Unemployment, poverty and drugs lead to violent crime in Karoo towns

GRAAFF-REINET - Unemployment, poverty and drug abuse. These are the main reasons cited as to why the youth in the Karoo are involved in crime.

This is demonstrated by the recent murder of a local doctor’s wife in what is suspected of being a brazen house robbery gone wrong. The perpetrator is a 26-years-old youth from Graaff-Reinet.

Mid-Karoo towns involving GraaffReinet, Aberdeen, Pearston, Somerset East, Cookhouse and Murraysburg are experiencing increasing youth delinquency crime rates and are regarded as unsafe and dangerous to property owners as well as the general public.

The crimes committed are mostly economic and includes theft, housebreaking, robbery (common and aggravated) and entails the stealing of items like jewellery, electronic gadgets, like laptops and cameras, which is then being sold on the black market to feed a drug addiction. A significant number of the youth in these towns are addicted to substances such as dagga, tik and alcohol.

The current national average for youth unemployment stands at 63,3 %. Poverty and starvation are even made worse by the current Covid-19 pandemic that destroys the health and economic infrastructure, resulting in poor living conditions for the affected communities.

Law enforcement agencies are working around the clock to ensure the safety and security of all citizens but this proves to be a daunting task as criminals continue to be on the rampage stealing, looting and killing innocent law-abiding citizens.

The country recently experienced the rampant looting and destruction of businesses and malls in some parts of Gauteng and KZN in what media reports view as protests against the incarceration of former state president, Jacob Zuma.

The involvement of the youth in the lootings and criminality was visible as live visuals of young people seen stealing, looting and destroying went viral on mass and social media.

Violent crime has proven to be our democracy’s Achilles heel as lawlessness and hooliganism have degenerated the country into a “banana republic” where crime is an integral part of society.

According to SAPS Graaff Reinet Cluster Communication Officer, Captain Bradley Rawlinson, youth criminality in the GraaffReinet area is mostly associated with the use of drugs and other substances. “Some of the youths are addicted to drugs and are not involved in any economical activity or empowerment programs to make them better individuals,” he said.

The youth are often referred to as “the lost generation” and have to grapple with a hybrid of challenges that include peer pressure, drug addiction and a lack of skills and educational qualifications that leads to unemployment. Some of these young men and women are from broken and dysfunctional families characterised by domestic violence, substance abuse and HIV/ Aids and the environment offers them little or no alternatives than to resolve to crime as a way of survival.

Henry Mona (22) from the informal settlement Riemvasmaak in Graaff Reinet says: “We as the youth are faced with big challenges as the government is not looking after us. They have suspended the R350 stipend from Sassa, Now we are suffering and we must look at other ways to survive.”

When SA attained its democracy in 1994 many promises were made to end the scourge of poverty once and for all. But, this remained a pipe dream to the youth of this country, as Mandla Keota (27) from Murraysburg alluded: “Our leaders have forgotten about us, the youth. As a result, we are taking other alternatives to survive during these times and, unfortunately, criminality is the only option.”

Poverty should not be criminalised but one should take note of the contributing factors that have a direct and indirect impact on the scourge. National, provincial and local government together with community leaders (churches and businesses) must devise strategies to change this narrative by making it their responsibility to implement youth empowerment projects to keep the youth engaged and preoccupied as a form of diversion to crime.

Institutions like the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and the Youth Empowerment Services (YES) should be brought closer to the people and not being seen during high pitched conferences and seminars. Their programs should be available to the ordinary man in the street to enable them to change their circumstances.

Leaders, especially local mayors and ward councillors, must engage the youth in their respective constituencies more robustly and should make it their priority to implement community development projects that target the unemployed youth or else we might further go down as a country that is engulfed in violent crime and hooliganism and where we will continue witnessing the senseless and barbaric killing of innocent law-abiding citizens such as in Graaff-Reinet recently.