I’m sure most of us dismissed remarks made by US President-elect Donald Trump when he described our beloved South Africa as a lawless country that has been overrun by criminals.
But upon reflecting on the existing state of affairs in South Africa today, I’m afraid I tend to agree with him. It seems that our country has been overrun by a criminal mafia of great magnitude that is apparently well connected, and these criminals appear in all sorts of guises. Some pretend to be erstwhile businessmen and women under the cover of their designer black business suits to serve and satisfy their criminal egos, while others are brazen and will shoot at anything and everything that is an obstacle to achieving their nefarious end result.
Criminal syndicates have found a safe haven in the country and we, as law abiding citizens, continue to offer them protection in our newly-found democratic state and humane Constitution.
In the bad old days, racial profiling of crimes and criminals was the order of the day. And coming from a racist past, we appreciated and applauded the new government when it gagged the media from racial profiling of crimes and criminals. Now, you cannot carry out nationality profiling of crimes and criminals either.
The simple truth is that we have opened our borders to every Tom, Dick and Betty to just walk in as if they are walking into a toilet. The criminal syndicates too have taken advantage and also walked in, as there is no screening of any sort or even criminal profiling of any kind.
There are a number of undocumented individuals prowling our streets who commit all sorts of crimes and can never be caught through their fingerprints. Why? They are unknown. That is why the government programme to document them dismally fell apart as some foreign nationals did not come forward in fear of being caught through the fingerprint system.
Today, you will be extremely lucky to come out alive if you visit the Joburg CBD. Criminals rule this roost and if you are lucky and make it out alive, you will probably have parted with all your valuables for them to allow you a free passage.
So brazen are the criminals, that they will tell you, ‘For us to allow you free passage here, you must carry valuables.’ If you are unlucky, they will either shoot or stab you to death because you did not have valuables in your possession.
They will tell you, to your face: “What do you think we survive on when you come here empty-handed?”
