Beware when violence begins at home
‘CRIME is getting out of hand and we need the death penalty.’ It was one of the many comments that followed the death of Pietermaritzburg doctor Dr Bhavesh Sewram. Two months ago Sewram was shot while closing his practice.
At the time police and his family suspected it was a hit – somebody Sewram knew wanted him dead.
To date three people have been arrested and further arrests are likely.
At this stage it is becoming clear that it really was a hit.
However, the initial public response to the killing was predictable – crime in South Africa is on the increase, Africans are targeting Indian South Africans, and generally, government is not doing enough.
However, the facts tell a different story. According to police statistics the number of people murdered annually has fallen every year for the past six years.
Between April 2011 and March 2012 about 15 600 people were murdered in South Africa. Five years ago that figure was over 19 000.
Government has been throwing money at the crime problem.
For the past ten years the amount of money allocated to the police has increased well above inflation. This year they got R73 billion.
The really interesting part is that most contact crimes in South Africa (murder, rape, assault, house breakin, etc) take place between people who know each other.
In the 2006 / 2007 period, police found that 80% of murders were perpetrated by people the victim knew. And in more than 60% of the cases, the victims and perpetrators were related to each other.
Simply put, the murderers didn’t come from the nearby informal settlements as some have claimed. They came from within the family home.
Our front page story illustrates the point. Last week we reported on the death of Alvin Singh, a 54-yearold businessman who was found strangled at his home.
This week we report on the arrest of his wife Pathma Singh.
Early indications are that Singh paid her domestic worker’s boyfriend, Nkosinathi Bheki Ndlovu, R20 000 to kill her husband. Both of them are in custody. The reality is that crime in South Africa is relatively high.
But blaming government is an easy way out.
If killers are being bred at home then there’s clearly also a problem in the home.