Look at all the factors

OF COURSE “crime statistics don’t add up”, Dianne (Kohler Barnard), if one treats the results without the symptoms or, alternatively, the causes.

And there are many, which as the DA spokeswoman on police, you ought to know. Many victims of crime – businessmen and women, investors as well as national and international watchdogs – are asking the question: why is there such a high crime rate in South Africa?

They have their theories, which somewhat speak to our socio-economic state of affairs, which is not the whole story. There is also a supply and demand chain to consider.

We also need to add this up during our exercise, Dianne, and the worrying factor is that it is getting worse if one ignores the official stats that hit the headlines annually.

I am certain victims of crime don’t believe what they read – only what they have experienced and felt.

I have spoken to a few and, yes, I write as a victim of vicious crime too.

What we need is an effective crime-fighting and busting institution, and not a militarised John Waynetype operation which former minister Bheki Cele advocated.

And when criminals outgun our thin blue line, are there alternatives?

We have vicious criminals, and if things such as Radovan Krejcir’s reportedly foiled jail break is anything to go by, we need to seriously look, not only at statistics as a yardstick, but at the symptoms and causes as well.

Only then will we be able to add up.

Durban