CEO Desk

[Last Updated : 7 June 2010]

Dr Graham Wright, CEO of BACSA

A Word from Dr Graham Wright, CEO of BACSA...

June 2010

As Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) begins the new financial year (2010-11), South Africa gears itself for the much anticipated FIFA World Cup. Many years were involved in the planning, building of stadia and the execution of prepared plans to showcase South Africa at its best. A few days from kick-off, we are confident that those involved in the arrangements, including the law enforcement agencies, the Department of Police, and others, will be working tirelessly to bring an event that celebrates the best soccer talents and teams in the world and which ensures that citizens, tourists, soccer fans and travelers to the country will be safe and will feel safe, both at stadia and elsewhere within the country.

BACSA would like to take this opportunity to salute those men and women who will be placing their lives on the line and implementing security plans to precision on our behalf, so that we might simply enjoy the games and South Africa’s world-class hosting of the event from 11 June – 11 July 2010.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, much has been happening in terms of the BACSA mandate to be Government’s primary strategic partner in leveraging a substantial and sustainable reduction in crime to enable a safe and secure South Africa where citizens and business entities are safe and feel safe.

Over the past year, as in the preceding years of the existence of the organisation, BACSA has continued in its Mission of supporting the South African Government in the fight against crime.

These efforts continue to be spurred on by the persistent and unacceptably high levels of crime and violence in the country, the continued underperformance of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), and other environmental, systemic and societal issues fuelling the intractable cycle of crime.

BACSA's ability to continue to support Government has been enabled through the exceptional support (both financial and otherwise) received from the business sector as the organisation starts the 2010-11 financial year.

The Financial Year Ahead

As BACSA has just held its annual strategic review meeting with the Board, I would like to take a moment to share with you some of the priorities of the organisation going forward.

Government discussions have confirmed the need for BACSA to continue to play both a strategic and operational support role to the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster. The priority to be achieved in the short-term is the formalisation of the relationship with the Department of Police and the implementation of the spirit and letter of the agreed MOU. Our recent meeting with General Cele was particularly positive in this regard.

Notwithstanding the organisation’s support to Government in the fight against crime, BACSA also plays an important co-ordination and facilitation role within the business community, as well as between business and Government. The value-adding ability of BACSA is enabled through the experience, knowledge and understanding it has gained over the years in addressing crime, since 1996, from the perspective of partnership and a deep commitment to achieving results that improve not only the business environment, but the lives of ordinary South Africans throughout the country.

The priorities of BACSA are informed by the organisation’s two distinct roles. These are:

· To get business’ `own house in order’ by eliminating crime-enabling processes, systems and approaches and improving crime prevention measures. This is achieved by working closely with the South African business sector and relevant business Associations and structures by designing and putting in place improved security measures, information-sharing, best practices, standards, etc., and

· To partner with Government, when invited, by sharing expertise, information, processes and technologies that are resident in business, and supporting Government to build the necessary capacity to address crime both more efficiently and effectively.

These roles are fulfilled primarily by mobilising business skills and resources in Government-defined areas of need. BACSA’s co-ordination of business’ anti-crime strategies and priorities is strategically aligned to these identified areas of need and support.

Against this background, the following two broad-based areas of engagement by the organisation are relevant:

1. The Criminal Justice System (CJS) Review and Improvement

This is a Cabinet-approved initiative, led by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ and CD), involving all members of the JCPS cluster. The initiative deals with structural, process, capability and capacity improvements to the CJS.

The CJS Review is guided by a comprehensive plan and facilitated by the Office for Criminal Justice System Reform (OCJSR), of which BACSA is part. The role of the OCJSR was initially focused on identifying interventions and designing, scoping and planning solutions, and is now undertaking programme and project management facilitation, statistical analysis and is providing support for business case development and procurement of funds.

The CJS Review and its implementation has, throughout the last three years, remained a top priority of Government from a systemic perspective. Though the time-horizon to completion is several years off, good progress has been made with five aspects of the 7-Point plan to-date.

Many of the CJS interventions are being institutionalised and implementation plans are reflected in Annual Reports, Strategic Plans and Performance Plans of the cluster Departments. Departmental budgets now also reflect CJSR priorities and the National Treasury has made an additional R 3 billion available for ongoing activities within the Review process. Not least among these is the establishment of a CJS Business Information System which will allow real-time access to information in relation to the performance of the Criminal Justice System against 28 Key Performance Indicators.

The Government has taken ownership of the CJSR programme and is taking active steps to ensure its effective and sustained execution. The fact that performance contracts at the highest levels will require monthly monitoring of and reporting against the progress of the improvement programme is a positive development which will support the sustainability and progression of the programme. Several billions in funds are being spent or are being earmarked for future spending on the CJSR. In key areas, to support implementation and better service delivery, additional personnel are being upgraded and trained. Detective services has, for example, seen some 15,000 new Constables been brought into the system to support the SAPS priority of crime detection.

The contribution by BACSA has thus far been the funding of the salaries of two permanent and two part-time employees. As such, the relatively small investment by BACSA was assisting to leverage substantive amounts of Government funding in the right direction.

Already, there are signs that system improvements are beginning to filter through at the level of the Regional Courts, for example, when one compares the backlog history of these Courts from the period 2006 to end 2009.

BACSA remains committed to this programme given its strategic importance and impact to the country once fully implemented.

2. Priority Crimes and Business Support and Alignment (Previously the VOC work group)

This is a broad-based series of initiatives designed to support Government in dealing with the priority crimes (including the Trio crimes of Business Robberies, Residential Robberies and Vehicle Hijackings), as well as improving crime prevention within the business sector and the operations, information-sharing and alignment between the business community and the Police.

The draft MOU between the Police and BACSA currently identifies a number of initiatives which require attention by both Government and business. These areas speak to the BACSA strength of being able to leverage specialist skills from the business community to assist the Police in improving their capacity and capabilities. The broad areas where BACSA will continue to make a valuable contribution to the fight against priority crimes include:

· Ensuring that business’ own house is in order, through the formulation and implementation of appropriate crime prevention measures and removing those processes which encourage and enable crime;

· Facilitating the effective flow of information from the business sector to the Police and ensuring the close alignment between the anti-crime initiatives of the Police and the business sector; and

· Assisting the Police, when requested, in building and improving in-house capacity in defined areas of need (through the use and deployment of specialist skills, expertise, processes and systems resident in business).

The participation of BACSA across this broad spectrum (Business <-------------------> Government), as well as in the interface between Government and business represents a core value-adding contribution to the national fight against crime.

The success of each of these interventions, therefore, requires a sound partnership between BACSA and the business sector and between BACSA and the broader JCPS cluster, as well as other relevant Government Departments (such as Transport).

The organisation has since the beginning of the year been solidifying these relationships and gearing stakeholders towards delivery.

BACSA urges all to play their part in the fight against crime. I would like to also take this opportunity to thank our donor base and our Board of Directors who have given of their time, expertise, counsel and advice on a pro-bono basis. Without this ongoing support, the organisation would not continue to thrive as a going concern in the public interest.

We are pleased that through the organisation’s efforts and the broader business community’s willingness to co-operate on a non-competitive basis, business information-sharing between business and with the law enforcement agencies is beginning take effect. The business Associations with which BACSA works are currently reporting a drop in business robberies. This helps to emphasise the value of concerted action in partnership.

In this respect, as we approach the 2010 World Cup, BACSA remains committed to keeping its eye on the ball and giving criminals the boot so that citizens and businesses may thrive without the threat of crime and violence.

Thank you

Dr Graham Wright

CEO BACSA

Beginning June 2010

A Word from BACSA's New CEO, Dr Graham Wright ....

(2010 - Quarter 1)

The role of BACSA continues as a strategic facilitator between business and Government with a view to ensuring that business’ `own house’ is in order and that preventative measures are put in place to reduce the vulnerability of business, particularly small businesses, to crime.

At a strategic level, the organisation has remained highly engaged:

Recent meetings with Associations in the first quarter of 2010 have helped to carve the respective roles of the partners in helping to address industry-specific crime challenges.

The engagement with Government has been strengthened through a process which will culminate in the signing of an MOU between Government and BACSA. Many discussions have taken place between BACSA and Government on the deliverables that BACSA will be accountable for in support of Government’s anti-crime campaign. The Minister’s team has confirmed that he may legally sign the MOU.

Currently, a date has not been set for the MOU signing, though this is anticipated to take place in May 2010, either prior to the Minister of Police’s budget vote speech or shortly thereafter.

The MOU will seek to structure the relationship between Government and BACSA and re-invigorate the partnership so that joint solutions may be sought and implemented on a sustainable basis in the fight against crime.

The organisation has, while waiting on the MOU to be signed, continued to provide tangible support to Government on a number of initiatives, including the Firearm Amnesty process which ran from 11 January 2010 to 11 April 2010.

The partnership with both the SAPS and NPA continues with tangible results being produced.

Through this partnership, provincial initiatives have been established in six provinces – Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. At provincial level, VOC alignment with a focus on house robberies, business robberies and vehicle hijacking continues.

Since the Hawks has been established, the organisation has built a strong relationship with General Dramat of the Hawks. This has been characterised by a high-level of trust and commitment between the parties and the organisation is endeavouring to assist wherever invited to provide support.

Bi-weekly meetings between SAPS and BACSA have enabled progress to be made on a number of fronts, focused on the Trio Crimes, including:

• The finalisation of the War Room concept for all provinces (with priority given to Gauteng based on Western Cape best practices), and the exploration of support from the business sector.
• The exploration of technological innovations, including ANPR, CCTV Surveillance and Cell Phone Technology.
• Information sharing and access to business databases, etc.
• Review and refinement of the national Trio Crimes strategy.

These meetings are proving to be highly worthwhile and provide a solid foundation through which BACSA support may be channeled in future.

BACSA has also engaged in meetings with the Secretariat of Police which provides policy advice and research support to the Minister of the Police in line with its mandate of civilian oversight. BACSA has grown its relationship with the Secretariat of Police and provided tangible support in relation to the recently concluded Firearms Amnesty Period. Within this period, BACSA participated on national and provincial monitoring and evaluation task teams which monitored the flow of firearms and ammunitions surrendered and seized during the amnesty process.

The Minister of Police on 12 April 2010 reported that over 30,000 firearms and over 300,000 rounds of ammunitions were either voluntarily surrendered or seized during the amnesty process.

The organisation has been heartened by this strategic engagement at various levels with both Government and business partners. The concern over the MOU is anticipated to be resolved in the short-term. Notwithstanding this, the organisation has continued to work steadfastly on its core areas of focus.

In relation to the work of the reduction of violent and organised crime work group, the business focus is on the following three core elements of support to Government:

• Ensuring that the business sector’s own house is in order with respect to crime prevention and combating capabilities;
• Aligning business sector crime information and operations to those of the law enforcement agencies; and
• Responding to specific requests of support from the SAPS.

There are strong indications that the festive season over the December 2009 -January 2010 period was characterised by relatively few robbery incidents in respect of the Cash-In-Transit industry, shopping centre and/or banking sectors. This is pleasing though the apparent stabilisation in the trio crimes (notably House Robberies, Business Robberies and Hijackings) and whether this will be sustained is being closely monitored. Small business robberies remain nonetheless a concern.

The organisation attributes this change in no small part to the high-level of commitment from the Police leadership and more particularly the Minister of Police and General Bheki Cele who are instilling heightened levels of discipline and accountability for service delivery in the police. The budget vote in May 2010 will help to further outline spending priorities against the police’s recently released Performance Plan.

The work within the provinces where BACSA has a footprint has continued to to ensure that crime prevention practices within the business sector in these provinces are improved systematically, and aligned to support the efforts of the SAPS.

At an operational level, the sharing of information between business and Government has reached new levels. The sharing of crime-related information and intelligence has assisted to prevent and/or disrupt planned crimes, as well as improve the response to reported incidents. Recent successes have included the arrests of several trio crime kingpins and the closing down of several syndicates.

By all accounts, it appears that current efforts are beginning to show dividends. The organisation continues to look forward to the possibility of the priority crimes being stabilised and further reduced. BACSA in 2010 will continue to strive to this end in conjunction with both its Government and business partners. 

Ongoing support in relation to a recently launched funding appeal has helped to make this possible. The organisation extends its heartfelt thanks to the South African business donor base which has remained committed to the fight against crime since 1996.

Thank you.

A Word from BACSA's New CEO, Dr Graham Wright (End 2009)....

The recent business breakfast hosted by Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) on 28 October 2009 re-affirmed the strength of the partnership between Government and BACSA and the broader business community in the fight against crime.

As reported at the breakfast, the Minister of Police, Mr Nathi Mthethwa, and BACSA are committed to finalising a MOU that will provide structure to the partnership and formalise arrangements. High-level strategic engagement with Government and clearly defined and well-resourced interventions will be central to driving the reinvigorated partnership. We are confident that the partnership agreement will better enable BACSA to fulfil its unique role in the anti-crime landscape.

Meanwhile BACSA, together with its many partners in the business community and the SAPS, is working in a focused manner to address immediate challenges, including armed robberies against businesses, households and individuals. In the context of the upcoming festive season, which is typically accompanied by an increase in crime, this work is urgent. With the SAPS, we are working tirelessly to deal with these crime challenges in a co-ordinated manner.

With regard to small, micro- and medium-enterprise robberies, unique solutions are required. Pilot initiatives in Central Johannesburg and Tembisa, have been begun in earnest in partnership with the SAPS, relevant Government and Non-Governmental stakeholders. Our partnership with Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) will assist us to broaden our impact and minimise threats to this sector.

These, and other targeted interventions and programmes facilitated through BACSA’s work groups, including the improvement of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), receive our full attention. Meaningful progress has been made on a number of fronts.

We are particularly encouraged by the planned re-engagement of the SANDF along the border line. The SANDF will, in our view, make a significant impact by stemming the illegal flow of vehicles, goods and people across our porous borders. BACSA has been part of a consultative process associated with the planning of the re-deployment and we are pleased that many of our recommendations have been taken on board.

At our recently hosted business briefing, we extended our deep appreciation and gratitude to the many companies that have funded the organisation over the years.

A further appeal for additional funding over a three-year period was also made by BACSA so that our obligations might be fulfilled in respect of the Public Private Partnership and initiatives already underway.

As a special purpose vehicle of business, the organisation also plays a critical role in mobilising the business community to ensure that its `own house’ is in order.

The degree to which we are able to play this role, however, depends entirely on the business’ community’s continued funding of the organisation. In this regard, we appeal to the business sector to remain part of the solution in the fight against crime, whether this is through the provision of funding support or valued skills, knowledge, and expertise.

We remain encouraged by the continued strong leadership of Government, as well as the high level of commitment and leadership demonstrated by the business community in the fight against crime. These are necessary ingredients to success in the fight against crime.

On our part, BACSA remains committed to staying the course over the long haul with the continued support of the business sector.

Dr Graham Wright

CEO: BACSA

30 October 2009

A Word from Siphiwe Nzimande, CEO of BACSA - July 2009 ....

The Year To-Date

Earlier this year, I reflected on where we were and where we were going as an organisation in our 12^th year of existence. At that time, neither the general elections nor the FIFA Confederations Cup had taken place. Both of these events went off very well, with minor incidents of crime. With regard to the elections, South Africans went out in their numbers to make their mark for the new Government, determining their future and allowing others to vote without interference and intimidation. The fact that the FIFA Confederations Cup went off without any major incidents of crime reported, helped to confirm the country’s capability and readiness to host the FIFA World Cup next year. Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) takes a moment to thank all South Africans and our law enforcement agencies for assisting to make both of these moments in the history of our young democracy a success.

Following elections, President Zuma’s State of the Nation address was warmly welcomed by BACSA for the high priority given to addressing crime as one of the five key areas of focus for urgent delivery by the new Government.

The newly installed Cabinet Ministers of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster also hit the ground running. Earlier this month, the Budget votes of the cluster were presented in Parliament. If the statements of the Ministers are anything to go by, we are looking forward to crime being addressed far more vigorously on all fronts in a co-ordinated fashion, in line with plans developed through the Criminal Justice System (CJS) Review process.

It has been very encouraging to see the Ministers of the JCPS cluster pledging to enhance Government co-operation to improve the performance of the CJS and to ensure that criminals and syndicates have no place to hide within South Africa. Commitments were also made towards improving border controls, strengthening the capacity of correctional services and reducing over-crowding in correctional facilities, among other interventions.

In the Budget vote debate in Parliament, the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, quoted President Zuma in stressing the need for business and civil society to partner with Government to combat and prevent crime. He reiterated Government’s aim to create `a transformed integrated, efficient, well-resourced and better-managed CJS’. He advised Parliament that the number of police officials would be increased over the next three years from 183,180 to 204,860 with larger increases geared to improving the capacity of intelligence services and investigations.

Minister Mthethwa announced additional funding of R200 million over the next three years to improve the capacity of forensic science laboratories. He stated that the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill would be finalised within the coming year. A plan for an integrated DNA/Automated Fingerprint Identification System was also to be developed by 31 October 2009, while network infrastructure was upgraded to support technological efficiencies.

It was refreshing to hear the Minister talking about a commitment to review the current performance management system to enhance discipline and accountability from top management all the way down to police station level. He announced performance targets for reducing the time taken to analyse DNA samples to the issuing of final reports to 35 days in 92% of the cases by 31 December 2009. The target for reducing the time for analysing fingerprints through the Criminal Record Centre was to be reduced to 30 days in 85% of cases within the same time-frame.

BACSA commends the JCPS Ministers for the energy with which they are pledging to tackle their portfolios. We also applaud the focus on crime prevention that is passionately being articulated by the Deputy Minister of Police, Mr Fikile Mbalula. These changes together with the renewed commitment and fighting spirit that is being exhibited, holds much promise for preventing and combating crime with greater levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Since Minister Mthethwa’s Budget vote this month, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (DPCI), branded the ‘Hawks’, was launched under the leadership of newly appointed Commissioner Anwa Dramat. The deliberate haste with which the Directorate has been established signals a strong commitment by Government to combat serious organised, commercial crime and corruption. With built and retained capacity to address these specialised crimes, the Directorate promises to be an important element of Government’s crime-combating arsenal. Government has appointed Commissioner Richard Mdluli to head SAPS Intelligence and committed to appoint a permanent National Commissioner of Police within the next month. BACSA wishes Commissioners Anwa Dramat and Richard Mdluli well in their endeavours, as expectations from their Directorates are high.

These recent developments augur well for the renewed partnership between Government and BACSA. Buoyed by the strong commitment from Government to fight crime with renewed energy and greater levels of cross-Departmental co-ordination, BACSA is in the process of engaging with Government in order to strengthen our Public-Private Partnership and focus our collective responses to reducing the scourge of crime for the benefit of all.

Siphiwe Nzimande

CEO: BACSA

July 2009