SA happy with anti-crime efforts
18 October 2004
South Africans rate the government’s handling of crime as the best ever, according to the latest SABC/Markinor Opinion 2004 poll, which found that 45 percent of the population expressed satisfaction with the government’s performance on this issue, SABC News reported on Monday.
Together with the issue of unemployment/job creation, the high crime rate has been a bone of contention for a long time when rating government performance in the country. But at this stage all sections of the population gave the government’s handling of crime more credit than they did in November last year, when the last poll was conducted.
The report said although 45 percent of adult South Africans of voting age say the government is handling this issue "very well" or "fairly well", the latest poll conducted in May shows that there is still a big difference of how the issue is perceived by different race groups. Black people were the most satisfied (54 percent) with the
government's performance, while the white population was the least satisfied (11 percent).
According to Mari Harris from Markinor, security issues have often been a difficult subject for the ANC government, with opposition parties pointing out at every perceived failure to control crime.
"Although government sometimes rightly claims that exaggeration by opposition parties does little to solve the problem, it cannot be disputed that the crime rate in South Africa is at an unacceptably high level. An announcement that a moratorium on police crime statistics was needed 'to review the compilation and accuracy' of such figures and the subsequent annual release of some crime figures, has raised a few eyebrows in the past," Harris told SABC News.
The urgent need for more accurate crime statistics and regular releases of crime figures are regularly raised by various interest groups and parties.
Despite this positive turn in ratings, the domestic feeling about crime
levels does not seem to be shared by the international community. Standard & Poor’s highlighted the crime rate as one of the reasons why a rating upgrade of South Africa as an investment destination is not on the cards in the foreseeable future, added the SABC News report.
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