|
2003 Volume
3
GETTING AWAY
WITH MURDER
By Peter Hammond
For every 1
000 crimes reported in South Africa, only 430 criminals are arrested. Of
these, only 77 are convicted and barely 8 of these are sentenced to two
or more years of imprisonment. It is also calculated that South African
convicts have a 94% recidivism rate (that is, 94% of all persons released
after serving a sentence immediately become involved in crime again).
Serious Underreporting
A 22-page United Christian Action draft report, Murder in South Africa,
by Robert McCafferty, based on original source documents, government archives,
the Central Statistics Service, Interpol, the South African Medical Research
Council statistics, and many other sources reveals confusion amongst the
crime data quoted by the various government departments.
Victims' surveys have consistently uncovered between 60% and 70% more
crime than reported by official sources. Upwards of 50% of crime in many
serious categories goes unreported.
Statistical Discrepancies
While police crime statistics show that there were 21 683 murders in the
year 2000, the Medical Research Council puts the figure at 32 482. The
Department of Home Affairs quotes 30 068. This is a third more murders
than reported by the SAPS, a discrepancy of more than 10 000 murders.
How can various departments of the same government fail to agree on how
many people were murdered in South Africa?
So, while the Democratic Alliance leaflet "Fight Crime" puts
the average daily murder rate in South Africa at 55, the Medical Research
Council's statistics claim that 89 murders are committed, on average,
every day in South Africa.
Interpol claims even higher numbers of murders in South Africa. While
the SAPS claims that there were 26 883 murders in 1995, Interpol claims
that there were 54 298 "murders known to the police" in 1995/96.
Interpol's
figures are approximately double the numbers of "recorded murders"
in South Africa.
According to Interpol, South Africa has the highest recorded per capita
murder rate of the countries covered in their report for 1998, with Columbia
second. In that year, Interpol recorded the per capita murder rate in
the USA as 6 per 100 000, while in South Africa it was 59 per 100 000.
Criminologist
and author, Dr Richard Wesson, says that while police murder rates are not
exact, they are still the best we've got. All other rates are based on representative
samples.
Organised Crime
A report from the World Economic Forum claimed that South Africa's organised
crime was second only to Columbia's, with its frightening drug cartels and
Russia, with its omnipresent mafia. Their report claimed widespread corruption
in the South African Police Service, where one in four police officers in
the greater Johannesburg were under criminal investigation at the time of
the report.
Police estimate that there are currently "about 700 extremely well
financed and superbly armed crime syndicates operating in and from South
Africa." However, it was also reported that "not a single ring
leader of any of the 700 crime syndicates operating in South Africa has
been arrested."
The Failure of Justice
In 2000, only half of all murder cases were sent to court, and only 4007
of the 'official murders' resulted in a guilty verdict.
One report is quoted claiming: "Despite the President's boast that
South African crime statistics are improving with reductions in incidents
of some serious categories of offences, other figures showing the decline
of convictions suggest that the forces of law and order are alarmingly on
the retreat. Convictions for using and dealing with drugs, for example,
collapsed "
Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol abuse is also shown to go hand in hand with South Africa's culture
of violence. According to the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System,
56% of homicide victims sampled for blood alcohol levels tested positive.
The Most Murderous Societies On Earth
The Nedcore Project has concluded that: "South Africa and Southern
Africa are probably the most murderous societies on earth, even with the
probable under reporting." The Nedcore Project claims the results of
their surveys "underscore the fact that crime has become South Africa's
pre-eminent sociological problem. It now eclipses even unemployment in concerns
of all South Africans."
The bizarre behaviour of the ANC government in, at one stage, imposing a
moratorium on crime statistics is also questioned. The report shows that
in the first seven years of ANC rule, violence and crime in South Africa
increased by 33%, officially.
Worse Than War
The UCA Report on Murder in South Africa reveals that according to the official
statistics, in the 44 years from 1950 to 1993, there was an average of 7036
murders per year. This covered the turbulent strife of the apartheid years
of warfare, conflict, terrorism, riots and repression.
By way of comparison, in the first eight years (of peace) of the new democratic
dispensation, under the ANC, an average of 24 206 murders were committed
each year.
When The Death Penalty Deterrent Is Removed
The report notes that the sharp exponential increase of violent crime, particularly
murder, in South Africa, also coincides with the suspension of the death
penalty in 1989 and its abolition in 1996.
Official Cover Up
Sharp discrepancies between official statistics and those of Interpol and
the Medical Research Council are considered. One observer is quoted as saying
that the "easiest way for the police to reduce the crime rate is simply
to do nothing but record only those crimes where a case number is absolutely
mandatory " Numerous experts are quoted as suspecting "serious
under reporting"; "perhaps these figures are concealed for political
reasons"; "the reason for this under reporting could be the desire
to change the ongoing reputation of South Africa as the crime capital of
the world."
Living Behind Bars and Locks
Of course, few South Africans would need the impeccable research documented
in this report to convince them that security has deteriorated and crime
has escalated during the last ten years.
No matter what any official statistics may claim, many South Africans remember
a time when most children walked or cycled to school on their own, when
most homes were not surrounded by high walls, razor wire and spikes. When
homes did not need burglar bars and security gates, alarm systems and armed
response companies and when many roads did not need security booms. When
vehicles did not need gear locks, steering locks, alarm systems and satellite
tracking devices. When we did not carry such huge bunches of keys.
The Releasing of Criminals
Not considered in this report is the impact of the early release of well
over 100 000 criminals including murderers and rapists from South African
prisons.
Causes Of The Crime Wave
However, the Crime Information Analyst Centre (CIAC) of the South African
Police Services is quoted as offering some socio-economic explanations for
the horrific crime rate in South Africa: "Urbanisation of the youth
extremely conducive to crime the role of rapid, abnormally high rates of
urbanisation (and urban unemployment) when influx control was removed in
1986, it released a massive urbanisation process a massive influx of especially
young work seekers (economic refugees) to our cities from especially neighbouring
countries, but also from as far afield as Nigeria, Morocco, Europe and China
at least 6 million undocumented immigrants live in especially our cities
massive unemployment, with no extended family (social support network) and
subsistence economy to support their basic needs. In the cities, the only
support they may find is within their peer group. A very strong sense of
relative deprivation and resultant rising expectations may also develop.
The difference between rich and poor in the city is very obvious and stark.
during the years of political struggle many members of the former security
forces and liberation armies were trained in guerrilla warfare skills, like
intelligence gathering, ambush techniques, the handling of firearms and
explosives, etc. Many of these combatants are now out of work and many of
these skills can be used to commit hijackings, house and business robberies,
bank robberies and robberies of cash in transit."
Disarming The Victims
With the massive increase in organised crime, and violent crime in South
Africa, it is all the more incomprehensible that the government should be
removing security barriers from crime afflicted areas and turning their
attention towards disarming the potential victims through more rigid firearms
control laws, rather than re-instating the death penalty as a deterrent
for violent crime.
It is also an undeniable fact that criminals prefer unarmed victims.
"When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts
of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong." Ecclesiastes 8:11
The full report is available at:
www.christianaction.org.za |
