Yet another mass murder in SA: Crime Levels Inhibit Socio-Economic Development
7 October 2024
Watching current affairs on television, listening to the radio, following conversations on social media platforms and listening to South Africans and others sharing anecdotes of having directly experienced crime or knowing a loved one who has done so, is truly depressing. Yet this is something that has been normalised in the South Africa of late 2024.
It is a far cry to the country a great majority of us had hoped to live in, 30 years following the end of apartheid. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of South African and foreign lives have been lost and livelihoods destroyed in our country. Thanks to abuses of all kinds by men and women in our politics and others employed in various levels of government and the private sector, the level of citizen trust in, specifically, public authority, has almost been entirely depleted. This is also thanks to many reports of complicity by some members of our criminal justice system linked to the SAPS, correctional centre employees, the Hawks, Home Affairs and Border officials, etc., who have been exposed and – in too few cases – arrested for having aided, abetted, and benefitted from crime.
It is time that we, as a society – both citizens and residents of South Africa – begin to consider the roles that we play when our actions, or lack thereof, feed the beast of crime, deliberately or inadvertently.
What do we do when someone we know arrives with expensive goods they would not have afforded to purchase, or with large sums of cash, or with illicit substances? Do we throw litter out of car/bus/taxi windows or dumb it in public places as we walk about? Do we pay bribes to law enforcement officials in exchange for leniency? Do we keep information from the authorities when such information could help them solve crimes such as robberies, murders, human and substance trafficking, various forms of corruption, etc.?
The newly announced mass murder of six community policing members in Godini Village, Eastern Cape, which comes right on the heels of another senseless murder of 18 family members in Lusikisiki, also in the Eastern Cape, a week ago, will not be the last one if we, ordinary citizens and residents of South Africa, fail to play our part in helping bring back order to our country.
I make this appeal as a human being, first, a citizen of our beloved South Africa, and as a leader in society, because I believe tone must be set from the front. Each one of us is a leader, in some way, and must do the same. In the end, we must align our tones to agree on the kind of communities and country we want to live in, where safety, hygiene, cross-community collaboration and economic inclusivity are prioritised by all.
Issued by Herman Mashaba, President, ActionSA, 7 October 2024
