Put crooked guile to better use
SA’s criminals should practise their ingenuity in legitimate business
AFTER spending the past month or so in the UK for work, I was excited over my return home this week in time for the holiday season in sunny South Africa.
Little did I know that, within a few hours of landing, it would be my turn to join the list of survivors of a car hijacking in Johannesburg.
My excitement disappeared almost as quickly as the criminals did with my belongings.
Coming into close contact with people who choose to make a living in this manner was a wake-up call as to just how big a problem is at hand.
There are obviously numerous reasons that drive people towards crime. Poverty and the large income disparity are the usual suspects. But the ultimate decision to make a living this way is still a choice made at an individual level.
However, choosing to make a living as a criminal is something that defies the fundamentals we live by in the world of business.
It is almost never beneficial to choose short-term wins that eventually lead to detrimental long-term costs. One cost arising from choosing such a path is constantly living in fear of being caught. Another is alienating the very community that developed you over the years.
An even bigger cost is having to live with an irreversible criminal record when you eventually do get caught. This can be detrimental to anyone aspiring to one day stand on their own as a successful business owner. A quick background check can close many doors.
The same logic applies to the increasing levels of corruption that this country faces.
I am eager for the day that we take a lesson from Rwanda and turn our country into a corruption-intolerant environment.
We are part of a continent that has one of the youngest populations in the world — with 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 — with this number expected to double in a couple of decades.
Based on the continued increases in crime, as shown in this year’s South African Police Service statistics, we cannot afford to have young people being recruited to this path.
Instead, we need them to become the entrepreneurial force of this country.
The optimist in me remains hopeful. This December could be an opportunity for us to wake up and start turning things around for the better.
It is about time criminals considered deploying their energy away from increasing the crime statistics and towards something more worthwhile.
For example, there are people who are reluctant to follow the entrepreneurial path on account of a selfproclaimed lack of a creative spike — perhaps even turning towards crime as a perceived easier path.
If you look at the increasing levels of complexity that stand behind organised crime — by just leveraging that kind of creativity to build your own business instead of going into crime you could make a big impact as an entrepreneur.
Instead of finding loopholes to cheat the latest security measures, you can use this mental curiosity to climb through the loopholes existing in the entrepreneurial journey.
This redirection of creative energies is not just important for your personal gain but could have a major impact on the country as a whole. More entrepreneurs can lead to more jobs, leading, in turn, to more prosperity for everyone.
If not for this reason then let us do it for the tourism sector, which we rely on as a country. Tourism is a key contributor to GDP and job creation. The struggling economy needs all kinds of assistance to avoid relegation to junk credit status like our Brics peers Russia and Brazil.
The recent visa regulation problems in the tourism sector left a dent that can be rectified only through drastic measures.
Keeping the level of crime under control could be one angle of assistance, especially during the festive season. This is the period when South Africa receives the highest number of domestic and international tourists, but also experiences higher crime rates.
On my flight back from the UK, I was sitting next to a Frenchman who was travelling to South Africa for business. He asked me, as most people do before they make the visit: “Is it safe there for tourists?”
Through our collective efforts, some day soon we can ensure that this is not the first question that occupies our visitors’ minds.
South Africa has a lot going in its favour when it comes to tourism opportunities, especially given that it is among the most beautiful countries in the world. Let us not bite the hand that feeds us.
Instead, let us give our country the permission to shine as the beauty that she is, not overshadowed by the ugliness of hectic crime statistics.
My excitement disappeared almost as quickly as the criminals did with my belongings