War on crime

by Editor · March 18, 2001

In deploring South Africa�s crime wave as a “low intensity war against ordinary people,” Cardinal Wilfrid Napier will have spoken for most citizens.

Speaking in the wake of the murder of a Dundee priest and a Catholic doctor, the cardinal castigated the government for not visibly taking the crime problem seriously, as we reported last week.

Clearly, the government�s crime-fighting policies are failing to bear fruit. The public posturing of safety and security minister Steve Tshwete and police commissioner Jackie Selebe�especially when they confront law-abiding communities and the media�will serve to encourage the malefactors to proceed with their chosen careers.

The government is not wrong in attributing the nature of crime in South Africa�its frequency and extraordinary brutality�to apartheid�s legacy. Apart-heid has left entire generations of South Africans impoverished and brutalised. This reality does not, however, absolve the government of its obligation to address crime, and to do so with vigor.

The war against crime must not stop with the police and judiciary, however. Crime will not decline unless social upliftment programmes are successfully implemented.

Most criminals come from communities with inadequate amenities and high levels of unemployment. Until the needs of these communities are addressed, excessive crime rates will remain with us. The war against crime requires job creation, poverty relief and community upliftment programmes�not, one might add, extravagant arms deals.

A long-term strategy must involve crime prevention by eradication of the conditions that lead to crime.

In the short-term, meanwhile, those charged with protecting the public must take heed of their critics and begin to execute the appropriate measures.