Discovery CEO Adrian Gore has admonished some of his fellow business leaders for promoting an overly dark and “corrosive” narrative that makes South Africa’s crime problem appear worse than it really is.
Gore, who is vice-president of Business Unity South Africa, said this distorted picture could undermine the work of the government-business partnership on boosting economic growth through a range of interventions.
Gore said progress had been made in improving electricity supply and stabilising logistics, but exaggerated opinions on the severity of crime were a major challenge.
We are dealing with a very corrosive narrative that, in many cases, is not correct. I’m not sure we should be arguing with business leaders; we can’t muzzle people, but we need to show them data that’s accurate
— Adrian Gore, Discovery CEO
“We have to expose more data,” said Gore, speaking during an online update by Business for South Africa (B4SA) on the second phase of the partnership.
He referred to the Oval Office meeting in May when a delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa — which included Johann Rupert — had talks with US President Donald Trump. One of Trump’s criticisms at that meeting focused on crime, particularly farm murders.
“A lot of the narrative, and the business leaders, kind of muddy the waters, and are using a narrative that is not correct. So, the crime data, the stuff that we faced at the White House, that is not correct,” Gore said.
“In fact, we are trying our best to get much more data and get granularity on the data. For example, we have seen a reduction in housebreakings, hijackings ... as being quite dramatic over the last number of years, and I think that’s a countrywide phenomenon.”
Gore said the country was making more progress in fighting crime and corruption than many believed, and this should be reflected in a more accurate capturing of crime data.
“We need to talk about it, measure it properly, and get it out there. I think dealing with data properly in a proper rational way will help us create a narrative that’s much [safer], secure, etc.
“So I think we are dealing with a very corrosive narrative that, in many cases, is not correct. I’m not sure we should be arguing with business leaders; we can’t muzzle people, but we need to show them data that’s accurate.”
Martin Kingston, chair of the B4SA steering committee, said the group was considering intervening in the governance and administrative crisis in Johannesburg, but that would be a separate area of focus in the third phase of the partnership.
“In our meetings, both internally as business and with government, Johannesburg and the broader issue of municipalities have come up, unsurprisingly. We have said from the get-go that we need to focus our energies first and foremost on the three areas that we’ve identified.”
These are crime and corruption, energy and logistics.
“If we are not able to fundamentally deal with Johannesburg, then we are going to undermine the perception and the reality of the progress being made in the country,” Kingston said.
But many of the problems plaguing the city were of a political nature, and the business community would not get involved in politics, he said.
We made a conscious decision not to duplicate what we recognised as very good work, but rather to focus on organised crime
— Neal Froneman, Sibanye-Stillwater CEO
However, some of the interventions that business has made nationally in terms of addressing capacity constraints could be extended to the city.
“We will take stock of the work being done in the public and private sectors and assess the extent to which the intellectual property developed in and for the partnership can be extended to Johannesburg, mindful of the particular issues that confront us. Failing to deal with those challenges will continue to undermine the perception and reality of efforts we have made as a country.”
Neal Froneman, who heads the crime and corruption workstream, said the private sector had brought expertise the government might lack, including accounting and forensic skills, to speed up investigations.
“That is really digital forensics relating to accounting types of skills,” the Sibanye-Stillwater CEO said.
“When we embarked upon this programme, we did an extensive study of initiatives that are taking place within the business sector … and the various risk initiatives they were embarking on. And we made a conscious decision not to duplicate what we recognised as very good work, but rather to focus on organised crime.”
He said organisations such as the banking association, the Consumer Goods Council and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse have lent expertise to the state in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing and in probing state capture cases.
The National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks had been provided with digital forensics capability and a digital evidence unit (DEU) had been established to investigate state capture.
Training in digital forensic investigation and other fields had been provided for hundreds of law enforcement officers.
“Those are very necessary initiatives that have been important in ensuring that we can confidently say that the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] greylisting should be lifted, as we’ve covered all of those aspects that have been listed,” Froneman said.
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