Rampant crime… Such rot does not develop overnight
Violent contact crimes such as common assaults, hi-jackings, home invasions, murders and rapes are so commonplace across South Africa that the country’s law-abiding citizenry hardly react to the daily horror stories. Echoing the famous line from an equally famous ‘Pink Floyd’ classic, one might say: “I [we] have become comfortably numb”. And it is just as well, because comfortable numbness is the only way to navigate headlines such as ‘Film crew attacked, several women reportedly gang-raped in West Village’ or ‘Eight models shooting music video [gang] raped on the West Rand’. There are no words that can be written to ease the victims’ pain.
Not an ideal backdrop for Women’s Day celebrations
The widely publicised attack was not an ideal backdrop for South Africa’s Women’s Day celebrations, taking place on the 9 August public holiday, nor did it show the country’s ongoing (yet ineffectual) campaign to eradicate gender-based violence in a good light. The reality is that South Africa, circa 2022, is the wild, wild west of the world’s G20 nations. Certainly, we punch above our weight in all things contact crime related, with our controversial hat-wearing Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, confirming 10818 rapes in the first three months of 2022. Yes, dear reader, that was not a typo. Our country recorded a staggering 120 rapes per day over that ‘stretch’.
“The figures serve as a call of action for government, business, NGOs, civil society and communities to come on board in the fight against crime,” said Cele, during a prepared speech to coincide with the release of the statistics around 3 June 2022. It was a vacuous call that has been repeated at annual and quarterly crime statistics releases going back decades, with little evidence of improvement; but it was far more palatable than statements the minister had reportedly made following the West Rand horror. We will note repeat these comments, which are now subject of a political to-and-fro between the ruling (sic) party and the opposition. Instead, we will spend some time reflecting on the South African Police Services’ (SAPS) response to the West Village gang-rape.
The country’s crime-fighting machinery, which exists for the most part in a perpetual state of inaction, went into overdrive on the news, firing a massive broadside at the symptom rather than the cause. In what can best be described as a ‘load everything with a pulse into a police van’ strategy, they swooped on the abandoned mines and surrounds to make more than 130 arrests by 4 August 2022. These individuals were held on a range of charges, often linked to their immigration status, though the crime fighters no doubt hoped that their ‘nab everyone’ approach would also net a rapist or two. Apologies, dear reader, if these comments seem impersonal; it may help to refer back to the comfortable numbness disclaimer contained in the opening paragraph.
Evidence of a failed and failing state
If the SAPS were doing their jobs, we would be reading about 120 plus arrests per day instead rather than the 120 rapes, 68 murders and however many hi-jackings. So, while this writer welcomes the arrest and prosecution of criminals for whatever valid reason, it is concerning that the police approach this matter in a way that tars all illegal immigrants for all manner of crimes perpetrated against South African citizens while ignoring the elephant in the room. This elephant emerges from the toxic combination of government’s multi-decade-long refusal to police our borders and the Department of Home Affairs’ well-documented failures in timeously performing its core function of documenting asylum seekers and citizens and issuing work permits and such.
We could spend hours reflecting on the xenophobic malaise that afflicts our country, and there are countless examples of civil unrest that is in part rooted in competition for scarce economic resources and jobs. The argument goes that undocumented foreigners, people who were referred to as illegal immigrants in pre-woke times, are stealing jobs and preventing ordinary South African citizens from earning a living. Communities proceed to brand foreigners as part and parcel of their crime problems and will bash and burn the occasional unfortunate innocent in the name of crime prevention. The question becomes: if undocumented foreigners are such a problem, why is nothing being done to plug South Africa’s borders and / or repatriate the surplus?
The problem goes way beyond porous borders
Porous borders and complacent law enforcement are just part of a complex problem. The West Village rape was perpetrated, allegedly, by so-called ‘zama-zamas’ who even the Oxford Dictionary describes as “persons working illegally in abandoned mineshafts in order to retrieve metals or minerals”. These individuals need not necessarily be of foreign origin, and there are doubtless many South Africans who participate in such activities. In fact, the abandoned mining properties and shafts in Johannesburg and surrounds have long lured thousands of ‘down and outs’ who eke out an existence burrowing for gold and other precious metals that are uneconomical for the private sector to mine.
This rot did not occur overnight: it started with a handful of people at the first mine and mushroomed as law enforcement, mine owners and the Department of Mineral Affairs stood idly by. The point of this rather lengthy rant is that all South Africans need to shift focus from finding cures to our socioeconomic ails, to preventing them from occurring, or at least preventing that which can be prevented. By way of example, the zama-zama crisis would never have grown to its current insurmountable proportions if each of government, law enforcement and mine owners followed the letter of the law from day one. And this writer’s gut feeling is that almost every crime-related challenge we face today could have been mitigated by tough, no-holds-barred enforcement of existing laws and regulations from ‘day one’ and maintained over time. There would be no need for xenophobia, for example, if the country’s borders were appropriately monitored, because the foreigners who ended up here would have had appropriate work permits or be on legitimate family or tourism visas.
A unified Africa need not be a free for all
On the topic of border control, it is worth noting that the ‘one Africa’ vision that certain segments of the political elite favour need not result in a flood of undocumented visitors… Such an arrangement can only work if all who enter South Africa have their passports scanned and stamped as well as have a clear understanding of what they may or may not engage in while transiting through the country. The undocumented foreigner issues that we are faced with today are 100% due to the state’s failure to implement border regulations on the one hand, and to bestow the rights and privileges that foreign visitors are entitled to on the other. Likewise, the blame for the gory West Village incident falls squarely in government’s lap.
