White-collar crime costs the South African economy between R50-billion and R150-billion a year.
Speaking at a white-collar crime summit in Midrand on Wednesday, Minister of Justice Penuell Maduna said white-collar crime leads to ”a R50-billion loss each year to the economy. And 82% of businesses are probable victims.”
However, Heath Forensic Investigators and Consultants chief executive and former judge Willem Heath disputed this figure, saying it costs the country closer to R150-billion a year.
Maduna said: ”White-collar crime accounts for 30% of all business failures. When business fails it has consequences for the economy … too ghastly to contemplate.
”White-collar crime consumes 2% to 5% percent of turnover even if a business is not collapsing.”
This type of crime is not committed by the homeless or the jobless, but by the most educated who are simply greedy, he said.
Heath said the problem with white-collar crime is that people do not realise its impact.
”We usually see it as an isolated incident. It’s almost an everyday incident,” he said.
He said at one time in Johannesburg 58% of companies were not reporting internal crime incidents to the police, nor were they taking disciplinary or civil action against the offenders.
White-collar crime has a ”negative impact on much-needed foreign investment”.
It also ”encourages potential criminals and syndicates to infiltrate South Africa”, Heath said.
White-collar crime affects the government’s ability to deliver on healthcare, employment and housing.
Heath said there is ”a lot of noise” about the arms deal costing the country billions, yet white-collar corruption costs the country far more and no one complains about it.
Asset Forfeiture Unit head Willie Hofmeyr said white-collar crime could be a legacy of the days of sanction busting when it became ”almost acceptable to skirt on the edge of unlawful activity”.
The state will not single-handedly win the battle against white-collar crime, Maduna said.
It can be won only in partnership with business.
For this reason businesses should not try to cover up white-collar crime. Instead they should ”let this element go to jail where it belongs,” said Maduna. — Sapa