It is often said that South Africa has the highest levels of crime in the world and that Johannesburg is the world’s crime capital. How true is this?
The recent incident that bore all the hallmarks of just another South African crime and what proved Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s charmed offensive bogus to convince foreign investors that the battle against crime is being won.
An armed gang abducted a victim in a broad daylight and forced him to drive home so that his assailants could strip him naked before supergluing him to an exercise bicycle while they ransacked his house.
South Africa is failing to tackle one of the world’s highest crime rates prior to hosting the 2010 soccer World Cup. Despite a slight drop in the murder rate and decrease in the number of rapes, the cases of indecent assault and violent crime remains a cause for concern.
Crime is one of the most difficult of the many challenges facing South Africa in the post-apartheid era and given the fact that it is largely a developing country with huge inequality in wealth. To make it more reflecting, South Africa is the world of the very rich and the world of the very poor.
It is not clear if 2010 will be one more factor that will make the South African government covet to protect its citizens and its visitors given the fact that crime is deeply rooted in socio-economic conditions with increased misleading policy.
