was successful in making the corporate community more aware of what the foundation factors of crime were and, therefore, it had a better appreciation of what needed to be done to deal with the specific challenges that were confronting the criminal-justice system. This initiative also presented an opportunity for government to appreciate what the business community could offer in the fight against crime. “In this sense, government appreciated that business had vast experience in the areas of skills training, best-practice models, and had a culture that was driven by performance and results and, ultimately, government could benefit from this by accessing this expertise and getting best-practice models transferred to State departments.” This original partnership has since moved from a process of solely seconding people into government departments to the development of joint initiatives that look at areas where the fight against crime and the reduction in crime levels can be accelerated within the shortest possible time. Bacsa plays a key role in facilitating these joint partnerships through entrepreneurial, managerial and technological skills transference, using funding that is provided by the South African corporate community.

Fihla explains that these joint initiatives require the participation of government and business because many of the crimes that are confronting South African society are such that they cannot be dealt with by government alone, as the root causes and drivers of crime lie outside the scope of government departments.

Similarly, crime has a negative effect on the local business community and the economy due to the interconnectedness of most industries.

There are currently five joint-partnership national programmes that are being facilitated by Bacsa to reduce crime levels, prevent corruption, and foster a positive value system.

Current initiatives The first initiative focuses on organised crime with- in the sphere of vehicle crime, nonferrous metal theft, cellphone theft and computer theft. The programme supports government’s efforts in dealing with organised crime through the facilitation of a close working relationship between members of the criminal-justice and security cluster, as well as other departments affected by organised crime.

“Each subproject seeks to design, assess, pilot and assist in the implementation of effective counters to organised crime, in cooperation with key roleplayers in the public and private sectors,” says Fihla.

“Each subproject touches on all aspects impacting the organised-crime environment, including legislative and regulatory frameworks, business systems and processes, target and market hardening, law enforcement and prosecutions.” The second initiative focuses on commercial crime, which has a significant effect on the South African economy.

The objective of this initiative is to assist the Department of Justice to develop the requisite skills to deal with commercial crime.

In this regard, Bacsa advised government to establish specialised commerical court centres (SCCC) where senior detectives, prosecutors and courts are located in the same premises, which improves the flow of dockets and evidence, and the interaction and coordination between the various participants in the criminal-justice system. Consequently, SCCCs have been established in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban, with two more in Cape Town and Bloemfontein planned for the near future.

The introduction of these specialised courts has resulted in the significant improvement in the conviction rate of up to 94%.

The objective of the third initiative is to foster a positive value system in schools through the Tiisa Thuto or ‘strengthening eduction’ programme. The rationale behind this programme is to promote positive value systems and teach children and parents nonviolent conflict-resolution mechanisms.

“Although the nature of this programme is different from the other initiatives, it is necessitated by the need to inhibit the violent psychological nature of crime,” explains Fihla.

“Virtually every crime type is associated with the use of indiscriminate violence, which directly relates to the erosion of a positive value system over many decades in South African society.

“This project has been piloted in 44 schools in Soweto and has seen a significant reduction in acts of aggression in these schools of up to 70%.” The fourth initiative covers the Support Pro-gramme for Police Stations project.

The objective of this programme is to promote a partnership between business and local police stations so that there can be a direct skills transference to the management structure of police stations.

There are currently 78 police stations in Mpumulanga and Gauteng that are involved in this initiative.

“The programme is in the process of being rolled out to the North West, Eastern Cape and the Western Cape due to the successes that have been achieved in Gauteng and Mpumulanga,” says Fihla. The fifth initiative is the Criminal-Just- ice Strengthening Programme, which aims to improve the efficiency of the courts by separating court management from the adjudication of cases.

The US and South African governments joined forces with Bacsa in a strategic partnership alliance designed to build support and strengthen the capacities within the Department of Justice. Bacsa contributes professional expertise to the partnership in order to facilitate efficient programme delivery.

“These five initiatives have certainly promoted an ethos of efficiency in the fight against crime and provided government and business with an appreciation of what measures are needed to improve crime prevention.

“The future initiatives of Bacsa will include an involvement in anticorruption initiatives and improving the rehabilitative nature of the South African prison system,” concludes Fihla.