The Durban Chamber of Commerce hosted the “Durban united against crime dialogue” on Tuesday morning.
The dialogue was convened following a series of brazen armed robberies at stores in shopping malls in recent months.
Since January, The Mercury has noted at least 13 of these robberies at Berea Centre, Musgrave Centre, The Workshop, Southway Mall, The Pearls Mall, The Atrium, Westwood Mall, Chatsworth Centre, the Hilton Hotel and Gateway.
But Chamber president Zeph Ndlovu said Durban was “not alone”.
“New York, at one stage, went through a phase similar to this and other places around the world have had to face challenges,” he said. “As social partners, as citizens of Durban, we need to basically converge in order to see how best to come up with a solution”.
He said the time had come for the community to “push back” against crime.
“It is going to consume all of us if we do nothing about it,” he said.
Ndlovu also said in some ways, the problems were rooted in societal issues and pointed to the wealth gap in South Africa.
“As a society it is also incumbent upon us to address that gap,” he said.
Tuesday’s dialogue was aimed at finding a way to address crime and Ndlovu announced plans to set up a joint operations centre.