On crime and contradictions in a nervous country

JOHN Lennon once sang, “How can I go forward when I don’t know which way I’m facing?” How right he was. Everyone is a little exercised on the issue of crime right now, but the contradictions abound.

For a start, we give convicted criminals resounding farewells at the gates of our prisons, sending entirely the wrong message to those who might be considering augmenting their income by illegal means. Loyalty is a good thing, particularly when it is shown to someone who has shared the trenches with you, but as leaders we really do need to be a little more circumspect about these things.

African National Congress (ANC) leaders could, for instance, on the occasions of Tony Yengeni’s entry to and departure from prison, have demonstrated their loyalty in a less public fashion. Simply because when you carry Yengeni to prison shoulder-high but scream in protest when a farmer who accidentally shot a young boy gets what you perceive to be a lenient sentence, you are harming the very fabric of the justice system.

And that is quite apart from the damage done by perceptions that some prisoners are more equal than others: that apparent parole violations go unpunished, that the rules that apply to release into correctional supervision are bent, and that animal cruelty laws can be ignored in the interests of “cleansing”. What an extraordinary irony it will be if Yengeni returns to prison for animal cruelty. But that is another matter.

Then, of course, when four police officers are slaughtered by an armed gang in the so-called Jeppestown massacre, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula instructs his police service not to hesitate in using their firearms when they perceive themselves to be under threat.

President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet engage with big business in trying to devise better ways of combating the crime wave. It seems at last that the penny has dropped and that government is going to take the war against crime more seriously than in the past. The slight improvements in the annually released crime statistics are simply irrelevant in the context of the deluge of crime committed each year.

While he is no longer a member of the government, Jacob Zuma is the second-in-command of the ANC. He muddied the waters considerably when he gave an interview to a German newspaper, making the astonishing claim that football lovers who visit our shores for the 2010 Fifa World Cup will be safe. How he could say that is anybody’s guess, particularly remembering that the coach of a foreign team of disabled swimmers was raped within 100m of the front door of her hotel.

But Zuma went further. He said that the perception that crime was rampant in SA was a media creation. In other words, that the high crime rate did not really exist. Wow!

Mbeki appeared to take issue with his deputy when, in his New Year’s message to the nation, he appealed to all people to co-operate with the police in fighting crime. It seemed that the president was moving to fill what many commentators have seen as a vacuum in government responses to crime. That vacuum has in the past been characterised as a failure by government to clearly and loudly condemn all crime.

Mbeki went further when, sharing a platform with Zuma during the ANC’s birthday celebrations, he again urged an increase in community action to combat crime. He was taking the lead, telling the nation to stop tolerating crime and criminals. It was the leadership many believe is a vital component of taking the war to the criminals.

But, within days, Mbeki would tell the nation that it was only a “perception” that crime was out of control in SA. He told radio journalist Tim Modise that he could not believe that South Africans would be afraid to walk in the streets outside the SABC offices in Auckland Park. He was entirely wrong: people are generally afraid to walk in the streets, particularly after dark.

Now the ANC has, after its lekgotla last weekend, made what is probably its toughest statement yet on the crime wave. It appeared to be highly critical of Mbeki and Zuma and said that government’s response to the crime situation had to be well considered, effectively co-ordinated and comprehensive. But ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama reportedly said that seeing the ANC statement as a repudiation of Mbeki was “politicking” and unhelpful in the fight against the criminals.

I have heard that a clear space should be kept between party and state, but this is ridiculous.

Lennon asked a good question.
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