Crime: Phuthu Women tell it like it is

Dear Phuthu women

Thanks for encouraging all of us that chose to stay in this beautiful country without judging those that chose to emigrate
[the pleasure is ours].

I have a question that I would like to ask each one of you. Why did I choose you? I believe in your intellectual abilities
[can't argue with that], value your opinions and enjoy your fine sense of humour. That’s why.

Although we all love this country of ours dearly, we are quite gatvol of the crime that comes with it. For the record, I’m not whining, just stating the obvious. We’ve had it with hocus pocus promises.

My question to you:
If you were the one calling the shots, what would your plan of action be with regards to crime? How would you bring about change?

Awaiting your answer with much anticipation
Yours in zeal
Zanele

PS. You girls rock! We all want to be like you when we grow up.
[great goal indeed]

Our answers:

Kerry

• First and foremost, I would pump huge amounts of money into public services - not into the back pockets of certain individuals that blow it all on 5 star service - speaking specifically about the police and ambulance service, as discussed in an earlier group post “Shoot to kill” our officers need to be better paid and better educated, we need more numbers of officers and better law enforcement that people can respect and most importantly feel safe around. Longer jail sentence should be given to people who are convicted of killing police officers. The same goes for any violent crimes committed. An increase in ambulance and hospital services would greater benefit people that have had the unfortunate experience of being involved in violent crime, I know personally of people that have died on the scene, because they could not get adequate medical treatment in time, waiting 2 hours for an ambulance is certainly not ideal.
• Transparency- We need to be more pro-active about highlighting any controversies within government, the government should be held liable for their actions, and it is up to us to make a big noise should they not be running the country in the best interest of its people.
• I would like to say that we should bring back the death sentence, I would like to think that this would curtail crime, but unfortunately we would need to improve on the justice system before we would be able to implement such a change. That in its own will be a huge undertaking, but necessary to a new and improved South Africa.
• I would bring into effect a government subsidy, similar to that of the Dole in UK, whereby underprivileged people of all races receive benefits (decent benefits), this in turn would keep people off the streets and away from being forced into crime out of desperation. After all, we have one of the highest tax rates in the world, surely our tax money could be better utilized to help build this country up again.

Katrine

My plan of action in The Big Seat is to Bring Back The Death Penalty.

Because let’s be honest here, how do we expect criminals’ mindsets to change if they know they can get away with it? Prisons are overcrowded, police officers aren’t doing their job and so on… and this will take years to improve. But the death penalty can be brought back within a matter of weeks, days or hours, right?

If criminals knew they would be sentenced to death when caught committing a serious crime, I am pretty sure most of them would think twice and crime statistics in South Africa would change drastically. Because death puts fear into just about everyone.

Besides, if you ask me, someone who rapes a one-year-old baby doesn’t deserve the right to be on this beautiful planet. And those who murder another person for reasons such as greed, envy and hate, deserve to have the same thing happen to them.

I am sure there are lots of you who disagree with me! So tell me why, and what you would do instead.

Louise

In a study mentioned in the well-known book Freakonimcs, rogue economist Steven Levitt highlights two factors that are the strongest predictors of children who’ll grow up to have a criminal future. Not surprisingly, the two factors are childhood poverty and a single-parent household [this is good, Louise, very good]. According to the study, growing up in a single-parent household roughly doubles a child’s propensity to commit a crime. And in a separate study, it was found that low maternal education was the single most powerful predictor of a life of crime.

Now although these findings are laid out on the table for us all to gawk over, it’s easier said than done to put the shackles on crime and toss the key away forever! It’s a complex web of immediate and causal problems that need to be addressed urgently but cleverly. And by cleverly I mean that programmes need to be planned and implemented for sustainability - flash in the pan programmes are of no use, they simply waste time and money which we desperately need for long-term solutions.

I think we need to address AIDS more aggressively to prevent so many one parent-households or even worse, a nation of orphans and potential criminals. This means more money into education, not only in schools but also in communities to shift cultural paradigms and misinformation. In terms of health care, yes we are making progress with ARV’s which has helped a lot of HIV/AIDS patients to live a healthy life but aside from that we still need more health professionals in this sector which means higher wages and salaries as well as properly-equipped facilities.

I could go on and on with regards to improving policing, basic education, employment opportunities, access to food and other basic necessities however when the sun goes down each day, we have to look at our government and the culture within it. Without sounding cheesy, that foundation needs to be rock solid in order for things to really move forward. And that means it needs to be free of corruption, negligence and reckless spending.

Elzet

I would start by encouraging people to vote for candidates with a good track record. That’s always a good place to start.

I will then launch the Let’s Kick Some Criminal Ass (LKSCA) programme, which is a 2-year programme that focuses on giving crime a swift kick in the butt.

Programme LKSCA will take priority and cover the following:

• Corruption in high places. To prevent tax and other money from disappearing into thin air, I will put strict boundaries and constant auditing in place. It all boils down to accountability - nobody is above the law.
• Extravagance in parliament. This means we will all drive low budget, cost-efficient cars and have our birthday celebrations in the garage at home.
• Equipping the police force and forensic departments. The money we save will be used to equip our police force and forensic departments as well as increase the police force’s salaries. If we give them a decent salary, incentives, performance bonuses and proper training they might just take pride in the fact that they are actually here to protect us. This means less corruption in our police force. They can now focus on the job at hand: Kicking ass.
• Code Hocus Focus. I will put a stop to petty laws, like who is smoking where and would advise the officials to keep the main thing the main thing. Focus, boys!
• Army involvement. Constant and in-your-face army and police visibility is crucial and will definitely drive the message home. The criminals need to know that we mean business. The army can be involved in on-going roadblocks and border patrols (drugs and weapons).
• Jacking up our jails. They should not be seen as a free board-and-lodge facility and should be able to accommodate what gets thrown their way.
• Death penalty. Violent crimes such as rape and murder should, without a shadow of a doubt, get the death penalty. These criminals should fear the consequence of their actions.
• Education. We need to zoom in on kids, as they are tomorrow’s leaders (or thiefs). We need to get back to basics, such as teaching them how to respect one another and how to be responsible. Add a certificate or degree to this foundation and you have yourself a possible employee. This means less street children. Good education should be available to every child, regardless their circumstances.
• Solid border posts. Illegal immigrants should have extreme difficulty to cross the border.
• Justice system. The process between the crime, the court date and imprisonment should be speeded up. We want them jailed before they can say “my criminal ass has been kicked”.

If you’ve made it up to here - well done for having the oomph to read through this very long but interesting post. We would love to hear your clever ideas on curbing crime. Give it to us!