SA needs to hark back to the old ways

The legal system needs to be overhauled, writes Wilby.

Covid-19 has exposed many shortcomings in the way our country is being run. Besides the number of schools that are in a dreadful state and the number of residential areas without potable water, our law enforcement needs attention. Since 1990, the population has increased by approximately 40% but has the police force and judiciary increased by 40%?

Our total legal system needs to be improved. In days gone by, people stopped at stop streets, no liquor could be sold on a Sunday unless with a meal, looters were not immune to prosecution, etc.

What needs to be done is simple:

Anyone who has been criminally charged should be tried and convicted within a stipulated time. Far too many cases drag on for far too long. This also takes up too much of the courts’ time and only benefits the lawyers.

We should go back to the old liquor laws where pubs had to close at 10pm and anyone serving an intoxicated patron was charged. There used to be regular roadblocks and speed traps – no more.

Smoking in enclosed areas should be banned. Too many nonsmokers are forced or obliged to sit in a motor vehicle or smoking area at a restaurant with smokers.

If these laws where implemented and enforced there would have been no need to ban the sale of cigarettes and alcohol.

What has happened now is that crime has become a way of life for many previous law-abiding citizens.