26/03/2020 | By Admin
The eyes and ears initiative (E2) which is an official joint crime-fighting initiative between the South African Police Service (SAPS), Business Against Crime South Africa (BACSA) and the Private Security Industry (PSI) has seen taking big strides in its aggressive approach to fighting crime in this country.
The success of E2 has been witnessed through Memeza crime-fighting project which can be considered a shining story against crime currently ravaging this country and adversely having an economic impact on the already struggling economy.
Memeza is a Non-Profit Organization founded in 2012 and work in partnership with The National Civilian Secretariat for Police and South African Police Service to develop technology that can improve response times and reduce crime, with a special focus on vulnerable No Fee paying schools, hard hit by ICT theft.
Since starting this partnership journey huge success has been seen in the prevention of ICT theft, increased arrest rate and tracking down syndicates targeting schools.
Telkom Foundation through their Connected School Programme has put a massive focus on ICT in schools, to date they have invested over R200 Million, with over 450 000 learners connected and 1500 schools benefiting. Positive programs such as these tragically fall prey to opportunistic criminality all too often, but through strong partnerships, the tide is starting to turn. Winterveld Secondary School in the North of Tshwane is one of the beneficiaries of the wonderful work done by Telkom Foundation.
On the morning of the 20th of March 2020 at around 2h30, the school was broken into and suspects made off with over R250 000 worth of ICT educational equipment. Memeza’s monitoring team activated the Eyes and Ears network and the stolen ICT was tracked to a house in Mamelodi in the East of Tshwane where all of the stolen ICT equipment was recovered by SAPS and arrests were made.
A day later, Friday morning 21st of March 202o at about 03h18, Seageng Secondary School in Ga-Rankuwa was broken into and Memeza’s monitoring team activated the Eyes and Ears network. The suspects made off with 16 laptops, however, they were disturbed by Bidvest Protea Coin and SAPS that responded. There were more than 100 laptops that they could have stolen.
The same day, at about 23:30, Isaac Makau Primary School in Makau Primary School was broken into. Memeza’s monitoring team again activated the Eyes and Ears network. The SAPS and Bidvest Protea Coin responded and prevented anything from been taken.
The Memeza, SAPS and E2 partnership is bearing fruit in the fight to keep ICT equipment in schools where they belong, we urge all stakeholders in the educational and security sectors to take hands and work together to continue stopping criminals in their tracks when it comes to Educational ICT!
The E2 has been implemented in Gauteng and Western Cape with great success. It is anticipated that the implementation of the E2 in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape will take place during the first two weeks of May 2020. More than 60 private security companies have already joined the initiative.
All private security companies that are interested are welcome to join. For more information and to join please go to https://e2.bac.org.za/Landing.
For more information, see contact details below:
E2 Team
email: e2@bac.org.za
Tel: +27 11 883 0717
Fouche Burgers (BACSA)
+27 83 449 3433
fouche@bac.org.za
Roelof Viljoen (BACSA)
+27 82 460 6505
roelof@bac.org.za
