Rapule Tabane asked Themba Maseko, chief government spokesperson, to clarify remarks he made about the FNB anti-crime campaign.
Why is it incitement for FNB to speak out against crime?
That’s hardly the issue we are raising. What we are raising is why is a bank calling on people to send letters to the president to raise concerns about an issue that the president is already working to find solutions to?
Incitement, according to the Oxford dictionary, means urging people to behave in an unlawful or violent manner. Did FNB’s behaviour amount to that?
I don’t know which dictionary you are using. My understanding is that it means to encourage people to behave in a particular manner. In this instance it was to flood the office of the president with hundreds of thousands of letters. If government was not doing anything about crime, I would be sympathetic to this campaign. Our approach is that business must work with everybody else to support police.
It would be better if the bank was saying people should participate in community policing forums, for example. That would be positive energy. What value does it [the FNB campaign] add? Does it solve crime?
Don’t you see a need for people to speak out against the violent crime levels?
That’s not the point. We have been calling for people to take a stand and do something about crime. But if they want to do that by encouraging the community to act against government through hundreds of thousands of letters, then it suggests the problem is the president’s office. It’s diverting energies to the wrong place. But nothing stops them from speaking out.
Why did you accuse FNB of positioning itself as an opposition party? Is it only opposition parties that should voice concern about issues such as crime?
No, everyone can have their say on crime. But if you encourage people to act against, instead of in support of, initiatives, then it’s a problem. FNB’s initiative would have been used by people who actively want to campaign against government
Do they then lose their voice because you disagree with their method and they are not an opposition party?
Opposition parties are there to condemn whatever government is doing.
We don’t think it’s the role of business to condemn but to work with the police in combating crime. There is no value in business seeing itself as a body to oppose government.
But they should not be bullied into this point of view, like what happened with FNB?
I am not the right person to speak on this issue, but as far as I am aware, there was no bullying.
What happened, and when
Jan 26: Historian David Rattray murdered at his home in KZN.
Jan 27: According to Financial Mail Paul Harris and FNB executives decide to run a campaign asking government to prioritise crime.
Jan 30: Business leaders meet Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula. FirstRand director and former CEO Laurie Dippenaar informs BLSA chair Derek Cooper of the campaign. Cooper informs his CEO Michael Spicer.
Jan 31: BLSA and Business Against Crime representatives meet Harris and ask him not to go ahead.
Feb 1: Harris emails Frank Chikane, director general in the presidency, about the campaign. Cooper phones Nqakula to distance BLSA from FNB’s initiative.
Feb 2: The campaign, already postponed by a day, is postponed indefinitely by Harris, after a meeting with Nqakula and senior ministerial justice cluster.
Feb 3: News of the aborted cam-paign breaks in the Saturday papers.