Yesterday, the Provincial Commissioner of KwaZulu-Natal, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni and members of the SAPS management met with the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa and Business in Durban. The aim of the meeting was to look at proactive measures to avoid businesses and shopping centers from becoming victims of crime and to ensure that citizens are safe when they shop. Parties were required to presents plans and initiatives that are in place to deal with crime on a proactive and reactive level.
The meeting also laid the ground for a closer working relationship between police and business to ensure that criminals will never have the upper hand. Various businesses in Durban as well as Business Against Crime were also part of the stakeholders that attended the meeting. The Consumer Goods Council has specialized experience in crime prevention and risk mitigation, and serves as an interactive platform for stakeholders and participants. With more than 12000 member companies, large and small, across the goods value chain, including the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors they are seen as a key role-player in crime prevention within the industry.
The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni was pleased with the outcome of the meeting. “This meeting has come at the right time when we are in the midst of our Festive Season Operations. This has been one of many meetings that we have had with business and certainly won’t be the last. We have realised long ago that if we want to address the high levels of crime effectively we need to work together with business because the only way we will win is if all parties are involved in the fight against crime” she said.
