David Masango
19 February 2007
President Thabo Mbeki says the government will not resort to making "empty theatrical gestures" about crime in South Africa, but will continue to redouble its efforts and strengthen the state's resources to ensure the safety and security of everyone in the country.
Responding to the parliamentary debate on his State of the Nation address in Cape Town last Wednesday, Mbeki outlined some of the resources the government had invested in the fight against crime over the past 13 years.
The annual police budget, he said, had increased more than fourfold from R7.7-billion in 1994 to R32.5-billion in 2006, and was expected to grow to R43.6-billion in 2009 - a six-fold increase in the space of 15 years.
The size of the South African Police Service (SAPS) increased from 116 000 members in 2001 to 155 000 in 2005, Mbeki said, and was set to grow to 183 000 in 2008 - an increase of more than 50% in the space of seven years.
"These figures tell a simple story about the resources that our government has, through the years of freedom, allocated to the struggle for the safety and security of all our people," Mbeki said.
This, he added, was precisely because the achievement of safety and security was one of the principal strategic objectives of South Africa's democratic revolution.
Violent crime, social crime
Mbeki also referred to an analysis published in the 2005-06 SAPS annual report of the crimes that produce the greatest levels of insecurity among South Africans, namely, murder, attempted murder, rape, serious and violent assault and common assault.
The analysis, Mbeki said, had revealed that 81.5% of murder victims in South Africa were killed by people they knew, with the killers in 61.9% of the cases being relatives, friends or acquaintances of the victims.
In 75.9% of rape cases in the country, the victims knew the rapists, while in 56.9% of cases the rapists were relatives, friends or acquaintances of the victims. Cases of assault showed an higher percentages of perpetrators known to the victims, including relatives, friends or acquaintances.
"These figures tell the very obvious story that by far the bulk of violence against the person in our society occurs in specific social circumstances, within communities that are poor, marginalised and afflicted by an almost irreversible sense of hopelessness," Mbeki said.
Responding to this reality, Mbeki said in his State of the Nation address the week before, would require "strong and sustained community interventions focused on crime prevention."
Any measures taken to combat crime in the country would only succeed, he said, "if we build an enduring partnership in actual practice within our communities and between the communities and the police, to make life more and more difficult for the criminals."
Source: BuaNews
