The Brigitte Mabandla Justice College has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) – laying the path to working together to step up the fight against financial crime and corruption.

The MoU was signed at the college by Justice department Director General, Advocate Doc Mashabane, and Sabric CEO Nischal Mewalall.

The MoU outlines several areas of cooperation, including:

- Mitigating financial and cybercrime risks

- Developing and implementing digital capabilities

- Enhancing capacity-building and skills development within the sector

 

Mashabane highlighted that the rise of cybercrime has made it critical for those working within the legal sector – including those in law enforcement – to acquire skills in learning how to prosecute cyber crimes – where financial crimes are pervasive.

 

 

“We have already got some funding from the CARA [Criminal Assets Recovery Account] fund to train and build capacity on digital forensic investigation. We need to retrain [officials] to appreciate what you need in order to successfully prosecute cyber crime.

“You need to have judicial officials ... magistrates and judges exposed to some form of capacity building [to understand] challenges of the cyber space as well as the crimes that are committed there. Equally, even lawyers. The entire legal profession will require some form of capacity. SO we will have to be bold in our thinking and be ambitious,” he said.

The DG added that even members of the public themselves are at risk of falling victim to cybercrime.

“Beyond the capability of the state to address [cybercrime] I think awareness raising is very important for all South Africans. As we move forward with technological advancements…all of us have to appreciate that there are major risks associated with [it].

“Unfortunately, we cannot opt out. The least we can do is identify these risks and part of it is what this college would have to subject all of us to some form of awareness; to some form of training so that even members of the public can also benefit,” he said.

Mashabane said the MoU signed between the two institutions will not “gather dust in the cupboards”.

“We will have to really rapidly implement this. By February when the colleagues ... admit students, we must commit ourselves that we will already have some basic introduction programme that will begin to expose people ... particularly in the criminal justice system in relation to the challenges of cybercrimes,” he said.

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