Crime rate forces soul searching

The truth? It's out there. This view is from the U.A.E. The ANC cannot hide the truth any longer. Better late than never I always say.

Even by South Africa’s brutal standards, it was a stomach-churningly hideous case.

A 36-year-old man who had served a prison sentence for murdering his wife was convicted earlier this month of raping his teenage daughter on multiple occasions.

The assaults extended over an 18-month period and began after the man, from the township of Mamelodi West near Pretoria, returned home from jail.

He cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity and has yet to be sentenced, but the verdict – which came as the government held an anti-crime summit and during a 16-day campaign of activism to end violence against women and children – has highlighted South Africa’s appalling rates of violence, and weaknesses in the justice system.

Newspaper readers were outraged and condemned the authorities amid calls for the return of the death penalty – which was ruled unconstitutional after the advent of democracy in 1994 – and the introduction of castration for rapists.

“I hate this country’s justice system,” wrote one commentator. “Why did the man get out of jail after murdering his wife? Man, we still have a long way to go.”

“If this is not proof of complete failure by government, the justice system and the constitution then I really do not know,” said another.

But others were more considered and sought to bring up the social context of the crime. South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence in the world for countries not at war, with almost 50 people murdered every day – and as many victims of attempted killings – and more than 100 women raped.

“By calling him sick, we absolve ourselves of responsibility and complicity,” wrote a commentator signing himself Patriac O’Phobe. “This type of abuse isn’t the exception to the norm; it is all around us. We allow it to continue.”

While crime is concentrated among the poor, largely black townships spread across the country, it is not only there. Also this month, Najwa Petersen, the wife of one of the country’s most prominent musicians and theatre personalities, Taliep, was convicted of his murder.

Fear of violence is all-pervasive, with emigrants citing it over and over again as a reason for leaving wealthy white-majority suburbs dominated by houses surrounded by high walls, topped with electric fences, and alarm systems connected to armed response services. In effect, the law and order function of the state has been partially privatised by those who can afford to do so.

The causes of the phenomenon are many and complex, according to Trevor Bloem, spokesman for the ministry of safety and security.

“Some people talk about poverty, other say it’s not poverty, it’s inequality because our poverty levels don’t match many other countries which have lower crime levels.

/“The socio-economic conditions people live in are conducive sometimes to social crime, abuse of alcohol, substance abuse. Others point to immigration contributing to it.

“Others point to our past, our history, the last 300 years and so on. We had laws that people did not respect, regimes that were illegitimate and people got used to not obeying the law. The mindset is going to take some time for people to work out of their system.

“There’s a plethora of factors.”

At the anti-crime summit, Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of safety and security, said: “Crime levels remain unacceptably high,” adding that violent organised crime was on the increase.

Communities needed to be given greater faith and confidence in the police, he said, and criminals needed to fear the authorities more.

While similar gatherings have been held often during recent years, the event was the first of its kind dedicated to developing practical approaches to the issue, according to Mr Bloem – although its final statement was once again a collection of high-minded declarations of intent, albeit with plans of action attached.

A report issued last week by the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria said that by the end of the 1990s, the National Crime Prevention Strategy “was little more than an impressive document”, while “nothing came” from the intent to address the causes of the problem in its successor, the National Crime Combating Strategy, launched in 2000.

Citing other weaknesses in the system, the report concluded: “None of these failures are irrevocable, but a reversal will require strong political will, firm leadership, and effective control.”

There does appear to be a new urgency in the government to tackle the problem, or at least to be seen doing so. Part of that is driven by the prospect of elections next year – crime is consistently among the issues that voters say concern them most, and the African National Congress, having ruled for 14 years, is facing a potentially serious electoral challenge from a breakaway party.

The other key factor is the forthcoming 2010 football World Cup, when South Africa will be put on the world stage and play host to tens of thousands of visitors. Multiple casualties among them will be a public relations disaster, and the government has given football’s world governing body Fifa assurances that will not happen.

But a similar pledge was given by Jackie Selebi, the then national police commissioner and president of Interpol, before the draw for the qualifying contest in Durban last year, only to have an Austrian sport consultant and former professional footballer, Peter Burgstaller, shot dead on a golf course by thieves who stole his mobile telephone and a mere R320 (US$32).