CAPE TOWN - If the recent mass murders in townships and kidnappings of prominent business people across the country for ransom are anything to go by, one could be forgiven for thinking that these brazen crimes indicate the country becoming a failed state where law and order is concerned.
Even Police Minister Bheki Cele and his boss President Cyril Ramaphosa can barely claim that they are in control of the situation.
How when fearful residents tell of the daily horrors of children seeing bodies riddled with bullets in front of their homes, when kidnappers extort millions of rand from desperate families, when cash-in-transit heists are the order of the day and when vigilante groups called Operation Dudula have effectively taken over some communities?
In less than a week, 17 people, mostly youth, were shot dead in a number of mass killings in Cape Town townships alone. We have yet to hear of any arrests despite more than 200 police officers from other provinces being brought in to help fight crime.
But for their efforts to be successful, the DA-led City of Cape Town cannot be shielded from responsibility when townships lack basic services such as street lights and have far fewer CCTV cameras, if any, than wealthy suburbs.
If the recent attacks and the deadly July unrest do not keep those in government (local and national) awake at night, then we don’t know what will.
By the time they wake up, criminals will have taken over our communities. A failed state is described as a country in which the government is so weak that it has lost control of its structures.
Think of the fire in Parliament, the attacks on the Constitutional Court and Department of Justice buildings, and the cyberattacks on Transnet. The rail infrastructure has been brought to its knees, and Eskom can barely keep the lights on. The common theme is that no one has been convicted for any of these crimes.
So much for a government that claims to be investing billions of rand into fighting crime.
The results show otherwise, and no one is held accountable. No matter the failures, Ramaphosa’s government rewards those who are useful for his political career. If that is not so, then how do you justify the sacking of the police commissioner and retaining of Cele, despite his dismal performance?
The casualties in all of this are innocent South Africans.
Cape Times