Programme director
Our critical stakeholder in the fight against crime [SAB representatives]
SAB’s Executive Director Corporate Affairs and Transformation Dr Vincent Maphai
Bongumusa Makhathini
Refentse Shinners
Francois Malan
Pine Pienaar
HOD Thulani Sibuyi
Chief Director Nontsundu Ndonga
Monitoring and Evaluation Director Mzamani Vuma
Policy and Research Director Moeketsi Sempe
Communications Director Joseph Mabuza
Legal Services Director Lindeni Nkosi
Acting Head in the Office of the MEC Urreya Ferris
Distinguished guests
Let me first appreciate the willingness from the SAB to come to this meeting to meet with my department in an effort to find possible mutual solutions in the fight against crime.
A British-born American Author HG Wells explains crime as follows:
“Crime and bad lives are the measure of a states’ failure,”
He continues to say, all crime, in the end is the agony of the community.
As a government, we cannot fail; we have been mandated by the people of Mpumalanga as well as of South Africa to ensure their safety and security.
Today’s meeting is one of our initiatives as a government to ensure the people’s safety. As a department we have long realised that we need to extensively engage with our critical stakeholders and partner with them in the fight against crime.
This is the principle of government to foster public-private-partnership by ensuring private sector participation in effective service delivery.
We are doing this to find a holistic and scientific approach in the fight against crime. We would appreciate to enter into a partnership with your company in order for both of us to obtain mutual benefits. While we both hope to gain stakeholder satisfaction, we both should receive quality relationship from our partnership.
There is a general understanding that poverty and alcohol seem to be the root-causes of contact crime. It is in this regard that we would like to partner with you, as one of the producers of alcohol, in promoting responsible drinking in our communities, so that crime is reduced and ultimately eradicated.
Last year’s crime statistics showed that contact crime cases were rife in our province and the main contributor being alcohol. This tells us that we need to move with speed in engaging stakeholders such as South African Police Service (SAPS), Community Police Forums, and people like you so that we should work together and stop shifting blames to others.
When I joined this department in November last year, I publicly set myself a very ambitious target of changing the province into a safe and secure place in nine months.
Another ambitious goal was that of not only reducing crime in Mpumalanga but to eradicate it totally. It sounds highly impossible, but with the assistance of people like you, this, we can easily achieve.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are not saying SAB is responsible for crime, we are however requesting your contribution as an identified stakeholder who can also assist in making homes a safe place to live in.
Crime is a social problem, it destabilises our communities and it also affects the economy of our country. Crime affects everyone; it affects the poor, the rich, the educated, politicians and of course you the business people. It is against this background that I urge you to partner with us in this war.
Your company also stands to benefit from good and positive publicity which will derive from the partnership.
Although you may be engaged on your various social responsibilities, partnering with us will derive you even more free publicity because anything government does in changing the lives of the people for the better, it always has more interest from the media and the people out there.
By partnering with us, we believe that your company will receive more distinctive opportunities especially in Mpumalanga such as connecting easily with the people on the ground.
You are all welcome to this meeting.
I thank you.
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
