The police are making progress in combating economic crimes with more than 7,000 people arrested from June last year to end-June this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Thursday.
The crimes involved were damage to critical infrastructure (4,000 arrests), extortion in the construction sector (70) and illegal mining (3,000). Significant quantities of copper cable and rail tracks and other metals had been confiscated.
Economic crimes have had a devastating impact on the country, debilitating the rail network as a result of copper cable theft, the construction sector as a result of the activities of the so-called construction mafia and the mining industry due to illegal mining. So called “business forums” have also demanded a slice of businesses and/or a share of the contracts they offer.
These crimes have also had a detrimental effect on foreign and domestic investor sentiment.
So concerned is business about these and other crimes in the country that crime and corruption is one of three work streams established between the government and business to fast-track the implementation of solutions, the other streams being logistics and energy.
The president insisted that progress was being made in combating economic crimes. “We are going to go after those gangs ... believe me work is being done,” Ramaphosa said.
During a question-and-answer session with members of the NCOP, he said that the SA Police Service had last year established 20 dedicated and multidisciplinary infrastructure task teams throughout the country to combat economic sabotage with 18 being established at district level and two at provincial level.
A total of 946 personnel from the police were assigned by provinces and districts to the teams which also included members from crime intelligence as well as detective and forensic services. The teams worked with entities such as Transnet and Eskom and other industry players.
An operational budget of about R20m was allocated in 2022/23 to the task teams as well as an additional R17m and Ramaphosa said more should be allocated to the teams.
The presidency was also involved in making the police hotline more effective.
Responding to a question by ANC MP Shahidabibi Shaikh Ramaphosa agreed that businesses that involved communities in their work by providing jobs or investing in development projects were afforded a measure of protection against criminals. He urged construction businesses to do this.
DA MP Tim Brauteseth pointed out that the capture of businesses was not limited to the construction sector but had spread across the economy and said a witness protection programme was needed to look after whistle-blowers who reported the crimes as well as a specialised prosecutorial unit. Ramaphosa agreed on the importance of a witness protection programme and said this was under consideration.
ANC MP Sylvia Lucas questioned Ramaphosa about what was being done about the empowerment of women, to which the president replied that the cabinet was processing a bill that would make women’s empowerment binding in government contracts. There would be consequences if those in charge did not empower women. Public procurement from women-owned businesses only stands at 11% across the public sector, the president noted, saying this needed to be increased to 40%.
“This bill that we are going to pass will cascade from national to provincial and local level. It is going to keep government officials on their toes to know that whenever there are business opportunities we need to support the women of our country,” he said.
Women are already given preference under the broad-based BEE and proposed Public Procurement Bill but the government apparently has something additional in mind.
Ramaphosa said the general gender responsiveness score of all national departments is 54% which indicated a need for improvement in many department programmes and projects.
National Treasury has selected 10 departments to implement the gender responsive budget guidelines for 2024/25 after which all government departments would be obliged to comply with them. The auditor-general has agreed to the phased introduction of gender responsive auditing over the next three auditing cycles.
ANC MP Tebogo Modise asked what was being done about decarbonisation and carbon capture to which Ramaphosa replied that the Council for Geoscience was piloting a World Bank-funded carbon capture feasibility project in Mpumalanga which involved injecting carbon dioxide deep into geological formations one kilometre below the surface.
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