Getting away with murder
THE statement made by members of slain rapper Nkululeko Habedi’s family that the man better known as Flabba should not end up like Senzo Meyiwa is telling.
Habedi was stabbed to death, allegedly by his girlfriend Sindisiwe Precious Manqele, reportedly following an argument they had partied in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Monday morning.
The remark might have been made in the heat of the moment, riding on the emotions of the Flabba murder suspect’s first appearance in court on Tuesday.
It’s been close on five months since Meyiwa, captain of the national football team Bafana Bafana, was killed, yet the police, let alone the nation at large, are seemingly none the wiser about the assailants’ identity.
Could the Habedi family’s plea be betraying the feelings, probably of many who have been in similar situations, albeit to varying degrees, who feel that they cannot trust the very people entrusted with the nation ’ s safety?
News of Habedi’s murder was followed a few days later by the robbery of a television news team live on TV screens viewed across South Africa, and this made the nation sit up and take stock of the shocking levels of criminality and the apparent hopelessness with which authorities are dealing with crime.
It brought home the unpalatable truth about crime and the authorities’ capabilities or lack thereof to deal with the scourge decisively.
That the head of the police force hurries to assure the people that a crack team would be put together to solve the murder of as prominent a personality as Meyiwa and yet there is no progress at all five months later is unacceptable.
Though it might smack of promoting inequality before the law, the resolution of high-profile cases can help restore some credibility and the nation’s belief that in the SAPS they have an able and willing protector.
The opposite feeds into the negative regard people have of the police – which will eventually lead to the very slippery road to utter lawlessness. Further down that road, South Africa will be on a one-way journey to being a failed state.
We are no prophets of doom, bestowing on ourselves the right to tell people when the journey starts, how it would start or whether it has started.
But we wonder whether this country can survey any depths lower than seeing brazen criminals making a mockery of the law-abiding citizenry by mugging a well-known television reporter live on TV.
The depths to which crime levels have plunged are further illustrated by a report in this newspaper today of the rape of a woman miner by a zama zama, the name given to another set of criminals who steal by illegal mining – openly so.
The police must work hard to build public confidence in their ability to apprehend even the most brazen of criminals.