The joint efforts of business and government could assist the South African Police Service (Saps) reduce crime, business representatives said on Thursday.

Social conditions, such as poverty, loss of employment and a lack of family support, besides others, impact on crime, despite the significant efforts made by government to affect effective law enforcement, Business Against Crime South Africa (Bacsa) CEO advocate Simi Pillay-van Graan said.

Commenting on the 2012/13 crime statistics, released in Pretoria, she pointed out that this year had seen a rise in the number of small business robberies and that corruption continued to be an issue.

According to the yearly crime statistics, burglary of businesses ticked up 1.7% during the 2012/13 financial year, while robbery at businesses declined by 0.6% during the same period.

Commercial crime, or fraud, had registered a 0.6% rise during the year to March and a 45.5% increase since the 2004/5 financial year.

However, the progress made in reducing copper theft was lauded, with 614 arrests and 139 convictions affected as a result of investigations into the theft of copper cables over the past four years.

Further, 70 642 kg of copper cable and 7 270 kg of aluminium had been confiscated, to date, on the back of a national nonferrous metals crime combating committee, which was established to reduce proliferation of these thefts.

Bacsa noted that the committee proved that a public–private partnership that united business partners, Saps and State-owned enterprises, such as Eskom, Telkom and Transnet, could effectively deal with crime.

South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) CEO Neren Rau added that ever-improving cooperation between the business community and Saps would lead to a safer South Africa.

Sacci applauded the strides made in reducing crimes against businesses, citing a 20.3% reduction in cash-in-transit heists and an 80% decline in the number of bank robberies, but remained concerned over the increase in violent crimes.

“Violent social behaviour continues to prevail in the majority of serious crime categories, some of which persist to be stubborn and require a collective effort from all affected stakeholders,” Saps said during the release of the latest statistics.

Murder, attempted murder and aggravated robberies increased 0.6%, 6.5% and 1.2% respectively.

Carjacking increased 2% during the past financial year, while truck hijackings jumped 14.9%.