Media statement - full version
7 May 2007
Workgroup one – Mobilising the society against crime
Workgroup two – Reducing violent organised crime
Workgroup three – Improving the Criminal Justice System
Workgroup four – Enhancing delivery effectiveness
Way forward
Business Leaders through the Presidential Big Business Working Group (BBWG) motivated in August 2006 a “step change” anti-crime initiative to deal with the spike in crime. President Mbeki acknowledged that crime was at unacceptably high levels and that a new level of will and prioritisation through a step change initiative was needed.
The renewed partnership between business and government with BAC being the business vehicle for businesses contribution, clearly defined governments role as being responsible and accountable for measures to curb crime, with business playing a supportive role particularly by bringing key high level skills and management expertise to bear.
As a result of a series of meetings in late 2006 an overarching leadership forum at ministerial and CEO level was constituted to provide strategic guidance to the initiative and four special working groups were constituted dealing with priority areas of concern.
The Anti-Crime Leadership Forum, co-chaired by the Minister for Safety and Security, Mr Charles Nqakula and Mr Derek Cooper on behalf of business has been established and four Working Groups have been formed.
Workgroup One: Mobilising the Society against Crime
Workgroup Two: Reducing Violent Organised Crime
Workgroup Three: Improving the Criminal Justice System
Workgroup Four: Enhancing Delivery Effectiveness
The Leadership Forum met on 7 May 2007 to receive progress reports from the Working Groups.
Workgroup one – Mobilising the society against crime
Recognising the growing concerns of all South Africans about the unacceptably high level of crime and seeking to harness the enormous potential energy that communities and individuals can bring to bear to compliment the State’s anti-crime strategy, this working group is working in the short term to find ways to harness that energy. In the next few months the public will be invited to contribute by avoiding to take part in any criminal activity, refusing to purchase any stolen goods, reporting criminal activities in their communities, volunteering to work in their local police stations, joining the police reserve and joining the community police forums.
As an integral part of this societal partnership to fight crime, government will be communicating more regularly both at national and at community level what it is doing in the anti-crime arena, areas of success and areas where more attention is needed. It is believed that better communication will help restore the confidence of the public in the safety and security agencies.
Care will be taken in the next few months to ensure that all practical preparations are made so as to ensure that the launch of the national public campaign allows individuals to quickly be able to contribute in the most practical way, whether at police station level, in community police forums or in other areas.
Workgroup two – Reducing violent organised crime
The objectives of this work group are to measurably reduce the incidence of violent organised crime, improve arrests and prosecution rates particularly those of higher echelons of organised crime syndicates.
The following three violent organised crime types are being targeted as they have the highest impact in causing feelings of hopelessness and huge levels of insecurity among citizens:
- House robberies
- Motor vehicle hijackings and robberies
- Business robberies
The comprehensive plan to deal with violent organised crime enjoys the active support and participation of ±250 Chief Executive Officers of various key and relevant industries such as the Banks, Retailers, Wholesalers, Manufactures, the private security industry, the cash in transit industry, the Property Owners Association, etc, and it involves all the relevant crime fighting agencies of the South African government.
Government:
- SAPS Crime prevention operations in all provinces, focused on high crime precincts and receiving additional resources;
- The establishment and enhancement of operational control centres across the country;
- The acquisition and operationalisation of additional capital equipment aimed at enhancing SAPS’ crime fighting machinery;
- The improvement of arrest, investigation and prosecution capabilities and processes within government.
Business:
- Development and upgrading of CCTV systems used by business to support crime prevention, law enforcement and prosecutions;
- Design and implement improved Cash Management standards used by the business sector;
- Enhance information gathering and sharing within the business sector, and between business and government;
- Alignment of private security with SAPS operations;
- Fast tracking the implementation of anti-hijacking initiatives within the business sector (including micro-dotting of vehicles, automotive number plate recognition etc);
- Supporting recruitment of Police Reservists, especially in specialist areas;
- Adoption and supporting clusters of Police Stations.
These initiatives, having been launched recently, are logging immediate successes in the fight against Violent Organised Crime.
These include:
The SAPS have made significant capital investment decisions aimed at enhancing their Command and Control capabilities, and enhancing the preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. These investment decisions will enhance the fight against violent organized crime in the short to medium term, once deployed (over the next three years).
Capital purchases include:
- 10 Mobile Command vehicles (R 35 million),
- 6 Robinson Helicopters (R 31,2 million),
- 5 Blimps for aerial surveillance (R 25 million),
- 200 mobile CCTV units (R 16 million), as well as other specialist technologies (e.g. Facial Recognition systems).
The SAPS “Flood and Flush” operations in the priority areas have yielded a number of arrests over a two month period, for example:
Murder: 1 800
Attempted Murder: 1 063
Robbery Aggravated: 2 598
Total: 5 461
These arrests will receive priority attention in the subsequent prosecution processes.
The SAPS focus on outstanding Warrants and Crime Scenes, have already identified & arrest 298 suspects during the month of April, who are linked to over 300 crime cases. These arrests will also receive priority attention in the subsequent prosecution processes.
The business sector is well advanced in the development and application of minimum standards for Cash Management System. In addition to the standards applicable to the movement of cash by the CIT industry, additional standards are being developed in the Retail environment (especially shopping centres) as part of crime prevention efforts of the business sector to reduce risks of robberies.
A number of additional and innovative crime prevention initiatives have been launched in the retail environment, especially at shopping centres, in close association with the SAPS.
The Working Group is in the process defining the performance targets that gives effect to the envisaged Step Change and there is consensus that crime reduction targets must exceed the current 7 to 10% of SAPS targets in these selected crime types.
Workgroup three – Improving the Criminal Justice System
The Review of the Criminal Justice System programme is aimed at developing the South African Criminal Justice System (CJS) into an effective, coordinated and efficient justice system that dispenses swift justice and performs as an effective deterrent to crime. A review team consisting of representatives from all the disciplines in the CJS is performing an audit of the Criminal Justice System and has completed several in-situ inspections, confirming the presence of several obstacles and constraints.
Specialised and focused task teams are now being appointed to implement proposals that span the entire CJS. Challenges relating to laws, procedures, processes and the timely availability of accurate and up-to-date offender and case information are being addressed with emphasis on focused problem identification, speedy implementation of solutions and the ability of all role players to execute effectively.
Overall co-ordination
- Task teams functioning under the leadership of senior government officials from all Departments involved in the CJS, supported by skilled business people, will bring about major throughput improvements.
- A congruent measurement system will be implemented across the CJS to ensure that criminal cases are investigated, prosecuted and adjudicated appropriately.
- A seamless national CJS database containing all information relevant to the criminal justice system will be established, the source of which will be the information provided and authenticated by the relevant departments.
- A “War Room” will be created as a permanent operational structure to provide the CJS role players with relevant information that will be used to facilitate an optimal and smooth flow of cases through the CJS.
Forensic services
- Improved collection, analysis and preservation of forensic evidence at a head office and decentralised level.
- Effective presentation of forensic evidence in courts by expert witnesses.
- Enhanced crime solving and prevention through the proactive participation of forensic experts with other stakeholders and more specifically detective services.
Detective services
- Enhanced effectiveness and efficiency through accelerated and focussed detective training, ensuring that the right suspects are arrested at the right time.
- Case load reduction through increasing the number of detectives and through early identification of petty crime matters that may effectively be dealt with by alternative criminal justice mechanisms not involving skilled detectives or using their time more optimally.
- Retention of skilled detectives by providing them with attractive specialised career options within SAPS.
Prosecutorial services
- Early involvement of prosecutors with the investigation of more complex criminal cases leading to well prepared charge sheets and optimal evidence and witness utilisation.
- Court case load reduction through effective utilisation of alternative criminal justice mechanisms such as Prosecutor Bail, Plea Bargaining and Admission of Guilt.
Judiciary
- New technology will be employed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the court management system. In this respect an “e-Scheduler” system is being implemented at all major centres and all systems components will be rolled out by the third quarter of 2007.
- Video Conferencing Technology is being employed for the remote postponement of cases without the need for offenders to be transported and guarded outside of Correctional Facilities. Not only is costs reduced and efficiencies improved this way, but potentially dangerous criminals are denied opportunities to escape.
Correctional services
- In addition to the plans of the Department of Correctional Services with regard to the provision of adequate prison facilities, an intervention aimed at reducing the number of awaiting trial prisoners will be undertaken by the Department of Correctional Services, The Prosecutorial Services and the Judiciary
Workgroup four – Enhancing delivery effectiveness
The project initially known as the Baseline Effectiveness Project has evolved to be tasked with enhancing delivery effectiveness under the name of the Performance Enhancement Initiative.
Project objectives
- Enhance the overall effective delivery capacity of the CJS. (Long term: 3 years)
- To improve effectiveness by enhancing the delivery capacity, competence, confidence, accountability & responsibility of leaders & managers throughout the CJS.
Approach
Deploy leading edge organisation design & development techniques to assist leaders in the CJS to identify & eliminate structural, organisational & human capital impediments to performance. This will centre on skills development & transfer.
Project status
Concluded fact finding process to determine: results of previous BAC initiatives; overlap with other working groups; expressed needs of selected senior management in CJS; current BAC projects underway; areas where business strengths and capacity could be leveraged.
Identified leadership & management capacity as the major contributor to effective delivery in the CJS. Resolved to focus initially on skills development & transfer for sustainable performance improvement.
Overview
The project initially known as the Baseline Effectiveness Project has evolved to be tasked with enhancing delivery effectiveness under the name of the Performance Enhancement Initiative.
Project objectives
- Enhance the overall effective delivery capacity of the CJS. (Long term – 3 yrs)
- To improve effectiveness by enhancing the delivery capacity, competence, confidence, accountability & responsibility of leaders & managers throughout the CJS.
Approach
- Deploy leading edge organisation design & development techniques to assist leaders in the CJS to identify & eliminate structural, organisational & human capital impediments to performance.
- This will centre on skills development & transfer.
Project status
- Concluded fact finding process to determine: results of previous BAC initiatives; overlap with other working groups; expressed needs of selected senior management in CJS; current BAC projects underway; areas where business strengths and capacity could be leveraged.
- Identified leadership & management capacity as the major contributor to effective delivery in the CJS.
- Resolved to focus initially on skills development & transfer for sustainable performance improvement.
Meet with individual CJS departments to finalise the following:
- Initially to extend the reach of the “Front Line Leadership Development Course” or customised versions thereof to:
- All SAPS priority Police Stations (92 Stations already underway) as selected by the SAPS.
- All priority DoJ & CD Courts as selected by the DoJ&CD.
- All Masters Offices as selected by the DoJ&CD.
- All Correctional Facilities as selected by the DCS.
- NPA staff/teams as selected by the NPA.
- DHA staff/teams as selected by the DHA.
- Determine what needs cannot be met by this course or other short course / workshop training / workshops / discussion forums and which should be addressed by other means such as:
- Design other interventions to suit the needs of individual stakeholders in relation to organisational design changes, strategy formulation, execution and reporting.
- Appointment of “Coaches” to mentor Key Officials identified by Government.
- Support for solution engineering / obstacle clearance required by other Step Change Projects.
- After assessment to build customized programmes and/or integrated modules (curriculum of courses), which not only entrench generic leadership/management skills but shape them towards the specific needs of the relevant department of the CJS.
- Over time to build a Case Study Workshop Series to provide the foundation for discussion forums on identified topics.
- Gather documents and other materials on best practice locally (participating Depts., other workgroups etc) and abroad towards case study based performance enhancement.
- Define in conjunction with CJS Depts. available “Front Line Leadership Development Course” measurement indicators/frameworks e.g.,
- Define Measurement Indicators to track implementation success
- Leading Indicators such as:
- Course attendance.
- Course rating/evaluations.
- Lagging Indicators: Step Change achieved as evidenced by indicators such as:
- Operational Performance Improvement.
- Lower crime rates.
- Problems/Obstacles/Constraints in existence for many years now resolved – details of solutions to be provided / reported upon.
- Timeframes
- The target timeframe is as follows:
- This Initiative was approved by the Anti Crime Leadership Forum on 7 May 2007 thereafter-
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- Months 1 to 5: Continue the Roll-out of the FLDP within the SAPS.
- Months 1 & 2: Project familiarisation presentations to Non-SAPS stakeholders where necessary, all project approvals, participant nomination, facilitator appointment, participant call up, course customisation where necessary etc.
- Months 3 to 5: Roll out of the FLDP to other stakeholders.
- Months 6 to 11: Roll out the “Front Line Performance Enhancement Workshops”
- Month 12: Finalise an impact assessment on the Performance Enhancement Programme and report tangible results to the Anti Crime Leadership Forum.
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Note: The “Front Line Performance Enhancement Workshops” are to commence immediately after the completion of the “Front Line Leadership Development Course” at any location. The timeframe above seeks completion by the months indicated of all courses/workshops. Government is responsible for course roll-out with BAC responsible for course development etc.
For further information contact:
Siphiwe Nzimande, CEO: Business Against Crime South Africa
Tel: (011) 883 1679
Cell: 083 633 8681
E-mail: Siphiwe@bac.org.za
Trevor Bloem, Spokesperson for the Ministry for Safety & Security
Tel: (012) 393 15123
Cell: 082 778 3561
E-mail: bloemb@saps.org.za
