Shortened media statement
7 May 2007
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.
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.
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 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.
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
