South African citizens must fight crime, too

South Africans are wondering if there is still hope for the country. It’s bad news after bad news and the past week was not short of it.

A 24-year-old Mozambican national appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Friday after being accused of raping and killing six-year-old Amantle Samane.

Her body was found in a shack in Soweto last Monday. In reality, this little girl’s tragic death is not her story alone.

A lot of girls and women are subjected to such barbaric acts. And the question is: how many of them are out there whose story has never been told or publicised?

Many might say that we find ourselves at this point because police members are sleeping on their jobs and that foreign nationals are the cause of such woes.

However, that would be a misconception born of lazy thinking in order to shift blame and to make us feel better.

For not all cops are idle and not all foreign nationals are committing such horrendous crimes.

From just 14-20 October, police arrested 12 819 suspects through its Operation Shanela.

Some of those arrested are linked to rape and murder. These suspects are South Africans as well as other nationals.

Last Tuesday, police and private security officers arrested seven suspects who had robbed a jewellery shop in Clearwater Mall, Roodepoort.

On Friday, the Burgersfort Regional Court sentenced a 32-year-old Zimbabwean woman, accused of assaulting her 10-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son, to a five years’ imprisonment which was wholly suspended for five years.

At the weekend, armed robbers were killed in a shoot-out with police on the R59 road in Alberton.

To win the war against crime, police need more resources and a justice system that is immune to the influence of money.

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Although more must be done, the police are waking up from their slumber. True, the war against crime is far from over, but credit ought to be given where it is due.

Daily, the men and women in blue risk their lives while facing bullets from criminals.

Police are slowly doing their best to create a safe country. This should give us hope. It should also encourage citizens to play our part and say “not in our name” will criminals be protected.

We should join community policing forums and encourage all men to sign the pledge to end gender-based violence.