It doesn’t matter what your background or political persuasion is, there is one thing we can all agree on: we are sick and tired of crime in South Africa. This was what every member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s team at the Oval Office said, and he needs to take responsibility now, writes Gasant Abarder in a new #SliceofGasant column.
Over the last few days, a colleague was in a hit-and-run collision involving a drunk driver who then pulled a machete on people trying to chase him down, I nearly fell victim to an elaborate Facebook Marketplace scam, and yet another scammer infiltrated the chat groups of the community football club where my daughter plays.
And these are just the minor crimes. My colleague arrived at work yesterday to share the tragic news that his half-brother was shot eight times and died while sitting in his parked car in Gugulethu at the same service station where activist teen Amy Biehl was murdered. When the shooters fled the scene, a separate group of thugs stole his 31-year-old deceased brother’s car!
From January to March this year, there have been an average of 64 murders a day, which is akin to a war zone. We still have among the highest rape statistics in the world. There is an average of 353 armed robberies a day. And these are crime statistics that have gone down year on year since last year.
This is the real genocide, and it’s not aimed at any particular racial group. Most of the victims of violent crime are black, and if there were an epidemic of genocidal proportions, it would be that of gender-based violence, particularly against women and children.
There is a ruthlessness about crime in South Africa that can never be justified. President Cyril Ramaphosa was explaining to US President Donald Trump that with more investment, there will be more jobs and, in turn, less crime. I don’t buy that. We are an inherently violent society, and there seems to be no end in sight.
Last year, at a theme park abroad, people just left their things on benches at the water resort while enjoying themselves. My family instead took turns to keep watch over our belongings. Eventually, after an angst-ridden few hours, we eventually did what the locals did. It’s a mindset that is difficult to rid yourself of: that, around any turn, you can be the victim of a crime.
At the weekend, a group I contacted a few months ago, who sell bales of secondhand clothing, blankets and football boots on Facebook Marketplace eventually got back to me. I started a charity in February to rehome previously loved sports equipment and donated goods for kids in need. I had hit a lull, and the donations were few and far between.
Out of desperation, I decided to buy a bale of 75 pairs of football boots, which the pictures showed were in really good nick. The bale would cost me R2 500 and R500 in shipping. But something was off. First red flag: they wanted the payment before receiving the goods.
Look, I had figured that I could sell five pairs (to get my money back to buy more stock) and donate the other 70 pairs. Second red flag: I’m a football boot aficionado and some of the secondhand boots in the images were so rare that they could sell for R6 000 a pair.
I tracked down a number for the address in Welkom in the Free State listed on the invoice, and a kind lady who answered told me they were scammers and she got calls like this all the time. She had reported it to the police, but the response was that the people who got scammed needed to lay a complaint.
I even told the guy on WhatsApp about my charity, and he was still going to scam me. I searched the images he sent me on Google, and they were from sellers on eBay and retail sites on Instagram. Scum bags!
The attitude of the police is criminal, but not all their fault. In a functioning society, an investigation would take place and there would be proactive crime fighting. But in South Africa, policing is reactive and officers only arrive when there is blood and mayhem. Our men and women in blue are underpaid, under-resourced, and there are more criminals than there are cops.
In South Africa, every day is a tightrope. Will I or one of my family members be one of the 64 murdered today? This is the real genocide we need to fight, and it’s time President Ramaphosa and his bloated cabinet put their energies into making our country safe for all of us.
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Picture: South African Police Service
