Police losing fight against crime

There is one other aspect of life in South Africa which is predictable as Eskom’s load shedding – and that is that our criminal justice system is not only not working, it seems to be getting worse.

That much has been confirmed by the release of the latest crime statistics, which show that crime is the worst it has been in two decades.

Across the board, all the serious crimes against the person – murder, rape and robbery – have shown significant increases compared to the same period last year.

It is clear that our police service particularly has lost control of the situation. Tough economic times will push people to do crime to survive, but the shocking brutality of much of the crime cannot be explained away by poverty.

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The increase in offences is because our police service is not only under-funded and under-staffed, it is shot through with incompetent and corrupt officers from top to bottom. Criminals know that – and know they can get away with it.

What will help is firing the blustering man at the top, Police Minister Bheki Cele, and replacing him with someone who can do the job, rather than pop up at crime scenes and make silly statements.