South Africans must unite to tackle crime
Devi Rajab
CHRISTMAS is a time to be merry. It is also a time for criminals to be readying themselves for their pickings in home invasions, car hijacking, street robberies and in robberies aimed at shops and pedestrians.
I was declared a statistic recently when five Balaclava-clad men armed with AK47s and other guns entered my home in search of jewellery, money and safes. Luckily, we were unharmed, but this is not the usual story of unspeakable violence that so many South Africans experience.
Daily, South Africans young and old are served a national diet of crime, and the collective anxiety of our future in this country is seriously questioned.
Why has this happened after a peaceful change of power and the painstaking construction of a fair and just constitution for all? How should South Africans respond to the worst malaise of our time?
Despite what our minister of police tells us, we are rapidly losing the battle to the criminals. Part of this condition stems from our inability to forge an unbroken chain of connectedness among ourselves. We are alienated from each other racially and geographically to the extent that we allow the criminals to feast on us at will. In this respect, we display every characteristic of learned helplessness common to victims.
Our survival in the post-modern world requires another kind of species; instinctively smarter, stronger, hardier and resilient. At present, it would seem that the superior intelligence of criminals is higher than that of our government and the general public.
They observe our behaviour, analyse our movements and plot schemes to outwit us. All the while we sit like lame ducks ready for the killing.
While the criminal mind is engaged in the advanced science of human behaviour and mob inertia, we have lost our survival instinct. Cushioned by insurance policies and security devices, we hope for the best.
The example set by leaders who emerged from the rank and file does not augur well for nation-building. There is already too great a gap between the haves and the have-nots.
At India’s independence Gandhi predicted this, warning the Indian National Congress against excesses and advising them to be live simply and act morally.
He understood that historical deprivation is a breeding ground for greed and want. Those denied access to material things in the past tend to seek it as if it is their salvation.
Perhaps what we should do is to get back to the days of simple living. Break down our walls, fire our guards, toss out our guns and let our neighbourhoods be rolling fields of open gardens with seamless boundaries.
In this way we may come together as a force to fearlessly challenge our criminals. We should declare zero tolerance campaigns and unite under the banner of fighting crime now.
Through good leadership, social engineering and the will to make genuine changes we can turn our society around. But first we need to understand our problem. If we attempt to seek reasons for our violent behaviour in the apartheid past, we will remain victims.
There is inequity and poverty everywhere in the world, but not all people choose to deal with their status through crime and violence. How is it possible for gold merchants in the Middle East to simply toss a cloth over their wares and go to pray without anyone daring to touch the stuff?
In another scenario of global poverty, we see Bangladeshis rummaging through sewers to sift out a minute piece of gold shaving to feed their families. Why haven’t they learnt to rob the merchants of their wares as we do here daily?
South Africa turns a blind eye to crime at her own peril. There can be no lasting peace or true development in violent societies.
A visiting social reformist from India, Swami Agnivesh, who started an organisation for grass-roots movements in South Africa and India, once gave his view of our situation:
In India with all the social indices ideal for crime like poverty and population, the crime rate is the lowest in the world. Perhaps this may be attributed to spirituality and a certain philosophical acceptance of one’s fate. In the South African context, the present situation of instant gratification for materialistic needs making any means foul justify the end is no way to build a nation.
Yet it is understandable given the long history of racial deprivation arising from apartheid. In the construction of a new free society, however, the country’s citizens need to work together and not against each other.
Psychologists regard the implications of crime-ridden societies as serious for people’s health, the resilience of a nation’s social fabric, the success of development schemes and the hope of future generations. A nation’s well-being may be gauged by its level of safety and security, economic growth, educational opportunities and health care services.
The sum total of all of these indices adds up to happiness, and South Africans are not happy people right now.