Far greater vigilance needed to guard public property

On Wednesday, police minister Bheki Cele released the latest crime statistics for the three months from July to September. They revealed that SA’S crime crisis — driven by unacceptably high rates of murder, rape, sexual assault and other serious offences — is far from over. And the Eastern Cape is right at the forefront. Compared to the same period last year, the province has regressed when it comes to the number of murders, rapes and sexual assaults recorded by the police.

And more livestock is stolen in the Eastern Cape than in any other province.

In East London, particularly, burglaries of non-residential premises have spiked, with thieves targeting public infrastructure and businesses.

For months now, this newspaper has been highlighting the unrelenting wave of theft and vandalism targeting businesses and public property.

Its key driver appears to have been the trade in scrap metal, a problem that has rightly been flagged by the national government.

It is a problem that, alongside corruption, has brought the Passenger Rail Agency of SA to its knees, with trains barely operating across the country.

This is due to the wholesale looting of train tracks and cable theft, a practice that is seemingly encouraged by sections of the scrap metal industry, with some operators turning a blind eye to criminality to make profit.

The government was caught with its pants down during the Covid-19 lockdown as the looting intensified, leaving the country’s rail system in tatters.

The cabinet, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has since approved legislation that seeks to regulate the trade and export of scrap metal.

But it seems the intervention has come a tad late for many public facilities such as train stations and community and sports facilities, which have been vandalised and looted.

We reported last week how suburbs such as Buffalo Flats have had their municipal facilities stripped to the bone by vandals.

The East London beachfront, which is undergoing a multimillion-rand upgrade, has also come under constant attack, with cable thieves digging up pavements and stripping street lights.

For SA to prosper, its public facilities need to function properly to cater for the hard-working citizens who keep our economy going.

We cannot afford to have non-functioning rail and sports facilities, schools, hospitals and other state-owned institutions because of vandalism and looting fuelled by a hunger for quick cash.

The country needs a more vigilant security apparatus that will jealously guard our public property.

But it seems the intervention has come a tad late for many public facilities such as train stations and community and sports facilities