People have lost faith in government stopping crime, but there are successes – Ramaphosa

While admitting that South Africans have lost faith in the government’s ability to stop the scourge of crime, President Cyril Ramaphosa says that citizens should join the fight.

In his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa said “Crime and violence has become so common in our country that many South Africans often despair of us ever stopping it.”

“It is no surprise that every time we hear another story of a robbery or a murder or a rape, we find ourselves asking why nothing can be done to tackle crime,” Ramaphosa said.

Operation Shanela

However, the president said a recent update by the South African Police Service (Saps) on Operation Shanela should encourage South Africans that the “fight against crime is gaining momentum.”

“Operation Shanela, which was launched last year, is a high-density initiative to enhance visible policing and to find wanted suspects, particularly those accused of murder and sex crimes. It draws heavily on collaboration with community policing forums (CPFs) and community patrollers, and works with private security companies.”

“The update delivered by the Saps last week noted that solid police work over the past year had resulted in more than 700,000 arrests for various crimes, including murder, cash-in-transit robberies, vehicle hijacking and sexual offences,” Ramaphosa said.

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Task teams

Sharing the successes of Operation Shanela, Ramaphosa said crime impacts economic growth and development.

“During the sixth administration, we established specialised task teams to deal with economic sabotage such as cable theft, the vandalism of power installations and railway lines, illicit mining and extortion in the construction industry.

“These crimes are highly organised and run by syndicates. As such, we have taken a multi-pronged strategy to combat them. Over the past five years, 722 so-called construction mafia suspects have been arrested for extortion at construction sites.

“Fifty-two have so far been convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from 7 months to 89 years imprisonment,” Ramaphosa said.

“Crime everybody’s problem”

Ramaphosa said crime was everybody’s “problem.”

“If we continue to work together as government, the business community, labour and civil society, we can restore the safety and security that is critical to economic activity and the creation of jobs.

“If, as communities, we play an active role in supporting the police through the CPFs and other structures, we can indeed take back our homes, our businesses, our communities and our streets from criminals.

“If we continue the good work started through Operation Shanela, we can beat crime and build a safe and secure country,” Ramaphosa said.

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