SOUTH AFRICA: NELSON MANDELA TO DISCUSS CRIME WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS

(29 Aug 1996) English/Nat

South African president Nelson Mandela is meeting a group of religious leaders today (Thursday) to talk about the country's exploding crime rate.

The meeting comes as Police from South Africa - which has the highest crime rate in the world - fly to Tokyo, hoping to learn something from their counterparts in law abiding Japan.

A group of high-ranking officers from South Africa today (Thursday) head off for a two- week seminar in Tokyo.

Crime is wreaking havoc in South Africa's new democracy and law enforcement organisations are struggling to find more effective ways to battle against it.

Figures have shown that the increase in crime is beginning to have a profound effect on foreign investment and the tourism industry.

At this march in Johannesburg last week local residents joined police to call for more resources to fight crime.

Now the South African police force is looking elsewhere for help.

A group of senior officers is today (Thursday) on its way to Tokyo to attend a crime fighting seminar provided by their Japanese counterparts.

SOUNDBITE:
"I would like to look at the whole police system in Japan and maybe we could change, exchange some ideas in their police system as well as in our police system."
SUPER CAPTION: Superintendent Magda Du Preez, South African Police Services Management Services Consultant

South African police are presenting it as an exchange of ideas, but it's expected they will learn many things from their Japanese colleagues.

The three-week seminar will cover a wide range of police activities from forensics to management.

SOUNDBITE:
"And it will be most of it in the class situation but there will also be tours to the countryside and visits to police institutions outside Tokyo."
SUPER CAPTION: Director Chris Botha, acting head of Management Development South African Police Services

The threat South Africa's crime wave poses to foreign investment has prompted business leaders to set up a new organisation to support the police.

Wendy Lucas-Bull is the group's newly-elected chairwoman.

SOUNDBITE:
"Clearly the situation is serious. It is perceived to be serious by government and they are mobilising resources and focusing attention on ways in which to actually correct this."
SUPER CAPTION: Wendy Lucas-Bull Chairman Business Against Crime

Rising crime has coincided with low morale in the police force.

Officers are poorly paid, have a high suicide rate and have seemingly lost the respect of the public at large.

It's good news for security companies.

But for most South Africans it means the ever present danger of losing their property -- or even their life -- on the increasingly dangerous streets of their country.

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