Mr SA and Mrs Globe team up to stop crime

An incredibly strong passion to eradicate the culture of crime in South Africa it turns out. The current Mr South Africa, Armand du Plessis, Mrs Globe Riana Mooi, SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry Businesswoman of the Year 2014 and attorney Jolène Leeuwner-Maritz, her father PG Leeuwner and her husband Jan Maritz as well as lauded fashion designer Hangwani Nengovhela banded together to start the No Crime Culture Project – a social responsibility platform that aims to use education as the cornerstone to help South Africa evolve into a country where moral fibre is celebrated.

Leeuwner-Maritz is the initiative’s CEO while Du Plessis, Mooi, Leeuwner, Maritz and Nengovhela have been chosen as directors. The objectives of the project are to create a stable and more equal society to help solve the problems crime creates in the country. They have already started wooing the government to adopt their fiery agenda.

MMC for Public Safety in Johannesburg Sello Lemao applauded the group’s effort at their launch event on Wednesday night. Lemoa said initiatives like this help the government fulfil its duties to create a better South Africa. He said that while Johannesburg is the financial powerhouse of SA, it’s actually the city’s residents that are its biggest asset.

FULL SUPPORT: MMC for public safety Sello Lemao plans to add support from the government by joining the project. Picture: Gallo Images.

“The project is the voice of these citizens, and we have a commitment to all who call it home to step in,” Lemao says. He said stronger emphasis should be placed on educating South Africans on morality – and doing it at the fundamental phase in schools could be the recipe for success. He believed the project’s objectives and planned programmes take into consideration the factors that have led to a culture of crime in South Africa.

The Gauteng department of education has already stepped up to partner in the initiative and plans to teach the project’s manifesto at schools in the province. The project will be about taking action, which is why those involved believe it will help establish a society where crime isn’t normalised.

Mooi said: “It takes us beyond the mere pointing of fingers.” Du Plessis said: “It is our intention to divest living in South Africa of its perils and to establish an environment conducive to quality of life.” Negotiations for a No Crime Project edutainment show on TV to broaden the reach of their education-based project have already started .

FOR THE KIDS. Current Mr South Africa Armand du Plessis is one of the directors of the project that aims to use education as a way to curb the culture of crime in South Africa. Picture: Supplied

But for now, the No Crime Culture Project is still in its development phase and it needs as much brand recognition as possible. To this end, the initiators have set up a social media challenge in which South Africans take a selfie video of them singing four lines from the Joy song Paradise Road. To make it easier you can download a video backtrack and upload it to the No Crime Culture Project Facebook page with the tags #crimefreeSA #wecan.

By the end of the year, the aim is to start a pageant focused on selecting ambassadors as well as to promote the cause.

Who said pageants and crime-fighting don’t mix?