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August/September 2002

SAIRR research shows that murder rates are much higher than reported and conviction rates very low.

Dear Friends,

In June 2002 the South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) published crime rates for the year 2000. Per every 100 000 people there were 49.3 murders, 120.1 rapes, and 251.3 aggravated robberies. The highest rate for murders was found in the Western Cape (79.9), for rape in the Northern Cape (172.9), and for aggravated robbery in Gauteng (656.2). 1)

Is South Africa told the truth about crime?
In the July 2002 issue of Fast Facts the Institute (SAIRR) then examined the reporting of crime. In articles headed: "Where Murder Statistics Lie," and "Burying the Dead," Adam Cohen, a researcher, asks: "Has murder been curbed in South Africa? Are the police accurately reporting crime statistics? Despite an ongoing, unan-nounced embargo on police crime figures, a few independent indicators reveal present data to be anomalous and questionable." 2) Using figures supplied by the SA Police Service (SAPS), Statistics S.A., the Department of Home Affairs, the Institute for Security Studies, and the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System, he comes to the conclusion that there is "evidence of police under-reporting of homicide cases." He also finds that the police, by inflating and deflating figures, are creating the false impression that crime had gone down in the New South Africa. The media, too, have helped to make us believe that homicide rates have fallen by as much as 30%.

Cohen begins his studies with the murder figures for 1994 and 1995, the years just after the change of government in South Africa. According to police records homicides amounted to around 19 000 per annum, excluding the 'homelands' figures which were added 3 years later. Now the total became nearly 27 000. But in examining this the SAIRR found that, in line with earlier projections there could not have been more than 22 000 murders in each of 1994 and 1995. From then on murder rates supposedly declined. Six years later, for the year 2000, the police recorded 21.683 murders. But on studying these and other figures the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS) - a joint project of the University of South Africa, the Medical Research Council and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - came to the conclusion that the "estimated homicide figure for 2000 lies between 29 000 and 35 000." 3)

Another factor which has been played down is the increasing use of firearms. According to the Institute for Security Studies, in 1994 the proportion of murders committed with a firearm was 42%. In 1998 it was 49%. Nearly half of all murder victims were shot.

In South Africa all crime statistics are recorded by the SA Police Service (SAPS), and all death certificates are submitted to the Department of Home Affairs. Every 'unnatural' death must be investigated by the police. But the police are not obliged to report every murder as murder. The Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992 states: "After the certificate has been issued, the police officer… may… complete the prescribed death register without stating a cause of death." 4) - This means that "explicit causes of unnatural deaths are recorded only at the discretion of the police," says Cohen. "The death certificates submitted to the Department of Home Affairs … count the majority of unnatural deaths as having been caused by 'unspecified events of undetermined intent.' This… prevents anyone, save the SAPS, from having specific insight into the number of murders occurring in South Africa." 5)

The figures for 1996 are particularly interesting. This was the last year when the Dept. of Home Affairs published a survey on causes of unnatural death. The police recorded 25 782 murders, but reported only 2 861 firearm deaths to the Department of Home Affairs. However, the Institute for Security Studies, using police data, estima-ted at least 10 000 firearm deaths. Adam Cohen therefore asks: "Why are more than 7000 shooting victims… missing from the Home Affairs survey? Why were 17 289 murders not reported to Home Affairs as such?" - The Department of Home Affairs showed that in 1996 altogether 61 303 persons had died of unnatural causes. Of these 48 078 had perished in 'unspecified events of undetermined intent'. Cohen concludes: "The bulk of those victims of 'unspecified events of undetermined intent' can reasonably be inferred to have been murdered."

The prisons also indicate a high murder rate, but exact figures are difficult to come by because inmates are counted only in broad crime categories, such as "economic", "aggressive", "sexual", or "other". From 1995-2000 the sentenced prison population increased from 85 252 to 123 498. The proportion of inmates serving 20 years or more rose from 0.49% to 1.14%, and that in spite of the low conviction rate. Cohen says: "At last report, in 1999, the percentage of murder cases resulting in conviction languished at 16.5%. For attempted murder, only 6.9% of cases resulted in conviction. This means that for nearly 53 000 murders and attempted murders reported to the SAPS in 1999, fewer than 6000 people went to jail. Given these statistics, the South African public should not be lulled into a false sense of security."

"Thou shalt not kill."
Is not this a civil war? The high murder rate threatens not only the security of individuals but also the peace, progress, and prosperity of the whole country. Murder is not sufficiently prosecuted and seems to become accepted as part of South African life. - Rev AH Jeffree James of the Protestant Association of South Africa, in reply to yet another presidential pardon, recently published a letter deploring "President Thabo Mbeki's decision to grant pardon to 33 criminals convicted of serious crimes, including murder…" He closes with the words: "The action of the President has a broader significance. Murder is no longer viewed with condemnation. In our land even teenagers, some as young as 14 years, acting in groups, stab to death the innocent aged whom they have first robbed of their meagre possessions. Horrendous crimes, by any age group or an individual, no longer capture the main press headlines. Murder is now incidental!" 6)

God says: "You shall not kill." No nation can prosper when life is cheap. Life needs to be protected. John Calvin said: "The sum of this Commandment is, that we should not unjustly do violence to any one." 7) God forbids unjust violence against innocents. He demands capital punishment for the perpetrators. His Law states: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image." (Genesis 9:5-6; Exodus 21:12-15; Leviticus 24:17-22; Numbers 35:33; Matthew 5:17-18; Acts 25:11; Romans 13:1-4; Revelation 13:10) "The Sixth Commandment," says the Westminster Catechism, "requires all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others." All men are duty-bound to prevent injury, assault, and murder, lest they share the guilt of the offence committed.

God's law is not a private matter. It is a universal order binding upon all men. It governs the whole of creation. Cultures which operate in accordance with it will thrive. Cultures which are in rebellion to it will suffer. For religion determines culture. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." (Proverbs 14:34) Hence, cultures which honour and obey the Triune God will be blessed and thrive. Cultures which rebel against Him will be cursed. The woes of modern Africa are the result of its returning to paganism, and the effects of paganism on social life are poverty, sickness, and tribal warfare. Unless Africa, and South Africa especially, honours God in Christ, it will spiral into disaster, disease, poverty and war.

The only hope for Africa, and especially South Africa, is a great reformation and revival. Our land, our continent needs to acknowledge Christ's Lordship over every area of life. It needs to bring every law and institution whether private or public in line with His law. Church and State must work together, for both are ministers of God. The Church has a ministry of grace, reforming the heart. The State has a ministry of justice, applying the law. Our cultures will prosper only as they repent of their sins, acknowledge Christ as Lord and obey His law. Noah Webster, the statesman, educator, and author of Webster's Dictionary, said: "All the miseries and evils which men suffer from: vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible, for the Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society, the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only book that can serve as an infallible guide… The principles of genuine liberty and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man, therefore, who (under-mines) the divine authority of that Book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer." 8) May every person, therefore, know and apply God's love and law to every situation of life, while discipling his fellow men and teaching them to obey everything that God has commanded. (Matthew 28:19-20)

May God bless you richly,
D. Scarborough.

Footnotes:
1. SA Institute of Race Relations, Fast Facts, No 6/2002.
2. South African Institute of Race Relations, Fast Facts No 7/2002
3. Adam Cohen, Burying the Dead, Fast Facts No 7, July 2002, SAIRR
4. Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992, quoted in Fast Facts, July 2002, SAIRR.
5. Ibid.
6. Rev AH Jeffree James, Protestant Association of SA, Protestant Reveille, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2002
7. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, III, 20.
8. Quoted by Tom Barlow and Peter Hammond in "Renaissance or Reformation?" p. 1, United Christian Action,
Cape Town 1999.