People fear housebreaking and hijacking the most

THERE are no real surprises in the latest Victims of Crime survey, given the recently released SAPS crime statistics for 2017/18, which showed an increase in serious crimes, especially murder.

There has also been a countrywide increase in household crime, especially housebreaking where neighbourhoods are seen by many as unsafe to walk around in, with people complaining of less police visibility and a longer response time when a crime is reported.

The crimes people fear the most – including housebreaking and hijacking – affect all residents, regardless of the areas they live in, and even in busy suburbs such as Glenwood walkers are among the crime victims.

Those who can afford it employ security companies, including to guard their streets.

Neighbourhoods formerly designated for “coloured” and “Indian” occupation are sandwiched between the formerly white residential areas and black townships or peri-urban areas, also experience crime linked to encroaching shack settlements, such as attempts to occupy private property, illegal electricity connections, intimidation, and violent protests blocking the roads.

Most residents of shack areas are law abiding, but problems arise when criminals use shack settlements as their bases, taking advantage of the crowding of residences, which impede easy police access.

Illegal electrical connections pose a threat to residents, especially children, and to police needing to access the settlement at night.

Prey

Criminals also prey on other residents who are fearful of exposing them due to intimidation.

With South Africa’s abnormally high levels of violent crime, the real tragedy is that so little has been done to address known causes.

Poverty and unemployment do not in themselves cause crime, but they facilitate recruitment of people into the ranks of criminal syndicates.

Organised crime structures were integral to the apartheid state and there is credible evidence that drugs such as mandrax were used to weaken resistance to apartheid (as in the Cape Flats, and Sydenham).

Even in established democracies, organised crime syndicates remain untouched when governments are replaced, except for membership changes. South Africa is no exception.

Many criminals steal to feed their drug habit, which is likely to continue into the foreseeable future because of the circumstances in which children are growing up.

Far more could have been done since 1994 by both the government (education, social development) and civil society to build stronger family units, which is where many of our crime problems start.

Children who suffer or witness abuse at home and are not exposed to sound moral values when they are young, will grow up to perpetuate abuse and antisocial behaviour.

While addiction affects members of all social strata, there is compelling evidence that children who grow up in dysfunctional families are far more likely than others to escape their pain through addiction.

Increasing lack of confidence in policing is understandable for, like other government institutions, policing and the criminal justice system generally have experienced serious management problems over the past decade.

However, there are signs of change in the province amid positive feedback from good members about new management and improved feedback with regard to complaints.

Communities should continue to engage with their local stations through Community Policing Forums (CPFs) and sub-forums and to support good policing.

They should also ensure that police and the security companies work together. Community patrols and WhatsApp groups are also making a positive difference.

It is essential that ways be found of engaging with people in shack settlements, including through their representative groupings, and demanding accountability from councillors and municipal government.

eThekwini must share some of the blame for the endemic protest action, since its housing policy lacks transparency and it fails to engage with shack dwellers, and provide skills training to assist with upgrading and site-and-service schemes.

Serious

If we are serious about addressing the root cause of violent crime, we need to prioritise the support for family units where abuse is rife and fathers are absent or neglect their children.

Here faith-based groupings can play an important part in providing appropriate alternative role models, as can teachers if they themselves are not part of the abuse syndrome.

The Department of Education has messed up badly with life skills education, despite the existence of an excellent curriculum called “Education for Living” developed and successfully applied in schools by FAMSA (Family And Marriage Society of SA) for many years.

By employing one carefully vetted counsellor or social worker in each school to use this programme as a guide for interacting with students, the Department of Education could throw a lifeline to children suffering abuse and neglect at home.

De Haas is KZN violence monitor