A pro-active approach to curb asset theft at a South African mine

Abstract

The South African mining industry has not been shielded from the criminal threat the country faces. In this case study, the nature and extent of asset theft at one of the largest mining companies in South Africa is analysed. The crime prevention strategy adopted by the mine to curb asset theft was studied over a period of five years. This involved a survey of the views of the security managers on the effectiveness of the strategy implemented by the mine. Against the background of the South African Government’s broad description of the crime prevention approach adopted by the country, the researcher explored whether it would be practicable to implement an integrated crime prevention strategy – encompassing situational, social and law enforcement crime prevention approaches on primary, secondary and tertiary level – at the participating mine in order to curb asset theft.