OPENING SPEECH BY PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA AT THE BUSINESS INITIATIVE
AGAINST CORRUPTION AND CRIME

Kempton Park, 15 August 1995 

Honoured Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen. 

Today's launch of the Business Initiative against Crime and Corruption is
both welcome and timely.

In the broad political context, it underscores the fact that our transition
is the product of a nation that had reached the collective conviction that the
time for change had come to pass.

In the immediate sense, this initiative brings together the cream of South
Africa's leaders spurred on by the conviction that the time is now, to strike a
decisive blow against crime and corruption.

On the few occasions that I have had the opportunity to follow the
preparations for this gathering, I should say I was highly impressed by the
deliberate intent to eschew theory and pious words. You have elected to focus on
the practical things that we all need to do, against a scourge whose magnitude
and dangers we fully recognise.

It is therefore a singular honour for me to open this historic conference. In
congratulating Business South Africa and the Council of South African Banks, I
also wish to warmly welcome our guests from the Southern African Development
Community.

Your presence here today sends a clear message that the business community of
our country and our region has taken the measure of the challenge posed by crime
and corruption; and it is ready to join with government in fighting them.

It is often said that success should be the natural reward for hard work,
initiative and moral uprightness. The opposite can also true. And such is the
urgency of the challenge we face.

We need a collective sense of mission to change mind-sets; and to steer the
nation away from a dangerous course.

Just as we extricated South Africa from the mire of conflict, we are now
called upon to use the new tools at our disposal to build a prosperous, truly
just and morally upright nation.

Democracy has taken root in our country and in our region, and with it have
come peace and political stability. But all this will be little more than the
shifting sands of illusion, if we do not take decisive measures to strengthen
the moral fibre of our nation.

In this context, it is legitimate for us to examine the root causes of crime
and corruption: the poverty that stares us in the face; the illegitimacy of the
previous order which elevated lawlessness into an honourable deed; the sanctions
era which made underhand dealings a glorified national pastime; and the low pay
and repressive focus in the security and other public services which turned upon
their head the moral standards that these institutions are supposed to uphold.

It is legitimate to argue that it will take much time and effort to change
all this; that to heal the wound of moral decay will need patience and
forbearance.

Yet this should not result in our being incapacitated. It should not postpone
the concrete steps against crime and corruption which we need to take. The
current leadership - both in the public and private sectors - should, today and
not tomorrow, find feasible and practical strategies which bring practical
results. Ladies and Gentlemen; As with everything else, in the case of crime we
have to combine laying the basis for long-term change with immediate action.
Certainly, crime can only be effectively dealt with in the context of successful
socio-economic programmes. But, economic growth and programmes which will banish
poverty are themselves subverted by crime and corruption.

The fact that a serious crime is committed in South Africa every 17 seconds
cannot improve investor confidence, no matter what successes we register in
other spheres. The fact that R18-billion of fraud is under investigation does
not bode well for our economy. Economic growth, sound governance and crime
prevention are interdependent priorities, requiring concerted and simultaneous
action.

As in all our other endeavours, success is reducing crime to acceptable
levels depends on a partnership of all social structures working together for
common goals. In crime we have a common enemy. Criminals depend for their
survival on finding refuge within the very structures of society on which they
prey. Where we have scored success, it has been largely due to co-operation
between communities and police.

Such co-operation has nothing in common with the impulse, sometimes
understandable but always unacceptable, of people taking the law into their own
hands. It has nothing in common with the kind of finger pointing that is at the
root of suggestions that business should withhold taxes from government to
pressure it to act on crime. Aad is not considered as criminal conduct. We hope
that discussions in Europe and other parts of the world will result in concrete
action on this matter.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

We have laid particular stress on steps by the private sector towards
increased and more effective self-regulation because this would bring double
benefits. It would help to cut crime; but it would also reduce the scale of
public resources required to combat tax evasion and fraud. That would strengthen
our national drive for fiscal discipline.

For its part, government regards it as a matter of the highest priority to
provide the leadership and resources to ensure safety and security.

Amongst the government's first steps was to start the transformation of our
police into an effective and legitimate service, freed from the legacy of its
past role and based on community policing. Under adverse conditions, and amidst
the uncertainties which transformation can bring, they have played their role in
implementing the new anti-crime programmes. They deserve the admiration and
respect of all of us.

The National Community Safety Plan has registered considerable success in
bringing down levels of violent crime in the designated areas.

Corruption of various kinds has been the target of determined action by the
government. These include the swift action of the Office of the Minister without
Portfolio in the President's Office, in detecting and following up on the
misappropriation of funds intended for the feeding of primary school children. A
commission is busy investigating transfers of state land since 1992. Nine new
anti-corruption units are in the process of being established by the South
African Police Service in the provinces to supplement existing units.

The government has been actively co-operating with other countries and
agencies, on a bilateral, regional and international basis. Co-operation,
particularly amongst members of the Southern African Development Community has
already registered positive results.

These initiatives are elements in what must become an integrated and
effective long-term national crime prevention strategy. The Interdepartmental
Committee. set up by Cabinet in May has gone a long way towards proposing the
kind of strategies and structures needed to achieve this. This should encompass
measures to ensure that our judicial system administers appropriate treatment of
offenders.

The conditions for effective joint crime prevention have never been better.
Today's initiative adds yet another brick on the wall between the past and a
secure and safe future for all citizens.

I therefore wish you well in your deliberations. I am confident that there is
assembled here the good-will and expertise that will ensure that, indeed, crime
does not pay.

I thank you.