Business counts cost of crime

Business owners are growing more and more worried about crime.

Nearly two-thirds reported being either directly affected or having seen their staff affected by house-breaking or other forms of violent crime, a survey conducted in September by consultancy Grant Thornton showed.

"South Africa is infamous for its terrible crime statistics," said Deepak Nagar, the chairman of Grant Thornton SA.

"During 2011, we were so pleased to see this figure drop to its record low of 46%, but the slow increase again to this quarter's 64% is devastating," Nagar said.

And crime has a cost. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they were hit by higher security costs at a time when the economy is growing at its slowest rate in five years. Further, 40% experienced lower motivation, 38% were less productive and 27% felt their creativity waning because of crime.

Only three of every 100 business executives were optimistic about the coming 12 months.

The business confidence index released by the Bureau for Economic Research and Rand Merchant Bank earlier this week painted a different picture.

For the first time since early last year business confidence was back in positive territory. The reading of 51 indicated that slightly more than half of the respondents were satisfied with prevailing business conditions.