In 2022 from April to June, 1 098 women and children were killed, 243 of them were children and 855 were women. Above 11 000 Assault Gender Based Violence was reported, with women being victims and 1 670 of those included children. The South African Police Services are still investigating attempted murder dockets for at least 1400 women and children who escaped death.
In total, 6 424 people were murdered by the first quarter of this year, a 12% increase from last year as SAPS reports. Carjacking increased by 14% and Cash-in-transit heists up by over 30%. The current leading provinces with the highest rates in order are Kwazulu Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
This leaves the question in one’s mind, does the government do enough to ensure that the citizens are safe? It is less likely that one may commit a crime in front of an on-duty officer of the law, this means that if they had squads on every corner of every city, town or township, a 40% decline in crime is guaranteed. According to BUSINESSTECH, the western cape has the fastest response time of the police to emergency calls. Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape report a shocking two-hour record time for police to show up to aid and in some instances, not at all.
People have resorted to private security companies like ADT, but what of those that cannot afford to pay but pay taxes every month and on almost every product they buy from stores? SA is currently battling a cable theft trend across all provinces, which mostly happens during load-shedding schedules. This means that people wait for dark areas and times, this is where and when the police should be operating the most.
The Mayor of East London, Xola Pakathi proposed the shutdown of scrap metal businesses because thieves sell to them stolen cables but that is not going to happen and He knows it. Apart from most of those operating with legal documentation, such legislations are decided upon, on a national level. What each city should be fighting for are bylaws for selling at a scrap metal business. Cash Crusaders and Cash Converters are already doing it, the seller must produce identification, this would make it easier to catch thieves for stolen cables.
South Africa is on the verge of a civil war, with vigilante groups like Operation Dudula fighting to get rid of all illegal immigrants in the country. Some if not the majority of the victims have been documented, some were citizens of this nation but it is hard to control a mob that feels their only hope to fighting crime is definitely not the police. A lot of people are suffering, and community forums often punish and kill innocent citizens, this is the result of the slow feet from the police as sometimes multiple crimes would be reported over and over, with the same person being the suspect but the law keeps letting the suspect lose on the streets when they were apprehended red-handed, on the scene. People lose hope little by little until they take the law into their own hands which adds another statistic to crime.
