Violent crime in SA requires a holistic approach – expert

Public outrage, grandstanding and hollow assurances from authorities have seemingly become the only response to South Africa’s culture of violence, as senseless mass killings continue unabated, an expert says.

Theodore Petrus, associate professor of anthropology at the University of the Free State, was talking about the attack on a men’s hostel in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal which left four people dead and five others injured on Wednesday.

There are still no answers as to who and what killed 21 teenagers at Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park in East London in June last year.

Last July, 16 people were shot dead at Mdlalose’s Tavern in Nomzamo Park in Soweto, closely followed by four people getting mowed down in a tavern shooting in Florida, Johannesburg.

Last week, armed men opened fire on a group of people celebrating in the Eastern Cape, killing eight people and wounding three others.

“Every year we have one or two major violent crimes that make it to national media platforms, and then there is the predictable national public outcry, and once all this sensationalism dies down, things just go back to normal until the next major incident happens that sparks outrage, the pattern just repeats itself all over again,” he said.

Police Minister Bheki Cele had promised to catch the gunmen who opened fire at the birthday party in KwaZakhele, Gqeberha.

Days before, Cele, his deputy Cassel Mathale and provincial commissioner Lieut-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi had been at the scene of the murder of warrant officer Roger Mavundla, his wife and two children in Port Edward, KZN.

Petrus said despite all the grandstanding by political leaders and police top brass, nothing had translated into any practical, meaningful or sustainable intervention, largely because of a lack of will and structural problems within the police.

“These are not new incidents. These have been going on for years and it is unfortunate it tends to take that sensationalist dimension to get onto the national agenda to the point it sparks outrage.

“So the public will vent their opinion ... but nothing practical will really happen to deal with these issues,” he said.

Petrus said violent crime in SA required a holistic approach, as at the root were societal, political and global issues.

Perhaps the most obvious was the question of whether SA had a subculture of violence, the underlying way of thinking and type of value system that informs a certain way of behaving.

This had to do with the way people handled the pressures of life, the way in which people dealt with disagreements or conflicts, and indications suggested in various contexts and scenarios it often led to violence.

“This is why I ask whether we have a subculture of violence… It is obvious that without the police service that can do its job, stable enough to be able to carry out its mandate, it is not going to be effective in dealing with crime in general, let alone the violent crime,” he added.

Military strategist Major Lunga Dweba said pointing to a single cause for what appeared to be common mass shooting incidents would be unfounded speculation, and thus irresponsible.

These incidents suggest the presence of national instability that required urgent action.

“Since the first incidents, things have [got] worse, leaving the public worried that not only will incidents like these happen again, but also that the security apparatus’ reactive approach has given some groups more confidence to take advantage of what appears to be a lack of the state’s capacity to curb violence,” Dweba said.

He said there was an understanding that those entrusted with national security were doing everything possible to bring the situation under control.

Policing alone would rarely solve the challenges of widespread violence if measures were not taken to prevent these “acts of violence, rather than reacting to those that have already occurred”.

Nothing practical will really happen