Deputy Minister Maggie Sotyu: Business Breakfast Commercial Crime Stats business briefing

Remarks by Deputy Minister of Police: Business Breakfast Commercial Crime Stats business briefing

Programme Director,
MEC for Community Safety, Mr. Dan Plato,
Management of Inguqu,
CEO of SABRICA, Ms Kalyani Pillay,
All Business Representatives present,
All Government Department Senior Officials,
All sponsors,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.

Programme Director, due to the dynamic nature of crime in our Country, we, as the South African Police Service Leadership continues to emphasize the importance of partnerships with different stakeholders such as business, academia, labour, civil society, etc.

Thus, the presence of the Ministry of Police and its department at this Business Breakfast is a true indication that we value these partnerships, because we believe in the sharing of experiences, expertise and invaluable insights to achieving crime reduction and total eradication of corruption.

So, immediately, I would like to convey our most appreciation to all our stakeholders present here, for all your efforts in assisting and supporting the SAPS and Government in their programmes to fight crime, and to address other socio-economic challenges facing our communities.

Indeed, it has been the norm of the Department of Police to embark on community and stakeholder participation programmes post the release of national annual crime statistics. As I have already indicated, these post crime stats engagements are crucial, as we would like to have a feedback, and collectively to seek more inclusive strategies to tackle crime and corruption.

So, here we are, with our business sector, as one of our stakeholders, with a firm belief in you to continue your patriotic support to your Government, as we grapple and better grasp key factors faced by our Police when they fight crime.

We know we can depend on you as the SAPS seek to tap into your respective capabilities and skills as we all are united against crime and corruption. And, yes, you are also here to hold us accountable in our Constitutional-given mandate to ensure that all the inhabitants of South Africa live in peace and harmony.

Yes, we admit that it is not yet harmony in many of our communities, because murder and attempted murder rate, and robbery with aggravating circumstances have all increased. And, this simply means that there are still high levels of violence and aggression in our society. And this must be a concern for all of us here.

On the positive side, we can confirm that commercial crime, stock theft, shop lifting, carjacking, burglary at non-residential premises have all decreased under the Financial Year 2013-2014. And, one does not have to be an expert in research to know that these commercial crimes have decreased because there are effective partnerships in place between SAPS and Business to reduce the levels of these crimes.

So, why are we here if we have business-related crimes registered as having been decreased this past financial year?

Ladies and gentlemen, if we still have a high rate of murder, assault, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and common robbery, then we have a scourge with under-lying factors of socio-economic nature.

We are here ladies and gentlemen to embark on a sustainable partnership with the business sector to gradually eliminate some of these factors and conditions which breed crime and corruption.

Currently, we have huge problems of cable theft, rhino poaching and increment in cybercrimes. And, these crimes continue to affect negatively the growth of our economy and creation of employment for our young people.

Furthermore, we have those corrupt and unscrupulous firearms dealers and training institutions who, are deliberately not complying with the Firearms Control Act and its regulations, selling firearm competency certificates and licenses.

And yes, all the above-mentioned crimes have their firm roots in big organized criminal syndicates, whom, most of them pride to call themselves big business people with allegedly big and lawful companies in our country and elsewhere.

Indeed, we have determined criminal masterminds who want to destabilize this country by eroding our socio-economic development. But with the support of all those law-abiding business companies with their respective intellectual and technological skills, our police officers will continue to be well trained and be capable to deal with all types of crimes.

And, our police have proven that they are equal to the task of tackling the sophisticated organized criminals, as demonstrated by the downward trend in commercial crime, with a reduction of -13.6%.

For instance, a number of successes were achieved by SAPS with regard to serious and priority commercial crime due to a number of preventive and combative measures put up by the Department of Police. There are 19 Commercial Crime Units across the country, as well as a national Serious Economic Offences Unit, and an Electronic Crime Unit.

All these units helped in apprehending and successfully convicting more than 2000 persons on serious and priority commercial crimes, for the Financial Year 2013/2014. The successful conviction rate is due to the established Special Commercial Crime Units/Courts (SCCU) by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s NPA.

The SAPS has also introduced a 17-week Commercial Crime Learning Programme, to train SAPS members within the SAPS Commercial Crime environment. And thank you to all those Business people and universities who helped with experts and course content development, respectively.

The rate at which technological advances, continuously poses new challenges to investigate cybercrimes. That is why the SAPS have also established a digital forensic investigation capacity with digital forensic laboratories. Perhaps the greatest threat posed on the sustainability of the country’s infrastructure and related economy, is cable theft.

More so, theft of cables impacts negatively on both private and public business sectors in situations where there is a consequential loss of availability of working telephone lines, electricity and trains.

The loss of these services impacts negatively on productivity, planning and profit margins to create more jobs. But, there has been a strong focus by our Detective Services on syndicates profiling, and our Visible Policing Division is operating and inspecting in terms of the Second-Hand Goods Act.

In addition to these measures against cable theft, there is also a Non-Ferrous Metals Crime Combating Committee (NFMCCC), which, comprised of various role-players such as SAPS, Telkom, Eskom, Transnet, etc. The NFMCCC has prioritized the scrap metal market, where SAPS and other role-players conduct regular proactive operations involving specific identified scrap merchants.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as you can see, SAPS is at work every day against crime. But equally, we will continue to encourage for more police training on commercial crime, as like any other science, police training requires ongoing review and improvement. And, this requires the Business Sector’s 100% support in both financial and human resource.

Let us all present here, send a strong collective warning to all criminals and would-be criminals that collectively we would not tire to support our police officers to enforce the law to its maximum.

We are all here to ensure that our communities, businesses, schools, homes, recreational areas, are safe and secure. So, let us commit.

I thank you all!

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