South Africa is under siege and silence worsens crime in our communities

The crime in South Africa has really gone beyond the point of any redemption.

As a country, we are under siege.

It seems the only pushback civilians have is to arm themselves, notwithstanding the legislation that ties the victim when crime knocks on their door.

In townships, mob justice has become the norm. My sympathy should not be mistaken for tolerance for any wrongdoers – if they kidnapped or even tried to, they should face the full might of the law…

The criminals in the communities are people known to us.

We all know who they are and what they do. We all know who to go to when there has been a break-in, we know who might know who stole sis’ Betty’s car tyres last night while the rest of us slept.

Where was “word on the street” when the BMW spinning interrupted the afternoon’s peace, when unauthorised gun salutes pierced through song at a local funeral – where was word on the street, the judge and jury of the community when the township air was drenched in the smell of an illegal substance?

This word on the street seems to have been very inefficient when Stevovo was selling Gucci cologne for R100 even though we can all clearly see the retail price tag still stuck on the product for R799…

But we all creep out of the woodwork to serve mob justice?

ALSO READ: Not so fun being police minister now, is it, Bheki Cele?

While there may be many reasons why the criminal element flourishes in communities, one of them is that we know the perpetrators, they are our friends – but we say and do nothing.

As I watched this video of mob justice in Eldorado Park, I saw the anger.

It transcended from video and shook me to the core – it would have been scary to have been a passerby, never mind an idle witness.

I’m not saying that we should all become deputies to Bheki Cele, but I just have a desire to understand where the nerve and the bravery comes from to descend on police stations screaming blue murder when we have given these criminals the space and comfort to operate in our communities.

We are not all going to stop crime, but by omission, we are allowing them to flourish.