Insurance Crime Bureau’s CEO’s Note

The rampant growth in serious crime continues to be a crippling challenge in South Africa.

How do we combat more than 40 kidnappings, 70 murders and countless contact crimes daily? This along with thousands of other serious crimes per month, to say nothing of the other thefts, burglaries, organised syndicates / mafias and sophisticated financial crimes.

These crimes are exasperated by many factors including the weak economy, high unemployment and the lack of wide and effective policing.

With the elections looming in South Africa, we all hope for change but we are merely living in a dream that by voting like we always do, is going to affect proper change. Can this country really change without dramatic interventions?

We of course do not know the answer to the above question, or even how the election results will turn out, but what we should know is that we cannot just sit back and do nothing. Making a “X” on a piece of paper is not going to solve the countries issues with regards to crime, infrastructure, governance or even just slightly improving the economy.

The famous quote from Albert Einstein comes to mind: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

As individuals within a larger society with an inherited responsibility to each other, we need to stop waiting and being politically correct. We need to stand up and be heard! As a business community we need to continue to invest in organisations that are going to effectively mitigate the risks and losses created by both casual and organised crime.

The Insurance Crime Bureau is without doubt making a difference within our scope of influence. Our successes are measured by both financial returns as well as societal benefits created by our activities within the broader South Africa. The organisation has returned significant financial benefits to our stakeholders, saved lives and has been key in convicting many serious criminals thus eliminating them from our immediate society – reducing their impact on our friends, families and businesses.

We can no longer sit back in hope and accept the infamous “boiling frog” scenario allowing things to “acceptably worsen” and continue to find solutions for a worsening environment without actually removing the rot.

We still have a long road to travel. There is so much more to be done with regards to sharing information, resources, and intelligence. The next step to achieve this broader impact is to broaden our scope of influence into the larger financial services sector to include some banking operations.

As a society we can no longer accept this continued slide into a failed state. We have to act and make significant reversals to affect meaningful change.

YOU have the opportunity to join us in striving to improve the environment in which we work and live. We are extremely grateful to our existing Members and stakeholders and invite you to visit our website to sample some of the successes you have made possible.

Please interact with us on social media to ask us how you can get involved, come to our conference on the 5th and 6th of June to hear more about both our strategy, as well as some of the interventions we have created to protect you.

Please join in the challenge of “Breaking Barriers & Building Bridges For The Future”!

Garth de Klerk
Chief Executive Officer