The Cost of Crime

Also read: Brazil Team Robbed


DiData director Patrick Quarmby takes us into a recent house "hit", assesses its true economic cost.

Early this year eight young professional men decided to establish a commune in a lovely old house in Johannesburg's northern suburbs. All are university graduates - accountants, lawyers, marketing executives - and committed South Africans who have grown up in the New South Africa.

A few Fridays ago they held a dinner party for their mates and girlfriends. When the first guests arrived, they were followed in by some uninvited guests - three men each armed with a gun and a menacing and violent demeanor. For the next two hours as each new guest arrived, instead of a festive welcome they were greeted with a gun to their heads.

For the next two hours, the once happy, uncomplicated group of sixteen young men and women were subjected to physical and mental abuse - the men and women were separated to add to their anxiety. The thugs reveled in taunting the group with promises of what they were going to do to them and their girlfriends.

What did this group lose on this tragic night? Yes - the usual cell phones, watches, cash, wallets, laptops and jewelry. Some feel they lost their dignity and self-worth as they were unable to protect their girlfriends who suffered severe anxiety at what might have been their fate. But sadly - and indeed more enduring - they lost their sense of security and passion for our country.

In just one incident, how many people are traumatized; how many are directly and indirectly affected? A guesstimate of the victims' immediate family and close friends is around 100 South Africans. Immediately, they become part of this terrible experience.

Let's assume that by 20h30, this one group of thugs had completed this, their first effort of the night, and went on to do another two ‘jobs' that evening. We are talking about a potential 200 to 300 people who are now directly affected in just one evening by one gang of thugs. Who knows how many other groups of thugs are operating in a similar manner at present. Just how many people will be similarly affected in one week or one year?

The victims' perceptions of their own security and concerns for the safety of their families are dramatically altered - probably forever. And their passion for this country will certainly diminish - if not disappear.

What is this all about? The police were fantastic, efficient, calm and empathetic. This is not a political story, nor, save for the attitude of the thugs, is it racial. Every day many similar incidents like this occur to people of all races and ages. Indeed, in these circumstances, there's no difference to the feeling of insecurity, fear, anxiety and depression that one feels. We are all proudly part of the new South Africa for whom we are voting with our lives and the lives of our close ones. This is not petty thievery which some may try and justify with the "Robin Hood" theory.

This is about economics. This is about the addressing the curse of poverty and about the poor, 99.9% of whom are honest, law abiding citizens trying desperately to make ends meet.

We all know that the major long-term solution to alleviating poverty is providing our people with education, with the ability to earn a living and basic services such as health. To enable the country to achieve this there has to be economic growth. The Government provides the framework and the stimulants, but at the end of the day, like all successful businesses, it is about the people. There is no doubt that successful businesses are run and staffed by good people. Another critical aspect to the success of businesses is funding.

What is the correlation between this and our Friday night tragedy? Some of the families involved have had four similar incidents in the past year. These youngsters, who have never questioned their allegiance to, love for, and belief in South Africa, now have their doubts.

It's difficult to push away the alternatives when one has suffered loss of dignity, the feeling of complete helplessness, and the confrontation of senseless, potential loss of one's own life and those of our loved ones. It is absolutely a rational consequence. Forget the taunts of "they must leave; the country is better off without them". This has nothing to do with patriotism - just the basic instinct of preservation of self and family.

So what happens next? These young South Africans, in whom the country has made substantial investment in providing their education will, at the very least, spend some time overseas. They may come back, they may not. Some families will leave, some of whom are wealthy captains of industry, others not so wealthy. Whatever their status they will take as much wealth and possessions that they can when they leave. But more devastating to the country is the loss of the valuable skills that have for years been nurtured, grown, and funded. And this does not account for the potential skills of their children.

These skills and resources will be taken to other countries. Australia, the UK, New Zealand, America and Canada are the lucky and grateful recipients. Members of the South African Jewish community in particular have done great things in foreign countries. They have invested in and most importantly created many thousands of jobs in their ‘adopted' countries - jobs that should have been created here, skills that should have been deployed here - whether it be in business, education, health services - they're all areas essential to alleviate poverty and help make this country a better place for all our people to live in. Many of these people never had any intentions of going anywhere.

All because of a small minority of people who roam our streets with no fear.

It is in the interests of every South African - rich, poor, black, white, male, female, ANC, COPE, DA - to seek out and remove these people from society. They are one of the biggest inhibitors of growth and are slowly but surely destroying our country.

But most importantly, it's about economics. A company without good, skilled people cannot prosper and grow. Equally, a country cannot afford to lose good, skilled people.

Most companies will do everything in their power to retain and grow their people. South Africa needs to do everything in its power to keep its people - starting with the very basic right to life and security. We owe it to the poor people of our country to preserve our best people. It is through them that their poverty will have a chance of being alleviated.

Singapore did it. New York did it. With the will we can do it.

South Africa needs to take draconian measures to stamp out violent crime. We need to be less concerned about preserving the rights of criminals over and above the rights of our good, law abiding patriotic people and over and above the rights and aspirations of our poor people. The rights of criminals can wait until our good people have been assisted and secured.

Any person caught in a criminal act with a weapon should face an uncomfortable jail cell for 20 years, with no parole. Let's not waste the time of our legal community and court officials. Rather than spending time and money on rehabilitating these criminals and making their lives comfortable, focus on preventing our good people from needing to be rehabilitated.

Let's work together to prevent our people from ever having to think about taking their most valuable assets - their skills, the skills of their families and their money - to benefit another country in alleviating the plight of their poor.

Following the elections held earlier this year, our president carries the support of 65% of this country. He has the ability to spread the message that these criminals are not heroes but are self serving villains who are systematically reducing the growth prospects of our country. He has the power and support to implement and follow through with zero tolerance actions required to end this scourge. He has the power to keep our people and skills in our country, ensure our growth, and ultimately be part of the solution to help our poor.

*Patrick Quarmby is an executive director of the SA-headquartered global technology group, Dimension Data. He wrote this in his personal capacity