By Kenneth Mokgatlhe
Call it farm killings, taxi killings, femicide, political killings or any other name but the fact remains – South Africa is fast becoming the world’s murder capital.
Everybody in the country knows a household that has lost someone to the uncontrolled, horrific and unending killings. Some 84 people are murdered while 88 survive an attempted murder every day.
In the last quarter of 2023, Minister of Police Bheki Cele, revealed that 7 710 people were murdered in just three months, that’s just 90 days. It is clear that no one is safe in South Africa, besides politicians who are surrounded by armed bodyguards whenever they are in public.
The daily killings have instilled trauma among and communities have lost their conscience. They have, in a way, become so desensitised that they are no longer scared to watch a person being murdered or to view the corpse of a murder victim.
What is so painful for the victimised families is that they may never see justice because of the institutional failures of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Like anyone in South Africa, I knew who the criminals terrorising my community were when I was growing up. I still know who all the criminals are. Many police offices know them too and are befriending them.
The farmers around the community where I live in Zeerust, North West, have installed surveillance cameras as part of measures to combat livestock theft. The police and the NPA are failing to prosecute a person who appears on camera stealing the farmers’ cattle. How are people supposed to have faith in the justice system?
Killing people has become a lucrative business that attracts a lot of young people because they know they will never be imprisoned, even when caught by police. While it is true that our police stations lack human, financial and technical capacities, it is also true that the police do not have the required skills to combat the killings.
Cele revealed to Parliament in 2022 that more than 1 300 had left the SAPS in the past 5 years, citing nepotism, workload, lack of resources and corruption within the SAPS. What we also know now is that they are continuing to leave and nothing has been done to remedy the situation and improve the working conditions to stop the barbaric murders and other types of criminalities.
Contrary to the belief that black people love their shanty towns or townships, many black people live in fear and would leave instantly if they were offered a safer place to live. White, Indian and coloured people are also not safe from criminals.
South Africans did not respond with disgust to the 2012 Marikana massacre because they are used to murder. We hear about about murder daily.
Many South Africans who are gatvol of violent crime convinced themselves that KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi could deter criminals. I am sorry to say that it won’t stop the blood-thirsty criminals.
What can stop criminals is depoliticising the police service and surrendering crime prevention to career police officers who have been trained to deal with corruption. We do not need politicians, like Cele, interfering with the police’s good work, people more obsessed with being in front of the camera than fighting crime.
We need good managers to lead a police service, managers who are not corrupt and who will be respected as ethical leaders who take no nonsense. We have policemen and women who are not respected by foreigners because some of them collect bribes from the same people who commit crimes daily.
In order for crime to end, it should be stopped at police stations. Police officers should be prevented from committing crimes. That is how they can reignite their reputation and earn respect. The police should be allowed to do their work independently, without fear, favour or prejudice.
Mokgatlhe is a political writer and researcher.