ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In undertaking this study, the full co-operation by and assistance from the main roleplayers must be gratefully acknowledged:

the Chamber of Mines of South Africa;

the South African Police Service;

Rand Refinery Limited; and

mining companies in the gold mining and platinum group metal sectors.

More specifically, I wish to thank Mr Anton van Achterbergh, Assistant Legal Adviser of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, and Senior Superintendent Piet Otto, Head of the Diamond and Gold Branch of the SAPS for their assistance. They went out of their way to provide information and assist in opening doors in a mining sector environment where there was initially considerable caution and suspicion about a study of this nature.

It would not be appropriate to mention the many names of individuals from the mining companies and individual mines that assisted with this project. They placed considerable trust in me by providing me with general information and statistics relating to their specific operations. I tried to abide by their request not to publish statistics relating to product theft in such a way that the information could be linked directly to their specific mines or mining houses. Individual members of the Diamond and Gold Branches involved in interviews and visits also went out of their way to provide information. At no stage did I get the impression that relevant information was being withheld. The fact that the police management at the SAPS headquarters in Pretoria provided the necessary clearance for me to conduct visits and interviews gave members of the police at Branch level the confidence to provide information which could not be published. I am therefore indebted to all those who assisted.

I am also indebted to Clare Jefferson and Ettienne Hennop, two colleagues from the ISS, for their contribution. They collected a considerable amount of information through interviews and field trips to mines and police stations. In short, a study such as this is only possible when the relevant roleplayers agree with its necessity and therefore co-operate fully. I was fortunate that this was the case throughout the study.

The publication of this monograph is funded by the European Union and the Chamber of Mines of South Africa.