South Africa: Leaders Tolerate Plague of Violence

Fudging the figures is a time-worn technique for obscuring unflattering facts. Often when a government has something to hide, the real statistics are hard to come by. Consider, for example, the official U.S. debt versus the real numbers.

But this is nothing unique to America. In the case of South Africa, the statistics being sanitized and downplayed are those describing violent crime.

South Africa is known as the crime capital of the world, and for good reason: On average, the chances of a South African being murdered are 12 times greater than those of an American, and 50 times greater than a person living in Western Europe.

These types of statistics do not reflect well on the governance of the African National Congress (anc) over the past 12 years. Hence, it does what it can to deflect attention from them.

For one, the government has the police release crime figures only once a year in order to “reduce attention paid to crime” (Associated Press, August 26).

The latest official statistics available are those for the 12 months from April 2004 to March 2005. During this time, there were 18,793 murders (an average of 51 a day), 24,516 attempted murders, 55,114 reported rapes and 249,369 assaults with grievous injury. That’s not to mention 267,857 common assaults, 230,603 robberies, 12,434 carjackings, 332,212 burglaries, and hundreds of thousands of other crimes such as thefts from motor vehicles, abductions and drug-related crimes. In a nation with a population of 47 million, this all adds up to a very violent society.

Even so, “People don’t trust the government figures,” according to Peter Gastrow, a crime analyst in Cape Town. And perhaps for good reason.

There is cause to believe the police figures released by the government don’t accurately represent the true extent of South Africa’s violent crime. A study done by Rob McCafferty, “Murder in South Africa,” in June 2003, reveals that independent agencies consistently put the figures much higher. For example, “While police crime statistics show there were 21,683 murders in 2000, the mrc [Medical Research Council] puts the figure at 32,482. The mrc’s estimate is close to the figure from the Department of Home Affairs, which is 30,068. This is a third more murders than reported by the saps [South African Police Service]. A discrepancy of more than 10,000 murders is more than a ‘margin of error’” (emphasis ours throughout).

According to these figures, on average there are 89 murders committed in South Africa each and every day.

The international organization Interpol puts the figures even higher. “Interpol claimed that there were approximately double the numbers of ‘murders known to police’ in South Africa than the official police statistics reveal” (ibid.).

Is the government underreporting the figures? There is certainly reason to believe that is the case. After all, if South Africa is to attract overseas investment to fuel its troubled economy (where, for example, unemployment stands at around 40 percent), it wouldn’t want investors scared off by out-of-control crime. In addition, surely the anc would prefer its promises of a new and improved, liberated South Africa after apartheid to not be exposed as empty. As bad as the figures are, worse statistics would be even more embarrassing.

Which would explain why, though figures for the past year have not been released, the government insists there has been a slight decline in violent crime.

The facts, however, indicate otherwise. “Crime Expo South Africa (cesa) has confirmation from underwrites in the tourism industry, that projected violent crime statistics for the year 2005/2006 reflect shocking increases. This is based on actual statistics currently on record” (cesa, September 5). Those statistics, for example, indicate a 109 percent increase in hold-ups for the purpose of stealing money, and a 66 percent increase in theft.

Independent statistics kept by Massmart, one of Africa’s largest consumer good distributors, indicate that crime in South Africa is about 20 percent up on last year. ceo Mark Lamberti told Moneyweb Radio: “I’m talking about armed robberies, robberies of cash-in-transit, attacks of one sort or another on our staff, people being involved in hijackings and robberies at their homes and so on.” Lamberti protested that “quite frankly, the [crime] level right now, despite a number of denials in this regard, is not acceptable. I’ve actually heard it said, ‘Well, this is perception, not reality.’ I mean, nothing could be further from the truth and we’ve got statistics to back that up.”

Perhaps what is even more disturbing is the conviction rate: A csin study indicates a conviction rate of less than 3 percent for serious and violent crimes committed in South Africa in 2004/05. The Institute for Security Studies in Cape Town cites the conviction rate for murder cases that went to court (60 percent of total) during the same period to be just 18 percent.

In a sense, statistics don’t tell the true story: that South Africa is a place more and more people want to leave; where people generally do not feel safe; where carjackings are a regular event; where burglars kill for the smallest item; where car drivers have to avoid certain intersections for fear of having their window smashed in for the sake of a purse or watch; where farmers cannot sleep without fear of being murdered. As Associated Press reported, “Watch your back in South Africa. They kill folks here. Murder them at a bewildering rate. Robbers kill their victims, bystanders kill criminals, family members kill each other. Gunbattles erupt on streets and in shopping malls. Passers-by whip out pistols and join in firefights between criminals and police or security guards” (op. cit.).

This is a country where, each year, between 1,400 and 1,700 children go missing—and only 11 percent are found. A South African from Newcastle wrote on Tuesday, “My 11-year-old niece was riding her bicycle this afternoon when she was attacked. The man threw her off the bicycle and when she stood up he stabbed her 12 times in the arm and neck. He then raced off on the bicycle. Luckily the knife did not penetrate the artery on her neck and she is in stable condition. Needless to say, our family is traumatized. On going to the police station, her mother was asked ‘Do you want to report it?’”

The same day, it was reported, “An elderly farmer was killed and his wife … assaulted at Albert Falls, near Pietermaritzburg, on Tuesday morning, police said. Inspector Joey Jeevan said Eric Podolski, 71, had been tied to a tree and hit on the head in a field where he was later found dead. … They then tied up and gagged Miriam Podoloski and ransacked the farmhouse, leaving with R1,200 cash and possibly the farmer’s firearm. Miriam Podolski broke free and alerted the police. As usual, no arrests have been made.”

And if this month is like last month, there will be about another 50 such stories of violent, senseless murders before October hits.

Police are making hardly a dent. Indeed, those who are meant to provide protection for South Africa’s citizens are requesting protection. After 54 police officers were murdered in the first six months of this year, the police union’s regional secretary made this appeal: “They are killing us. We need protection from the state.”

“In Johannesburg in June, cops and robbers shot it out for hours in what has become known as ‘the Jeppestown massacre,’” Associated Press reported. “The gunmen killed four captured policemen, riddling their bodies with bullets. Two of the officers, knowing the end was near, died together, embracing each other as they were repeatedly shot. Eleven suspects were killed” (op. cit.).

As astonishing as these facts are, what makes them all the more so is the response to the problem by key government officials.

Though by any measure—even artificially low official police figures—this is a phenomenal problem, the ruling anc apparently doesn’t see it that way.

Consider the response of the minister responsible for safety and security, Charles Nqakula, to concerns expressed about South Africa’s rampant crime rate after a horrendous spate of murders earlier this year. “The whingers [complainers] can do one of two things,” he announced to parliament in June. “They can continue to whinge until they are blue in the face—they can be as negative as they want to—or they can simply leave this country.”

President Thabo Mbeki has lashed out at the suggestion that violent crime might be out of control in his country and called those who make such a claim racist. Mbeki writes a column for the African National Congress website, which is “a launchpad for attacks on the media, multinationals and opposition parties” (Guardian, Oct. 5, 2004).

It is clear that the anc government does not wish to reveal how dreadfully it has failed to curb violence in the nation of South Africa.

A South Africa without apartheid was supposed to bring a new age of equality and peace to the nation—at least, judging by the views put forward by Western media. Twelve years on, however, these same media have taken pretty much the same tack as the current Mbeki government: essentially ignoring the increase of social ills in South Africa. The facts point to a politically incorrect, yet unmistakable, conclusion: Far from amending the injustices under apartheid, the subsequent administration has largely created new injustices.

The Bible speaks specifically about the curses the nation of South Africa finds itself under. For more insight into the predicament South Africa faces and its relevance to Bible prophecy, read South Africa in Prophecy.