SHOOTING FROM THE LIP murray williams ‘Project Backbone’

TODAY, many are wearing black. To mourn the relentless loss of life, ripping out the RSA’s heart. For others, it’s just another frightening, mega-violent day.

At our homes, streets, farms and almost everywhere, women and men don’t trust the state to keep them safe.

It’s not just lives at risk – but our livelihoods, too. The economy that sustains us. From gangsters in our midst, to the “Gangsta Republic” and its parasitic politico-criminal business network, sucking our nation dry.

In times of grave danger, profound new opportunities are sometimes born. Like the relationship between the still-honest parts of the public sector, as the custodians of our constitutional right to safety, and the leadership of the private sector; as custodians of our livelihoods.

We know the state’s response to safety.

How much effort does the private sector spend on safety and security?

The large business networks, with footprints across our land. Is this collective spend co-ordinated with any expertise or accuracy? And with the state?

It’s possible, with 10 simple steps:

Re-assessing, auditing and improving. Together.

Steps 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10: Determine what we do next: united “Operations and Communications, supporting Active Citizenship, Area Management, Incentives, Accountability and Learning” – together.

In the US, a public-private national safety partnership was called “Operation Co-operation”.

I prefer: “Project Backbone”. For without a spine, we are jelly – powerless, caught in the rip of national decline.

This “backbone” will unite every conceivable resource we have, outside the SAPS.

And, together, offer our brothers and sisters in the SAPS our strongest-possible united, expert support.

A “Strategic Resource Partnership”.

As argued here repeatedly: we need to unite more expertly than ever before.

To fight crime, the state and private sector need a vastly more sophisticated relationship.

It’s not about begging bowls, sponsorships or PR. It’s about fully co-owning the crime risk, together. Optimising existing latent resources. Galvanised into united action, in an unprecedented new relationship.