TACKLING CRIME - GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE MATTER

This week a report released by a Mexican NGO, the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, ranking the world's "50 most violent cities" received widespread attention from the local and international media as well as users of Twitter and Facebook.

Crime experts have questioned the credibility of the study which ranked cities by calculating the murder rate per 100 000 residents. Cape Town was placed 34th, Port Elizabeth 41st, Durban 49th and Johannesburg 50th.

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS), based in Johannesburg, raised a number of concerns about the report, which calculated a rate of 46 murders per 100 000 people in Cape Town for 2011.

First, the Institute argued that it is unclear where the "murder rate" statistics were drawn from, in light of the fact that SA's most recent annual crime statistics only reported on crimes committed up to March 2011.

Second, even if the report used the 2010/2011 crime statistics, these focus on the national and provincial level, making it difficult to disaggregate and compare crime rates between metropolitan areas.

The ISS also argued that a comparison of international statistics is complicated by the fact that countries use different definitions for specific crimes and many also do not keep accurate crime statistics. In such comparisons, the more comprehensive and accurate a country's crime statistics, the worse it will look on comparative tables.

The Mexican research group's use of murder as the crime indicator has also been criticised because it often does not provide a true reflection of the extent of crime in an area. The ISS has argued that this is particularly relevant to South Africa where interpersonal violence between family members and friends is prevalent.

It is estimated that around 80% of South Africans who are murdered are killed by someone they know, often a member of their family. This crime is therefore impossible to police. This figure was supported by the findings of the 2011 Victims of Crime Survey released by Statistics South Africa at the end of last year which reported that 78% of murder victims were killed by their spouses or partners, friends, acquaintances and known people from their community or neighbouring areas.

In other words, within the South African context, a high murder rate does not necessarily translate into a higher risk of becoming a random victim of murder perpetrated by a stranger.

Local crime experts have therefore suggested that a more accurate indicator of crime levels, and the risk of becoming a crime victim, is the aggravated robbery rate in an area. This category includes carjacking and residential and business robberies and occurs mostly randomly by people unknown to the victim.

The 2010/2011 aggravated robbery statistics released by the SAPS paint a very different picture from the report of the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice. 

The latest South Africa Survey published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) this week reports that according to SAPS statistics, Johannesburg tops the list when it comes to the number of aggravated robbery cases committed in 2010/2011 followed by Nelson Mandela Bay, Durban and then Cape Town.

The Institute also analysed the robbery-murder ratio of the four metropolitan areas. Johannesburg tops the list with a ratio of 15:1, followed by Durban and Nelson Mandela Bay (8:1) and Cape Town (6:1). 

These findings raise even more questions over the accuracy and validity of the Mexican Group's report. However, the fact is irrespective of which category you use, crime levels remain unacceptably high across the entire country.

We do not believe it is useful to describe crime as a contest between competing cities. Each city must do what it can to bring down South Africa's crime rate.

The latest South Africa Survey also includes an analysis of crime trends since 1994 and while there has been a marked decrease in some crime categories for example murder (down by 38.6%), attempted murder (down by 42.2%), assault (down by 7.9%) and theft of motor vehicles (down by 39.1%) there has been an increase in other crime categories over the last seventeen years.

For example, cases of sexual offences increased from 44 751 cases in 1994 to 71 500 cases in 2008/2009. While there has been a drop since then, the number of sexual crimes committed each year remains unacceptably high with 66 196 cases reported in 2010/2011 - almost 20 000 more cases than what was reported in 1994. Perhaps this is a result of better detection and reporting, but it is a horrific statistic which should concentrate the mind of every South African.

Equally disturbing is the fact that drug-related crime cases and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs cases have increased by 228.1% and 159.5% respectively over the past 17 years. 

Last year 150 673 drug related crimes were committed in South Africa and 66 697 people were caught driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The strong link between accidents on our roads and drinking and driving is obvious. However it is not yet common knowledge that an estimated 80% of all violent crimes are fuelled by alcohol and drugs. 

This has been corroborated by numerous studies on the high crime rate in South Africa. For example, a study conducted by the Medical Research Council found that when it comes to domestic abuse 67% of cases in the Cape Metropolitan area was alcohol related and 76% of cases in rural areas in the Western Cape also involved alcohol abuse.

Experts have also found that the strongest link between violence and substance abuse occurs in societies with a high prevalence of binge drinking, high levels of public drinking and easy access to alcohol. 

It is estimated that alcohol and drug related crime along with the many other harmful effects caused by substance abuse and related problems including foetal alcohol syndrome, diabetes and neuropsychiatric conditions costs government around R17 billion per year.

It's clear that if we want to take South African cities off "murder capital" lists we need to start reducing the rate of alcohol and drug abuse in our country, which is shifting billions away from frontline services each year and destroying the social fabric of our society.

For these reasons, in the Western Cape, the DA provincial government has made tackling alcohol and drug abuse one of our main priorities with the aim of driving down gangsterism, organised crime, interpersonal violence and road fatalities.

We have introduced a number of short term and long term interventions since 2009, which include:

• Passing the Western Cape Liquor Act, viewed as the toughest liquor legislation in South Africa, which will be implemented from April this year. It seeks, among other things, to restrict drinking in residential areas, clamp down on the supply of alcohol to illegal liquor outlets including shebeens and to create safer drinking environments. These steps will greatly reduce the drivers of and the opportunity for crime as people will no longer have easy access to alcohol in residential areas.
• The Safely Home Campaign has focused on stopping drunk driving, and has significantly increased the number of drivers arrested for drinking under the influence. The Western Cape is the only province to conduct integrated alcohol blitz roadblocks every weekend across the province. Our ‘name-and-shame' initiative with the Cape Argus has also served to increase the stigma around drunk driving and has been replicated by other provincial governments.
• A comprehensive strategy to reduce substance abuse. Since launching this strategy in 2010, we have increased the number of treatment spaces in drug treatment programmes by 1300, opened the first rehabilitation centre in the province that specifically targets young people between 13 and 18, increased the number of patients receiving aftercare and recovery services from 500 (in 2009/2010) to 2,460 (including subsidised NGOs), introduced courses in drug and alcohol treatment intervention services in conjunction with three Western Cape Universities and enabled schools to introduce drug testing on the basis of ‘reasonable suspicion'. A drug information website that serves the general public was also recently launched on our provincial government website www.westerncape.gov.za.
• The Western Cape Department of Health has launched a provincial-wide ‘Booza TV' campaign to address society's views on alcohol use and to reduce alcohol-related harm, with special emphasis on alcohol-related violence.
• Our provincial government runs a number of youth development programmes that have thus far targeted more than 400 youths at risk to steer them away from gangs and drugs; and
• The Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport runs over 100 MOD after school centres across the province which aim to provide after school activities, increase adult supervision and provide skills in sports or dance to learners. This helps prevent children from falling prey to substance abuse, crime and gangs.

Many of these initiatives are the first of their kind in the country and are focused on prevention, particularly amongst our youth, rather than simply dealing with the consequences once people have already started abusing alcohol and drugs.

If they work, it will be a major contribution to curbing violent crime, which in turn is essential to achieve economic growth and job creation, and create the social conditions in which people can live lives they value. When people take responsibility for their loved ones, they contribute to the development of our country, rather than becoming a burden on society.

This article by Helen Zille first appeared in SA Today, the weekly online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance.

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