High-Profile Murder Sparks Debate On Violent Crime

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg): January 30, 2007
The murder of a world-renowned historian has jolted South Africa into confronting the reality of escalating violent crime, which is destroying the country's social fabric and hurting its international image.

David Rattray, an Anglo-Zulu war expert, was murdered Friday near his home, just 500 metres from the spot where British troops and Zulu warriors fought in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province 128 years ago.

Police are investigating the motives for this high-profile killing. So far, nobody has been arrested in connection with the shooting of Rattray, who will be buried in South Africa Thursday.

Rattray, 49, a friend of Britain's Prince Charles, has joined the list of the estimated 18,000 South Africans who are murdered every year -- an average of about 50 a day -- some over petty items like mobile phones.

Aware that the debate on crime could harm South Africa's image as the country prepares to host the football World Cup in 2010, the government is playing down the effects of the murder.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told journalists Monday in Pretoria, the nation's capital, that South Africa should not allow itself "to be paralysed by individual incidents".

"Obviously the murder of someone of a high profile will definitely strengthen perceptions abroad about crimes in South Africa," he said.

"The murder of Mr. Rattray puts global focus on the crimes in South Africa," Pieter Mulder, leader of the Freedom Front Plus Party, told IPS in an interview. The Front is campaigning for the reinstatement of the death penalty, abolished in 1995, as a deterrent to violent crime.

"In three years, 2.5 million people fell victim to violent crimes such as murder, attempted murder, and robbery at private homes. This means more than 848,000 people fall victim to violent crime in South Africa every year," he said.

"From 1994 up to now, 272,000 people were murdered in South Africa. There is an increase of 8.3 percent in house robbery. These are the statistics of the police themselves," Mulder said. "This means people are feeling unsafe in their homes. And this makes South Africa the most unsafe country to live in."

Fed up with complaints about crime, safety and security, Minister Charles Nqakula was last year widely quoted by the media as saying that those who were unhappy with living in South Africa were free to leave. "Mr. Nqakula mentioned my name as one of those people," Mulder said.

Mulder urged President Thabo Mbeki and his ministers to refrain from sending confusing messages on crime. In the same breath, he rejected Mbeki's remark that crime rates have fallen by 10 percent since the demise of apartheid in 1994. "The world average for murder is five in every 100,000 of the population. In South Africa the figure is 40 in every 100,000. If this figure is compared to the world figures, South Africa is experiencing a very serious crime crisis which should immediately be acknowledged and addressed by government," Mulder said.

"What is worse is that on average only 10 percent of criminal cases end up in court," he added.

Among suggestions for addressing crime is to increase the police budget and the number of officers on the force, while also upgrading their training and providing them with the necessary logistics.

"Ministers travel in the latest Mercedes Benz. But if there's a break-in in one's home, police have no vehicle to transport themselves to the scene of the incident," Mohamed Zain, a businessman in Johannesburg, told IPS in an interview.

Zain's complaint, however, needs to be taken in context. In early January, Gauteng Province, where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located, bought 250 new vehicles to beef up crime fighting ability in the country's wealthiest province. The vehicles are part of the plan to complement the province's 2006-2014 safety strategy launched in September 2006.

Another strategy to fight crime is to keep youth off the street. Young people between the ages of 14 and 35 make up close to 40 percent of South Africa's population, according to the Department of Labour.

"In South Africa, we have young people being the most affected by problems of underdevelopment, with young people constituting an estimated 70 percent of our unemployed population," said the department in a statement this week.

The department is "enlisting (the youth) as volunteers into a diverse range of national service priorities such as the construction of houses and the provision of home-based care giving (for people living with HIV/AIDS). All the projects are crafted in a manner that ensures that upon completion, the young volunteers gain certification that is recognised under our National Qualifications Framework".

Tourism officials also fear that the publicity around Rattray's death could affect tourism. More than 4.6 million visitors arrived in South Africa between January and July 2006, a 15 percent increase over the same period in 2005. Statistics South Africa, a think-tank, said 20.3 percent of the visitors came from Africa and the Middle East, 11 percent from the Americas, eight percent from Asia and Australia and 3.1 percent from Europe.

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The smuggler’s den

29 Jan 2007
Southern Africa’s illicit-drugs trade is thriving and growing at a tremendous rate, providing lots of jobs, and pushing the subcontinent rapidly into the category of a narco-economy, led by South Africa. Fair enough, decent people do not speak about illicit drugs, just as decent people do not discuss what other people do behind closed bedroom doors. This is going to be a rude article.

It is rude to speak about illicit drugs. In his recent statement on tackling exploding crime in South Africa, safety and security minister Charles Nqakula only mentioned drugs in passing. He is a decent enough fellow, all right. The simplest of facts, rude as it may be, is that South Africa ranks as a world leader in the production and export of the most widely trafficked drug in the world, cannabis herb (also known as marijuana, boom, dagga, weed, grass, dope, and so on). What’s more is that global consumption of this low-tech drug is booming, all over again.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cannabis herb seizures in 2004 surpassed 6000 metric tons for the first time. Most such seizures were reported from Mexico, followed by the US, South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco. The world’s biggest growers rank as Paraguay, the US, Morocco (3700 tons), South Africa (2200 tons), Colombia (2000 tons) and Nigeria (2000 tons).

An estimated 162m people across the world used cannabis herb in 2004, says the UNODC, more than 10% higher than in the late 1990s. For South African exporters, the profits can be astounding. A kilogram of cannabis herb can be bought on the streets here for about $20; in the US, the same kilogram is worth about $2300, and in the UK, $3400. Who needs to work, when this stuff grows like a weed?

It’s been estimated that up to 70% of cannabis herb entering South Africa is grown in Lesotho; the drug, in turn, is estimated to be Lesotho’s third largest source of income.

Fields are smallish and the plant is grown alongside corn. Swaziland is known world wide for producing high-quality cannabis, and the country’s seed stock has been marketed internationally. In recent years, Swazi police have noted cannabis trafficking to the UK, the US, the Netherlands and Japan. Malawi is also world renowned for the quality of its cannabis; seizures in the country suggest a substantial export market.

Southern Africa is not only an increasingly important narco-grower and exporter, it is becoming increasingly important as a hub for transshipment of illicit drugs. In an occasional paper for the Institute of Security Studies earlier this year, Jonny Steinberg describes how South Africa has been an established transshipment zone for cocaine en route to Europe from South America, and for heroin en route to Europe from central Asia, since the early 1980s at the very latest, in the hands mainly of Lebanese, Greek and Israeli syndicates. In the mid-1990s, Nigerian organised crime started to dominate the domestic transshipment market.

The UNODC notes that cocaine seizures in Africa over the 2000-2004 period were led in terms of weight by Cape Verde, followed by South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. There is no production of cocaine, as such, in Africa. Cocaine, one of the four main branches of drugs, is produced from coca leaf grown in only three countries, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.

Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin, are produced from poppy seeds, with Afghanistan rating as by far the most important grower. After cannabis, cocaine and the opiates, synthetics occupy the fourth and final main category of illicit drugs. Here, South Africa once again weighs in with some world championship figures.

The country is rated as No 1 abuser of methaqualone (better known as “mandrax”), first introduced as a non-addictive sleeping pill in 1965 under the brand name “Quaalude.” Methaqualone is the synthetic drug of choice among South African drug users, but is largely restricted in use to the Western Cape. Chinese-sourced methaqualone has made rapid inroads into the South African market and is associated with the illicit trade in abalone, the country’s most heavily trafficked commodity after cannabis.

Among other synthetics are found the ATS (amphetamine-type stimulants) family, with two main subgroups. First, the CNS group, including amphetamine (with street names such as Bennies, Dexies, and Benzedrine), methamphetamine (Ice, Meth, Crystal), and methcathinone (CAT). The main drugs in the hallucinogenic ATS group are known on the streets as Ecstasy, XTC, E, Adam, and so on. In some parts of the world, such as the US, methamphetamine is considered drug public enemy number one. In some other regions, as noted by the UNODC, notably Europe, synthetic psychoactive substances have lost some of their earlier appeal and been replaced by cocaine.

Amid this sea of drugs, in 1999 the South African government launched a “National Drug Master Plan”, focusing on control of illicit drugs. This plan has fallen horribly and tragically apart. In a recent reply to a parliamentary question it was disclosed that out of the twenty-two Narcotic Drug Units at South Africa’s ports of entry, fourteen have vacancies in key positions and ten do not have group managers to organize the office.

Some of South Africa’s operating narcotics agents are very good at their jobs; some are very good indeed, and some, such as those who operate at Johannesburg International Airport, could probably be counted among the best in the world. But seen overall and from a distance, South Africa’s “National Drug Master Plan” has become its own worst enemy. Half-baked law enforcement is almost as bad as no enforcement at all. Narcotics work is more dangerous than normal law enforcement work, and demands special and ongoing training. The failures have seen South Africa blossom into an illicit-drugs paradise, the final step before entering the narco-economy phase.

The recent monster drug case that emerged in the Alberton Magistrate's Court, near Johannesburg, provides overweening evidence of just how horrifyingly easy it is to organise and operate massive drug shipments using South Africa as a base. In this instance, some R250m worth of compressed cannabis and hashish (cannabis resin) was seized. Of six alleged syndicate members arrested, three have pleaded guilty, turned State witness, and will spend time behind bars.

The others want to stand trial, but law enforcement agents are quite openly targeting a man known as “The Landlord,” the alleged mastermind of the syndicate. His identity is hardly a secret and he is naturally crying foul, underpinned by an advanced case of amnesia. This syndicate was involved in buying from local growers of cannabis, in Swaziland; in transhipment of hashish, apparently from Iran, and in buying export grade cannabis seeds from a grower in the Free State.

The shipment seized in Alberton was destined to travel to Canada by sea, and then to be transhipped to Amsterdam. The seized shipment was No 5 of five from last year’s (southern hemisphere) growing season. Lots of people have lots to explain about how this syndicate was able to operate so simply and so openly. It is striking, to say the least, that the syndicate members arrested were dug out by the Scorpions, a division of the National Prosecuting Authority, rather than by narcotics agents, as such. The solution to that apparent mystery lies in the immutable links between illicit drugs and all kinds of other criminal activity.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of UNODC, recently put it this way: “Each society faces the drug problem it deserves.” One fine day, it will not longer be rude to write and speak the truth about illicit drugs.

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We are at war

28 January 2007
South Africa’s top businessmen have expressed outrage at spiralling crime, saying violent criminals have plunged the country into crisis.

Johann Rupert spoke of South Africans “being at war with ourselves”, and Saki Macozoma decried the country’s descent into “criminality” following the murder on Friday of world-renowned KwaZulu- Natal battlefields historian David Rattray at his home .

The 49-year-old Anglo-Zulu War expert was shot three times in the chest at his home in Fugitive’s Drift, apparently by would-be robbers, and died in front of his wife Nicky.

The historian had influential friends throughout the world, many of whom stayed at his 24-bed Fugitive’ s Drift Lodge and joined his battlefield tours.

Yesterday billionaire businessman and chairman of Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, Johann Rupert, who met Rattray a few years ago, described the murder as “senseless”.

“Is this the society that thousands of people fought and sacrificed their lives for? People who do not believe that our country is in crisis with violent crime must be in denial,” said Rupert.

“This is not the type of country I’d hoped my children would live in ... we must now realise that in this country we’re at war with ourselves.

“South Africa has definitely lost one of its great sons ... he gave his life to promoting Zulu culture,” he said .

Businessman, former activist and ANC National Executive Committee member Saki Macozoma, who said he knew Rattray well, described his death as “an example of the criminality that pervades our society”.

“Those who know his killers and are keeping quiet should know deep down in their hearts that they are party to the killing of innocent lives in South Africa.”

He said Rattray had been an ambassador for South African culture and tourism, here and abroad.

Macozoma met Rattray in early 2000 when he, Macozoma, was chairman of the board of Satour and managing director of Transnet .

“It’s a great loss. He restored the dignity of the Zulu people and their history, and had people spellbound with his intimate knowledge of the Anglo-Zulu War.”

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele expressed outrage at the killing, saying “crimes like these eat away at the moral fibre of our society ... His senseless and callous murder will fill all peace-loving South Africans with disgust.”

The anti-crime outcry comes at a time when President Thabo Mbeki, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi and his deputy, Commissioner Andre Pruis, have all downplayed the country’s crime rate.

Asked to comment on the killing, Pruis said: “I have just arrived from London, but all I can say is that murder figures in South Africa are constantly decreasing and coming down remarkably.

“In 1994 we had more than 26000 murders, but now the figures have decreased to 18000.”

Rattray family friend Mark Read said yesterday that the killing did not appear to be a random burglary, and may have been an “arbitrary or extraordinary grudge”.

“It seems like it was a grudge thing. People with David’s kind of passion, courage and accomplishments have enemies,” he said

“There is anger and jealousy and you can’t escape that. His death was an untimely and tragic event.”

Read, who drove from Johannesburg to the Rattray home on Friday night, dismissed a two-year-old land claim as a motive, saying Rattray had not been concerned about it.

A high-level police task team has been established to probe the killing.

Rattray was killed on the eve of publishing his first major book, the glowing foreword to which was penned by his close friend, Britain’s Prince Charles.

The royal, with whom the Rattrays holidayed in Scotland every year, first visited Fugitive’s Drift Lodge with his son, Prince Harry, soon after Princess Diana’s death.

A Clarence House spokesman said the prince, who was informed of the killing on Friday night while in the US, was “shocked and deeply saddened by the news”.

Rattray’s killer was one of six young men who first demanded money at the lodge’s reception before entering the family house behind the lodge building and confronting the couple.

The men fled the scene, taking nothing.

Read said family friend Cyril Ramaphosa, who once booked out the entire lodge, had described the death as “very depressing”.

Read, chairman of the Worldwide Fund for Nature in South Africa and owner of the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg, said the implications of Rattray’s death were “devastating for the area and the nation”.

“David had the ear of some of the most powerful people in the world, who loved this country, and he had the unique ability to sell South Africa,” he said.

Read said the more than 60 lodge staff had tears running down their cheeks and were “shell-shocked”.

The first copies of Rattray’s book, A Soldier-Artist in Zululand, will be delivered to the lodge on Tuesday for sale there.

The book followed Rattray’s discovery of a large set of unique watercolour paintings by a soldier who had served in the Anglo-Zulu War.

Local resident Mthembeni Zulu said his daughter Carol had witnessed the incident and had called him to ask that he send for an ambulance.

“She was very brave. The men pointed a gun at her and told her to cut the telephone line, but she refused,” said Zulu.

He described Rattray as a “famous man” who had no enemies.

“He had encouraged young people in the area to learn about their own history. I was often surprised at how much he knew,” said Zulu.

Arthur Konigkramer, chairman of Amafa, KwaZulu-Natal’s heritage body, which manages the province’s historic battlefields, said this was an “unspeakable crime”.

“This will do this country huge harm. It will have serious repercussions for the tourism industry,” he said.

Rattray’s childhood friend David Charles, the editor of a local magazine, said of him: “He loved people, he raged against the injustice and intolerance of petty officials that stood in the way of progress. He believed he could make this country better.”

Local resident Harriet Mkhize, 72, said the community was devastated.

“He was everything to us. If you had a problem you would go to him and he would sort it out.”

She said Rattray had helped the community with its garden project.

“He’s the one who would help us with water.

“He even helped our kids with employment at his lodge. The community has lost a hero,” Mkhize said.

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Surrendered guns used by criminals

January 27 2007
A "sizable number" of guns surrendered to the police for destruction have mysteriously found their way to criminal syndicates and warring taxi groups, according to gun lobby groups and the Democratic Alliance.

It is alleged that crooked police working at firearm centres at several police stations countrywide have been selling guns to criminal syndicates. The guns were meant to be kept in safes pending their destruction.

DA spokesperson on safety and security Dianne Kohler-Barnard said she was collecting affidavits in which people alleged that guns that they had handed over to the police had been used in armed robberies.

Kohler-Barnard said in some instances police went to the homes of some of these people believing they were implicated in robberies - but they had handed over their firearms up to two years earlier for destruction.

She said she had already submitted questions to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and was awaiting his response.

"There is an absolute trend where surrendered firearms have been used in armed robberies and it is far more widespread than I thought," she said.

SA Gunowners Association spokesperson Martin Hood spoke of four incidents where surrendered guns have afterwards been used to commit crimes.

"We have raised this matter with the relevant authorities and it seems nothing is being done," said Hood.

He said a firearm that was surrendered at Tugela Ferry in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands early last year was used in an armed robbery at a Spar Supermarket in Broadacres, north of Johannesburg, last November.

He said he had been told one officer dealing with surrendered guns had been selling them to taxi drivers.

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Readers point their finger at Charles Nqakula

January 25 2007
South Africans see, read and hear depressing news on a daily basis.

We live in a society where no one has the luxury of feeling safe. Children are exposed to drugs and crime at school, grandmothers are raped, pregnant moms are shot, tourists are mugged and even the police themselves are victims of crime.

There is no discrimination when it comes to who is targeted.

Schools are vandalised, hospitals have their copper wire stolen, ATMs are blown up and cars are hijacked. South Africans are fed-up with the high levels of crime they encounter on a daily basis and they want answers.

When you are not safe in your home, at your school, on the train or in your car then you begin to ask who is to blame. We asked our readers who was responsible for the horrific crime situation in South Africa, and if that blame should rest at the feet of Charles Nqakula.

We want to know: Should the minister of safety and security be held responsible for crime?

On the IOL poll 758 (88%) people voted YES, while 107 (12%) people said NO.

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9 600 farm attacks since 1991

22/01/2007
AgriSA says 9 600 farm attacks have been committed since 1991, making President Thabo Mbeki’s comment that crime was under control “regrettable”.

The organisation’s Kiewiet Ferreira said on Friday that at least three farmers had been murdered in recent weeks and there had been a steady increase in farm attacks in the past few months.

On Friday, Groblersdal farmer John Prins was shot in the back of the head and killed.

This was shortly after the murders of Sarel Breedt of Roossenekal and Ken Eva in Kwazulu/Natal.
Also on Friday morning, Piet Barnard Venter, 68, was found murdered on his farm, Somerplaas in Buffelshoek, North West.

Superintendent Louis Jacobs of the Mooi River area police said he was found at the gate of his farm with a rope around his neck shortly after his Toyota bakkie was discovered abandoned about 4km away.

“There is serious concern and dissatisfaction among farmers over the perception at the highest level of government that crime is under control,” AgriSA said.

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ANC demands tougher approach to crime

January 23 2007
The African National Congress wants the government to change gear in handling crime, calling for a more "vigorous" and "comprehensive" response to the problem.

This follows the party's three-day lekgotla in Johannesburg.

The position is in stark contrast to President Thabo Mbeki's assertion in a television interview last week that it was only a perception that crime was spiralling out of control.

The lekgotla instead reiterated the position outlined in the party's January 8 statement that it was "critically important, in the interest of safety and security... that both the ANC and the government" should have a practical and specific response to crime.

Party spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said on Monday that, based on a concrete understanding of the reality of crime, the ruling party agreed that the government's response should also be "based on a clear understanding of the causes of crime and the various forms it takes across society".

"The response needs to be well considered, effectively co-ordinated and comprehensive," Ngonyama said.

He said the party also intended to get its lower structures across the country to engage communities to support the police and work with law enforcement agencies against criminals.

He downplayed suggestions, however, that the lekgotla's diagnosis of the crime problem was different from that of the president, saying this was the unnecessary "politicking about the issue of crime which consequently shifted attention from the criminals".

But this indicates that crime, along with other pertinent issues such as the eradication of poverty, is set to remain on top of the government's agenda this year.

Most issues that form part of the key resolutions of the ANC lekgotla also form the basis of a similar gathering of the cabinet that will map out the government's programme for the year.

The cabinet lekgotla, which was due to begin in Pretoria today, also forms the basis for Mbeki's state-of-the-nation address next month.

Poverty is also expected to feature as a key element of the cabinet lekgotla and Mbeki's speech.

According to Ngonyama, the ANC lekgotla at the weekend highlighted a number of areas, such as social security, housing and health, as well as the provision of basic services, that needed urgent attention at today's cabinet gathering.

Without giving much detail, Ngonyama said the ANC lekgotla "focused on some of the steps needed to improve the quality of service provision in all areas and significantly improve the ability of (people) to access such services".

As part of its primary tasks for the year, the ANC also wants to establish what it calls a "broad front for development", bringing various organisations and sectors together in the bid to fight poverty and promote social development.

Ngonyama downplayed questions on how such a front, styled on the Mass Democratic Movement of the 1980s, would hold together, given the political differences between the ANC and its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and Cosatu.

He said the three alliance partners could "rise above the current differences and challenges" they faced.

Ngonyama added that the provision of a basic income grant to help the unemployed was discussed at the ANC lekgotla, but did not form part of the final decisions to be forwarded for further discussion by the government.

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Cloud hangs over McBride as pressure mounts

January 15 2007
Pressure is mounting for Ekurhuleni executive mayor Duma Nkosi to take action against his chief of police, Robert McBride, over an alleged drunk-driving accident three weeks ago.

In the latest salvo, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on safety and security Dianne Kohler-Barnard said on Sunday: "McBride should under no circumstances be allowed to return to work until the investigation into his alleged drunken-driving accident last month has been completed."

McBride was due back at work on Monday, but the DA believed he should rather take leave of absence.

"There are still several unanswered questions surrounding the accident in December where, reportedly, McBride was driving under the influence of alcohol when he rolled his official vehicle," Kohler-Barnard said.

"Witnesses at the scene were reportedly threatened and intimidated by metro police officials who came to McBride's rescue," she pointed out.

"The police chief's blood alcohol levels were reportedly also not tested and we have submitted parliamentary questions surrounding this incident to Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula."

Nkosi said his mayoral committee would be meeting on Thursday to discuss the McBride issue in detail and that the council would be briefed at the end of the month.

McBride has been unavailable for comment since going on sick leave.

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Row over missing money

A legal battle is brewing between Fidelity Guards and Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.

At issue is R103 000 seized from suspects in a cash-in-transit robbery in 1997, which allegedly “disappeared” from police custody.

A civil claim, in which Fidelity Guards is claiming the amount, plus interest, from Nqakula has been set down for hearing in the Pretoria High Court next month.

The company – which had an agreement to transport cash for Shoprite in Umtata in the Eastern Cape, using JP Security – claimed in court papers more than R488 000 from Shoprite was stolen outside the premises of First National Bank in Umtata in April 1997.

The matter was reported to police, and police members soon afterwards arrested six suspects and seized just over R103 000 in cash.

Fidelity Guards claimed the money, supposed to have been marked and kept under lock and key, was in February 2003 “lost or stolen” while held by the Serious and Violent Crime Unit in Umtata.

They claimed the money was either stolen by police or lost as a direct result of police members who did not give the money a distinctive identity mark or keep it in custody, and let unauthorised persons have access to the money.

Fidelity Guards argued no criminal proceedings were instituted over the sum seized, or such proceedings were not begun in a reasonable time, causing JP Security and Shoprite to suffer damages.

The police said in court papers they had no knowledge of the money seized being stolen or lost and said it was in fact still legally in possession of the Umtata police station, where it was needed as exhibits for purposes of evidence in the still-pending criminal trial.

They said as far as they were aware, R51 500 of the money seized had already been paid to Fidelity’s representative, and Fidelity had in any event not given timeous notice of its intention to sue a state organ.

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Ministers to Keep Jobs Even If Crime Does Not Drop

President Thabo Mbeki will not dismiss Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula or Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla if they fail to achieve government's target of a 7%-10% reduction in violent crime each year.

Although Parliament was not in session yesterday, Mbeki had replied to a written question from Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon following the president's New Year message in which he urged all South Africans to join the fight against crime.

"We must continue to confront the problem of high levels of crime, including violent crimes committed against the most vulnerable in our society, such as women, children and the elderly," he said.

Leon had asked the president "whether he has taken, or intends taking, any steps to ensure that the minister of safety and security and the minister for justice and constitutional development will forfeit their offices if the government does not achieve a 7%-10% reduction in the number of contact crimes within the next six months".

For two years government has committed itself to these reduction targets in violent crimes, but has not achieved them. Mbeki said: "We do not approach successes and short-comings from the point of view of the politics of grandstanding but seriously and collectively, as cabinet, we seek to identify strategic and operational steps that need to be taken to improve our work."

He said the cabinet's assessment of recent trends "is that indeed some progress has been made to reduce incidence of contact crime; but there are challenges that need to be addressed".

"As government we are committed to working with all South Africans to ensure that we achieve our objectives. We would like to encourage all ministers to continue with their good work, and pledge our full support for their efforts to meet government's objectives," the president said.

In reply to another question from Leon, Mbeki took refuge behind the constitution for not releasing the report of the Khampepe commission into who should hold the political authority over the Scorpions.

Government accepted the recommendations that the Scorpions should fall under the safety and security minister but not be merged with the police.

The unit would remain part of the justice department.

Mbeki said that in appointing the commission of inquiry, he had acted under the powers vested in him in terms of section 84(2) of the constitution, which does not require the report to be released to anyone other than the president.

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Crime diminishing Mbeki's popularity

Rampant crime has been a contributor to a decline in President Thabo Mbeki's popularity.

That's according to two research surveys released on Friday, which showed a marked decline in his popularity standings since the local government elections earlier this year.

The poll, by the Johannesburg-based Research Surveys institute, showed that Mbeki had a 53 percent approval rating, 8 percent down on the figure recorded six months ago.

Another public opinion survey released by Markinor showed Mbeki's popularity dropped from the 7.4 percent he had in May this year to just 6.9 percent last month.

Research Surveys director Neil Higgs said Mbeki's support had also tailed off as a result of the government's failure to fight the rampant crime rate. A temporary boost to his rating, which followed his decision to sack deputy president Jacob Zuma last year, had since faded, with Zuma's supporters constantly sniping at the president.

The Markinor survey also paints a gloomy picture about the popularity of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Democratic Alliance and African National Congress.

It states that the support for the ANC and IFP fell back to the same levels as at the end of 2005, while the popularity of the DA is on a downward trend.

The IFP's drop from 3.9 percent to 3 percent is bad news for the party as it had prospects of regaining KwaZulu-Natal, which it lost to the ANC in 2004.

The news is also badly timed for the party as it has just announced its plans of becoming a strong opposition party in the province.

While support for the party dropped, the rating for IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi remained at about the same level in the past two years.

ACDP's Kenneth Meshoe also maintained the same level while Patricia de Lille and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka gained points.

Mbeki's first three years in office from 2000 saw him struggle with approval ratings that hovered around the 30% mark as he tried to shake off the shadow of his popular predecessor, Nelson Mandela.

However, his popularity shot up when South Africa won the right to stage the 2010 World Cup.

A total of 2 000 people were questioned for the survey, which has a 2.5 percent margin of error.

Markinor does bi-annual measurement of the political mood in the country by interviewing 3 500 South Africans

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The time for excuses is over

Crime is fast destroying the great SA dream and it need not be so, writes Max du Preez

How can it be an act of patriotism to pretend that crime, and specifically violent crime, isn't a major threat to South Africa's social cohesion and stability?

That is as bizarre a notion as I've ever heard. Yet that's what the deputy president of the ruling party, Jacob Zuma, seems to be saying. The media are making crime look worse by over-reporting it, he told a German magazine last week. It is tantamount to disloyalty to the country - the media in other countries are far more responsible when they reflect criminality in their societies, he says.

Deny it and it will go away, appears to be Zuma's approach. For once the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, must be in agreement with his party's deputy leader. If we ignore it, the raped and the violated will feel better. If you really love South Africa and our democracy, you will pretend that we live in a gentle, peaceful paradise.

There's a subtle subtext to this approach: it is mostly selfish, fatcat whites who are unhappy with black majority rule who complain about crime. What utter nonsense. White protestations may indeed be the most audible, but only because of their still privileged status in society and their bigger access to the media compared to the large numbers of ordinary working class and unemployed black people.

The stark reality is that poor black people are more affected by crime and criminal violence than the middle classes who can afford security guards, barbed wire fences, high walls and electronic security systems. How can we pretend to be a normal society if more is spent on private security than on the national police service?

I have long been reluctant to comment on the all-consuming crime wave. I have told myself that an increase in criminality was probably inevitable after our swift and fundamental change from a white-dominated police state to an open democracy. I considered that poverty and the persistent vast chasm between the haves and the have-nots must be contributing; that our violent history and culture of glorifying violence in the decades before 1994 must at least be partly to blame. But the time for looking for excuses is over. While we should always ponder the roots of our society's criminal tendencies, we should all really now be honest and say: whatever the causes, crime is the biggest threat to South African society. It is in many ways a bigger and more immediate threat than poverty, HIV and Aids, malaria, road deaths, racism and illiteracy.

Crime is ripping our social fabric to threads, preventing us from focussing on other problems.

Here's a riddle: why do most South Africans feel that criminality is on the increase, but the responsible minister quotes statistics indicating that it is on the decline? I have no way of telling whether the minister and the SAPS are "cooking the books" to make it look more rosy. If they're not doing that, then the only explanation must be that we have reached a threshold of tolerance and even when there is a stabilisation or decline, we are so sick and tired of it that we don't feel it.

I'm irritated by those who write newspaper editorials or letters to newspapers warning that we need to bring crime under control if we want to be successful in our hosting of the Soccer World Cup in 2010. The World Cup is just one event. Crime is threatening our own people's very future.

I'm far more concerned about how the all-pervasive criminality will shape the kind of life we and our children will be leading in the next decades. I have no explanation why President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet colleagues cannot see how serious the crisis is. Perhaps it is as simple as that they live their lives away from ordinary people and behind lines of bodyguards and security walls. Perhaps they are paralysed by the enormity of the problem.

I'm no criminologist. But I have a very clear understanding that we would only be discouraging citizens from taking up crime as a way of life when we make sure they know that crime doesn't pay: that they will definitely end up in jail if they do crime.

That must mean a major shake-up in the SAPS, starting with the national commissioner and some of his regional commissioners. Too many of our policemen have become part of the problem rather than the solution.

But we need more than a change of attitude, we need a new, effective management of the police that would ensure the men and women would be properly trained, deployed and managed.

We need the right balance of bobbies on the beat, patrol cars, crime intelligence, detective work and forensics. This shake-up should be accompanied by an urgent and complete overhaul of our judicial system to make sure the guilty get sent to jail.

Crime is fast destroying the great South African dream. It need not be so.

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