Although some crimes against businesses have decreased in the past year, informal businesses – the hardest hit by robberies and theft – will have to band together to protect their bottom line from criminals.
Speaking on the back of the annual crime statistics released by police minister Bheki Cele on Tuesday, Unisa policing expert Professor Rudolph Zinn said informal businesses such as spaza shops were still the biggest victims of crimes against businesses.
The statistics indicated that the most business robberies took place at spaza shops, with 5,771 incidents reported at national level, while 1,079 were reported at convenience stores.
“The most prevalent crimes are theft and robberies, with around 302,000 business robberies reported and 62,180 cases of shoplifting,” Zinn said.
In the Bay, 691 business robberies and 1,784 business burglaries were reported.
“These kinds of informal businesses are easily targeted because they don’t have a lot of security measures and find it hard to improve that,” he said.
“This has a significant impact on the businesses, as it affects their baseline of profit and they lose a lot of money if they have to spend more on preventing crime – and their insurance premiums increase after incidents as well.
“If their expenses increase, that has to be passed to the consumer because they still need to make a profit.”
Zinn encouraged business owners to stand together.
“The biggest enforcer of security measures is the individual owner, not the police.
“The owners [in a certain area] should start a forum to analyse when and how they are hit by crime, so they can understand the risks and create measures [to mitigate them].”
However, Zinn said smaller businesses were not the only casualties.
“The statistics showed 625 robberies at shopping centres, and a large number of cash-in-transit robberies took place in the parking lots of these complexes.
“Cash-in-transit heists have climbed for the past five years, and people are concerned [about going to centres] as the odds of them being injured [during a crime] are higher.
“Controls put in place by shopping centres influence the traffic flow and might put customers off, but they won’t shop there if they don’t feel safe.”
Zinn was also concerned that big businesses would be discouraged from investing due to the prevalence of crime.
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Nomkhita Mona shared this concern.
“The chamber would be extremely concerned if indeed the crime levels have increased against businesses in Nelson Mandela Bay, as per recent media reports,” Mona said.
It could negatively affect the city’s attractiveness as a destination for investors.
“To combat crime, we need greater collaboration between the security industry and the police in the metro.
“It is also important that we strive to create a culture of reporting by people who are aware of criminal acts.
“I think the role communities already play in curbing crime is a success we don’t take credit for, but if you take away all that work by community safety networks – including community policing forums and security firms – I think you’d see a different picture of the country.
“There are successes in that, and we must build on it.”