BLSA reiterates significance of Eyes and Ears crime fighting partnership

16th April 2021 By: Tasneem Bulbulia - Senior Contributing Editor Online

Addressing an Eyes and Ears (E2) meeting this week, independent organisation Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) national project manager Fouché Burgers said the partners in the initiative had been working hard over the past few years since the initiative was piloted in Gauteng in 2018.

It had since been successfully implemented in other provinces with the aim of beefing up the collaborative partnership and reducing crime to facilitate a safer South Africa, Burgers noted.

The E2 is a joint crime-fighting initiative between the South African Police Service (SAPS), Business Against Crime South Africa (Bacsa) and the private security industry (PSI).

The PSI formally cooperates with the SAPS by sharing incident (or situational) information directly to the Provincial Operational Command Centre (POCC) and in some instances, receiving relevant information directly from the POCC.

The initiative uses the geographical footprint of the private security companies to convey critical, crime-related information to the police as soon as possible, and then for the police to respond to the incident as soon as possible.

The E2 Initiative recorded and managed 19 746 incidents during the past 12 months. That led to 358 arrests, 644 vehicle impoundments and more than 50 illegal firearm seizures.

In March, it collaborated on a record number of 3 240 incidents. All this information is shared with the SAPS as it happens.

BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso said E2 is testimony to BLSA’s round-the-clock commitment to partner with government through its crime division Bacsa, “to ensure that we live in a crime-free society”.

“The high crime rate does affect our economic growth and it is for this reason that as business we prioritise this crime-fighting initiative. Fighting crime requires all hands on deck, so the collaborative element of this initiative is extremely important. We are determined to play our part in preventing and reducing crime and maintaining the rule of law.

“We are mindful of the fact that we still have a long way to go before we can achieve a crime-free South Africa where everyone feels safe and protected. E2 is our last chance to fix this problem,” said Mavuso. 

“We value our partnerships with the private security companies and technology companies as they have all contributed to the success of the initiative. Plans are also under way to add manpower to beef up this initiative,” Burgers indicated.

The E2 function was commissioned in the Free State on April 14 after systems installation and training of staff.

Bacsa has urged all security companies to join.