The fight on crime

by Editor · Published March 14, 2007 · Updated March 6, 2012

Complaining about crime is becoming South Africa�s favourite pastime. Even if crime rates are dropping, as the authorities claim, it is not difficult to see why this should be so�and the government has itself to blame.

Faced with immense public pressure to address the problem of crime, President Thabo Mbeki in his speech at the opening of parliament effectively shrugged his shoulders in resignation. It is not easy to shake off an impression that the government has declared defeat on crime.

Should this impression be mistaken, and if the government remains serious about creating a safer environment for all South Africans, then it must show its commitment on several fronts.

If the government aims to persuade the public�and, more importantly, criminals�that it is serious about fighting crime, then it must be seen as addressing the problem with as much uncompromising determination and vigour as it has exhibited in implementing its Black Economic Empowerment policies or public smoking bans.

The ruling party can also not afford to tolerate the trivialisation of crime when its convicted officials are being carried shoulder-high to jail, accompanied by party leaders and government ministers. The relativisation of crime is a slippery slope: if white collar crime can be legitimised by those who govern, then a bit of robbery can be legitimised in the streets.

The government�s seriousness about crime is further undermined by the perpetual whiff of impropriety that seems to surround the national police commissioner. We do not know, of course, that Commissioner Jackie Selebi has been involved in unethical activities of any sort. Nevertheless, the fact of perceptions of improprieties does little to foster trust in the police force�particularly when the police force has not succeeded in ridding itself of corrupt elements.

The rot in the police must be cleared out where it exists. Budgets for the police, as well as the judiciary and correctional services system, must be boosted, as must competence within these agencies of law enforcement.

However, as Fr Peter-John Pearson of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office rightly pointed out last month, it is not enough to treat the symptoms of crime if one does not seek to cure its causes.

The discourse on crime must acknowledge that crime is animated by diverse objectives and circumstances. Chief among these is poverty and unemployment. In the fight against crime, these areas are most critical.

At the same time it must be observed that not all who suffer poverty and unemployment resort to crime. Those who reduce the value of a human life to the resale value of a cellphone are a societal anomaly.

Therefore, while economic desperation is a valid explanation for unlawful behaviour, even among the poorest crime cannot be divorced from a breakdown of morality which infests all strata of our society (to a great extent as a consequence of the inequities of apartheid).

Aside from boosting crime-fighting initiatives and poverty relief, South Africa desperately needs a moral regeneration.

As part of its crime-fighting strategy, the government must be urged to reanimate its Moral Regeneration Campaign, and lead such a campaign by its own good example.