Crime management: the need to manage internal security threats

IOL News

10 hours ago

Brandon Lee Hasthibeer, a bus driver, was shot dead on Tuesday evening.
Image: Facebook
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki in his 2003 national council of provinces speech introduced the idea of the dual economy (first and second) operating side-by-side in South Africa. This changed our economic policies to Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiatives in (Asgisa); Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) expanding on Reconstruction and Development (RDP) as macroeconomic strategies.
Currently we have Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and Affirmative Action (AA). All these have had limited economic empowerment and growth due to looting of state resources, riddled with legalised corruption. The government needs to abandon these flawed policies 35 years into democracy and focus on merit to prevent social divisions and unrest due to rampant crime stemming from reasons that are widening the gap between the rich and poor, threatening the decline of the middle class.
President Cyril Ramaphosa's request to President Donald Trump for partnerships in technology to fight crime back home is a necessity. However, this needs making our police services techno-savvy as these foot soldiers fight crime real-time. Drone usage by law enforcement for aerial and crime scene surveillance may deter criminals and be useful in search and rescue, crowd monitoring and bomb inspection. For modern crime fighting, artificial intelligence (AI), predictive policing and social media forensics are key.
In 2024, Pietermaritzburg was ranked first in the crimes index (83 points) among African countries and globally. This city is plagued by violent crime, armed robbery, carjacking, home invasions, kidnapping, murders and cash-in-transit heists. One such case occurred on the semi-rural Camperdown roads where two people were killed, leaving local farming communities in fear for days knowing that an AK47 armed suspect was on the loose.
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Uniquely, the KwaZulu-Natal Premier is the caretaker of the safety and security department and recently launched the KZN Council Against Crime (CAC) to focus on GBV, crimes against children, violent protests and sheltering of criminals. Therefore, a multi-pronged approach should include drones, CCTV surveillance; a SAP's Anti Crime APP and KZN Crime hotline with the aim to set up a crime war-room to bring down the alarming national stats where KZN ranked second to the Eastern Cape.
Such initiatives will alter the built environment in both the Durban and Pietermaritzburg CBDs, which contribute to the high crime stats. Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) includes community engagement and support for law enforcement but municipalities need to cooperate by regular cycles of grass cutting, refuse removals, fixing streetlights and closing unnecessary pathways.
The care of open spaces, sports fields, parks and gardens is essential with mounted police who will be able to do wider patrols than police on foot and fill the gap of the shortage of patrol vehicles. Last week, we have seen Gauteng children march to the Chief Justice Mandisa Maya, handing a memorandum for delayed cases leading to children not being placed in safety homes making social welfare more difficult as more resources are required for forensic laboratories to reduce DNA testing backlogs.
We have seen quick justice in the Western Cape on the Joshlin Smith case and in KZN the encounter killing of the murderer in the Olorato Mongale Johannesburg case yet no justice for the Verulam bus driver killed in cold blood last week. Where there's a will, there's a way.
Similarly, high road fatalities in KZN follows Gauteng where human factors makes our roads killing fields due to reckless driving. The area of analysing culpable homicide is not consistently available in all provinces and needs to be done to give a true reflection of this crime data where justice is denied due to corruption in the licensing departments and at weighbridges.
Gangsterism is becoming mainstream with the likes of construction and water mafias due to corruption in municipalities. Drive-by shootings, once pointed to political killings, is now an economic power struggle offshoot. Community gangs remain a menace driving fear into residents and businesses. Premiers' need to lead from the front to clean up provinces.
A worrying trend is the widespread firearms training centres and accessibility to bomb-making chemicals requiring monitoring as bomb blasts, kidnapping for ransom and targeted killings are generally associated with sleeper cells like gangs. The NIA should investigate hotspots like Verulam, Phoenix, other KZN townships and the Eastern Cape. Security studies are offered by a handful of South African universities yet it's critical that all universities offer this, even at the level of a specialised MBA.
The increase in private security firms should be of concern to an accountable government due to regulatory issues and possible conflicts of interest. Of recent, political parties are being run by private security bosses. Therefore, the IEC should have stricter criteria for candidates who do business with the state as this decreases public trust in the electoral system, ruling party and police due to the long-term impact on public safety.
To create a crime-free culture with a culture of productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness where the economy thrives automatically the premiers' must have regular meetings with business chambers, traditional leaders, senior management officials of the public and private sectors, CPFs, academia, civil society, social media, influencers, political party representatives, chapter 9 institutions and technology experts through crime imbizos.
Migrant issues abound as the security infrastructure and technology gaps requires increased budgets; leaving our borders porous, requiring strengthened communication and information sharing between agencies. In addition, Visa corruption as per the 'Lubisi Report' indicated systemic problems at the Department of Home Affairs with around 45 000 fraudulent visas (2014-2021). Again, investment in migrating to digitalised systems will stymie bribes and syndicates as illegals need to be deported.
Farm murders require data transparency because reports suggest a decline from 1998 of 153 to 50 in 2020 while police reported 12 in 2024/2025. The bigger problem remains low conviction rates and lengthy investigation delays, from examples: the murder of a young Indian farmer in Tongaat four years ago only saw 1 conviction last week. The time for a proper land audit is now: State-owned, farmer and commercial owned, housing and communal or tribal trust land. Only a detailed audit will set the land redistribution and restitution matters to rest.
South Africa's Constitution vests power to govern policing at the national level but it's time that SAPS must become a provincial competency with full budgets to follow such a mandate. Provinces are best suited to control the training and equipping of police officers, metro police and road inspectorates based on the provincial environment to combat crime.
We need a system where crime does not pay, instead criminals must pay a bigger price for their actions. We need to create heroes and role-models who unite to rule through addressing real issues because ignorance, indifference and injustice does exist. We must take a stand that 'anyone who profits from crime is a part of it because no crime is victimless'.
The awareness role of the media is crucial in South Africa where weekly crime makes headlines. SA requires a dedicated crime channel to bring about community awareness, government transparency and accountability to citizens. If these observations with suggestions are noted by decision-makers we will be able to make South Africa safe and investor friendly. A safe and peaceful country sees growth, prosperity and happy people who have a positive mindset to contribute fully in all aspects of South African life.
Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi.
Image: File image