Nearly 50 supply chain security professionals from the manufacturing, logistics and freight transport industry have attended a Regional Conference in Johannesburg to further the development of the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) in South Africa and to protect high value, high risk products moving in and around the country’s major cities, airports and seaports. The TAPA-hosted event recognised that crime of all kinds is a major every day occurrence in South Africa. It has been estimated that South Africa has lost R650 billion to corruption over the last 18 years, while 5,900 new crimes are reported by the South African Police Services every 24 hours along with the 43 murders that happen on a daily basis. Between 2004 and 2012, 125,367 hijackings were reported by the South African Police Services, of which 9,531 involved trucks. According to police data, reported robberies at non-residential premises over the same period stood at 87,033 and this was in addition to a reported 629,762 commercial crimes. Thorsten Neumann, Chairman of TAPA’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, said: “We have been aware of the issues facing manufacturers and their supply chain partners in South Africa for some time and have previously tried to establish TAPA in this market. Now we see a groundswell of support for the supply chain security standards, crime intelligence and training we offer to our members and we are confident we can make a positive difference here. The issue the country has to face up to is how to deal with the high levels of supply chain crime’’ Against this backdrop of crime, the TAPA South Africa initiative has taken a big step forward in its quest to establish a TAPA chapter in the country. The two-day training session and Regional Conference held in Johannesburg was hosted by HP South Africa at its head office in Rivonia. TAPA Freight Security Requirements (FSR) training was conducted by Steve Mchugh, Vice Chairman of TAPA EMEA and EMEA Supply Chain Security Manager at Intel Corporation, and TAPA EMEA’s Standards Lead, Luc Van Herck, EMEA Supply Chain Security Manager at Nike. The training programme also included a site visit to DB Schenker’s Pomona Road warehouse, which is a TAPA FSR ‘A’ certified site. This enabled course attendees to apply the theoretical knowledge acquired in the classroom to a live cargo environment. As well as introducing delegates to the Association and its work to combat cargo crime, the Regional Conference also looked at the current status of crime in South Africa with a presentation by Dr Johan Burger, from the Institute of Security Studies SA and one of the country’s top criminologists. The conference also discussed crime issues facing the South African cargo industry. The event acknowledged that implementation of a TAPA Standard at a warehouse site is known to dramatically reduce the risk of cargo crime. TAPA EMEA’s latest benchmark report concluded that the Association’s members incur three times lower losses than non-members. The South African TAPA Working Group Committee, under the Chairmanship of Andre Du Venage, CEO of Secure Logistics, undertook to support the growth of TAPA awareness in the region and to also grow the Association’s membership in South Africa. Further training and another one-day conference in South Africa is planned for Q1 of 2014.