Durban – The Durban Chamber of Commerce plans to set up a joint operations centre to address the scourge of crime plaguing the city’s commercial hubs.
The centre would operate through the business chamber’s safety and justice committee and would be aimed at monitoring such crimes as well as assisting with detecting it beforehand and responding to incidents.
Chamber president Zeph Ndlovu announced their plans for the centre at the “Durban united against crime dialogue” on Tuesday.
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.
Tensions ran high at the dialogue with mall management, tenants and franchisees in attendance expressing a general sentiment of being at their wits’ ends.
Gabriel Vosloo, the national operations manager of Natal Wholesale Jewellers – which has had various stores hit – said he had a five-year plan for his business.
“But I won’t get there if we don’t do something today,” he said.
The issue of unarmed private security guards who were not trained or equipped to take on armed robbers came up.
The general manager of the Galleria Mall, Kurt Hoggan, said they would not have armed guards in the centre.
“Our ultimate responsibility is to the customers. Our guards are there to protect the public and, if something happens, to secure the scene and get the criminals out of the mall,” he said.
Most seemed to agree that guards should not carry weapons but one suggestion that arose was the screening of visitors to malls and removing any weapons they might be carrying.
Another issue discussed was a need for more visible policing and aggressive investigations.
Nhlanhla Mthethwa, from the city’s metro police, said on Tuesday that for his officers to get involved in crime prevention in shopping centres, there needed to be service level agreements in place.
“But we will try to make sure that in all these malls where there are no service level agreements, we attempt to engage the shareholders,” he said.
No-one from SAPS was in attendance.
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 similar challenges,” he said.
The chamber will be hosting regular conversations to tackle the crime-related issues.
The first is scheduled for June 28.
The Mercury