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1. INTRODUCTION

* Women's week - South Africa's Woman of 1998 Award went to Superintendent Kotie Potgieter who is Station Commissioner at Krugersdorp Police Station in the West Rand.
* I want to dedicate this briefing to a short discussion of the threat posed by the national and international dimensions of the problem of organised crime.
* Look at the factors which have rendered South Africa and the region within which it is located, one of the world's criminal growth areas.
* Proceed to give a flavour of the harm caused to us by the globalised aggression of organised crime.
* Within time constraints, attempt to quantify, albeit conceptually, South Africa's share in the global responsibility to fight organised crime. Brief survey of: Some of the efforts we are making within the context of bilateral and multilateral instruments such as those that exist with the Southern African region and beyond.

2. THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

* I have said before that it is estimated that organised crime yield an annualised global illicit profit to the tune of R9,3 trillion = 4% of the world economy.
* These are profits which accrue from various types of organised crime.
* Profits of drugs are alone larger than the Gross Domestic Product of all of Africa.
* The 1997 Annual Report of the IMF states that the upturn in Africa's economic growth that began in 1995 broadened further in 1996. The report further states that Africa's 5 % economic growth in 1996 represented its strongest performance in two decades.
* The obvious necessity to ensure that we create a momentum towards making our country, our region, the continent, and ultimately the world, places which do not allow the criminal syndicates to "maximise their opportunities" and to "minimise the risks" for themselves.

3. WHAT ARE THE "EXPLOITABLES"

* Well-known fact that criminals use the benefits of globalisation to launder money, traffic in drugs and people.
* Rapid growth in cross-border trade and transport. Flow of trade has provided increased cover for organised crime syndicates.
* Consumer goods are vulnerable to theft and lifestyles change in ways that facilitate criminal victimisation.
* Criminal opportunities created by the growing openness of South African society. As a fledgling democracy we were unprepared and ill-equipped to meet the challenge.
* We lacked sufficient resources, had an ineffective criminal or penal code and we have the problem of varying levels of law enforcement skills in the region.
* The particular features of South Africa which confer to her its much-talked about geo-strategic status such as communication networks, financial institutions, relative industrial advancement etc, mean that for the criminals, South Africa offers institutions for money-laundering, goods to steal and other opportunities.

4. OUR APPROACH

* Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-ordinating Organisation established in August 1995. Aim: to develop coherent region-wide approaches and programmes.
* Agreement signed on 10 October 1997.
* Agreement ratified in the NCOP (11 June 1998) and in the National Assembly (29 May 1998)
* Growing evidence that criminals in the region are becoming world-wise. Testimony: many criminals from the region are in jails in Latin American, European and Asian and other countries in the continent. Likewise, criminals from countries in those regions are in jails in either South Africa or in other countries within the region.
* In the case of the RSA alone, as at the 10th of June 1998, 22 foreign citizens had been arrested for drug trafficking while 110 South African nationals were in custody in Latin American countries, Asia and Europe.

These criminals (both foreign and local) cannot operate in the same old ways that local criminals have operated in the past. A greater degree of sophistication is required to import stolen goods and to distribute them through networks of syndicates.

* In order to close the sophistication gap between the criminals and officials responsible for law enforcement, we had to:

A) upgrade through training, the skills of our law enforcement personnel. To this end, South Africa opened a Detective Academy in Pretoria.
* Instructors from the FBI
* 509 local detectives and 50 foreign detectives have so received advanced training at our academy
* This is not always apparent nor its effect necessarily immediate or absolute. However, none can deny that in order to meet the challenges, we need better trained personnel. We are satisfied that we have started the necessary process of conferring to the law enforcement agencies in the region, the stature and efficiency commensurate with the enemy we are battling.

B) Since the establishment of SARPCCO, we have carried out a number of joint operations in the region. A lot of progress was realised out of these operations. No intention to confuse this progress with success. A lot more still needs to be done.
* One such recent operation involving Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland resulted in the seizure of goods worth R12-million. The goods seized include 383 stolen motor vehicles. The operation resulted in the arrest of 684 people.
* In addition to better trained personnel another ingredient responsible for these breakthroughs is improved information-sharing.
* At a strategic level, one of the most important benefits of these exercises (joint operations) is that they provide us with strategic intelligence consisting of information on who the criminal actors are, their intentions, capacities, and potential impact.
* To further demonstrate the utility of our regional co-operation against organised crime, I would like to site breakthroughs made against a South African syndicate which was specialising in the robbery of foreign diplomats and tourists.
* 12 suspects arrested and a total of 9 suspects positively identified on the parade. Suspects are charged on 20 counts of robbery.
* Victims included a visiting Cabinet Minister from Mozambique, the Head of the Angolan Detective Service and people from Ghana, Kenya, the United Kingdom and other countries.
* 14 witnesses from Mozambique, Swaziland, Kenya, Malawi, Angola, and United Kingdom will testify in the court cases.
* 13 tickets were sponsored by South African Airways.
* Government spent R20, 000 on accommodation and meals.
* INTERPOL, SARPCCO and the Department of Foreign Affairs channels of communication were used to trace victims in their respective countries.

C) As I said earlier, from the point of view of the criminals, one of the "exploitables" (that is apart from our lack of capacity to effectively enforce the law), has been the inadequacy of the law itself.
* The Minister of Justice will talk about progress re: the drafting of the Prevention of Organised Crime Bill.
* Already, the member states of SADC are working on a project harmonising our respective legislative frameworks.
* Needless to say, our bill which will later become law, will be one of the important contributions to this process.

5. CONCLUSION

* The fact that South Africa's Woman of the Year is a police woman means that the SAPS has a potential to make an important contribution in the process of constructing and developing our country.
* Everything we have said about South Africa, SARPCCO and organised crime, lead to the conclusion that South Africa has an important role to play in creating an environment within South Africa itself, the region and the continent, which is conducive to substantial levels of economic growth. It is also evident that we cannot win the war against criminals if we try to police South Africa in isolation.
* Given the role and place of this region within the African continent and the growing centrality of SARPCCO on matters of safety, security and stability, SARPCCO is one of the flagships in the renewal of the African continent.

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