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Govt, business tackle crime
05/10/2006 08:11 - (SA)
Pretoria - Retired police officers, judges, magistrate and others would be lured back to the criminal justice system to help fight crime, government and business leaders said on Wednesday.
Business leaders met Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla in Pretoria to discuss ways to fight the "current crime wave".
"I'm concerned about the fact that crime levels in South Africa are still high. It is true that we were able to reduce some categories of crime even drastically, but they still remain high... the project that we have unfolded would... change around the way we work so that we can drastically reduce the levels of crime in South Africa," Nqakula said after the meeting.
Criminal justice system review
An immediate review of the criminal justice system is to be undertaken.
"This initiative will fast track the review of the criminal justice system with a view of identifying and implementing improvements to the system for short, medium and long term impact," said Michael Spicer, chief executive of Business Leadership SA.
Both government and business will second senior executives to the initiative on a full time basis.
The current crime prevention and combating initiative by government would also be reviewed.
Recent upswing in crime
The meeting decided to set up a leadership forum consisting of government and business officials meeting bi-monthly to "identify and mobilise step change interventions to turn around" the crime situation in the country.
Wednesday meeting follow an initial meeting which was held in Cape Town in August, but according to business was not called due to the recent upswing in crime.
Spicer however said the rise in crime, especially in the high profile crimes, was discussed.
"I think it is common cause between government and ourselves that in some of the key areas of crime, we have slipped from the progress made in the past few years, and that is an issue that needs to be addressed," Spicer said.
'No quick fixes'
"Although there are no quick fixes in this complex field, it is believed that these and other initiatives will make a substantial difference to the level of crime," he added.
Nqakula said he was hopeful that the initiative would bring down the crime levels drastically.
"We would not have a better life if there is no peace and security in the country," he added.
The leadership forum would issue quarterly updates on the progress made.
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