Experts say a new approach is needed to address crime in South Africa as it is having a major impact on businesses and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
The issue was discussed at a seminar held by the Institute for Security Studies on Thursday. This follows a World Bank report released last week, titled “Safety first: the economic cost of crime in South Africa” which stated that crime costs up to 10% of South Africa’s GDP.
Bénédicte Baduel, a senior economist at the World Bank in the South African Country Office, said: “Organised crime is on the rise in South Africa since the Covid-19 pandemic, especially with kidnappings and car hijackings.
One in every eight businesses is affected by crime.
Businesses are spending a large part of their profits on security. With businesses being targeted for crime this can discourage investments from international countries and affect job creation.”
Baduel added that one in five households is affected by crime – “4.7% of a household’s budget is spent on security; that is higher than what households spend on education and health care.”
Baduel said SOEs were also being targeted by criminals.
“Eskom had 3 226 incidents of theft in 2022, an equivalent of R316 million.
“Some 1 100km of cable was stolen in 2022/23. The telecommunication sector has also been affected with more than 2 000 batteries stolen in 2020.”
Graham Wright, CEO of Business Against Crime SA, said businesses were severely impacted by crime.
“The most important fact in addressing crime is the prevalence of violence.
Crime affects investment in business; this not only affects staff but growth in business as well. Businesses are using resources on security instead of developing the business and personnel.”
South Africa has also seen an increase in cash-in-transit heists, Wright said.
“To combat this we see a considerable investment by the retail sector and banking sector to minimise risks. The implications of crime are enormous, it leads to supply chains being disrupted.”
Ismail Momoniat, adviser for the National Treasury, said crime has a huge impact on SOEs, particularly on revenue.
“People may look at copper and steel crime and think it’s just 0.1% of GDP. The broader impact on revenue is immense, it’s crippling our freight and rail networks. We need to fix our state-owned enterprises but we also need to look at means to address crime.”
Gareth Newham, head of the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, said to address crime we first need to start with the public sector. “Are our teachers, government workers and health sector workers equipped to implement progressive discipline and build trust. Especially in schools, intervention needs to start there as these people have the most contact with the rest of the population.”
Newham said more money needed to be added to violence prevention rather than criminal justice.
“Our policing system needs to change to fight crime. We have seen a 90% increase in the budget to fight crime since 2012, however, there has been a 60% drop in the ability to solve murders. That alone indicates that we need to change our crime fighting approach. We need to look at elements of training of police officers and also our recruitment process,” said Newham.
Hermione Cronje, anti-corruption specialist, said: “The cost of corruption is astronomical. We lack the capacity in our law enforcement and legal system to address crime. We need leadership.”
The Mercury