why is crime so high in south africa?

Question

The last financial year 40 % of all rapes were child rapes ,then theres robberies murders, hijacks. what has went wrong and why arent the south african goverment tackling the problems.?

my source of information is crimexposouthafrica.org and my friend joeline who lives there

I dont appreciate the rascist comments. im sure they will come back to you in one way or another for the rascists

Answer 1

I am so shocked about most of the above answers!! Some here have no clue!

First of all, racism is not the main cause! I think South Africa has recovered from “apartheid” extremely well. (Some other countries still battle with racism!) We call ourselves the rainbow nation AND WE ARE PROUD OF IT! We are ONE NATION - with 11 official languages! (I flew back to South Africa from Europe yesterday and I sat next to a black person from another African country -who is actually very intelligent and very nice- in the airplane who said that the South African blacks must wake up. I actually came up for my black fellow South Africans and said it is not true.) But yes, racism is something you will always get everywhere in the world, even here. So, for a small portion of the crime that could be the reason. But it is definitely not the main reason!

Another reason could be unemployment. (The unemployment figure is somewhere between 40% and 45%, so I heard.) Still, most unemployed South Africans "create" their own jobs, which mean we take responsibility for ourselves and we are innovative! Do you know how many entrepreneurs we have in this country? And artists! We are basically forced to perform! South Africans have the reputation to be hard workers. Sure you must have heard that! I know it is a joke to the world that we buy our hangers and news papers on street corners. But I respect those people who would rather work for their food in an honest way, earning little money under unpleasant conditions. Would you do that? (I must say, I bought all the hangers in my house, from them to support them!!! And yeah, even they get robbed! Because you do get the lazy ones. The lazy unemployed citizens will off course then steel to feed themselves. (But I am not too sure if they are really citizens.)

On the topic of child rapes, (this includes toddlers and babies!) I do agree that it is indeed sick! The rapists are misinformed. They believe that they will be healed from aids after having sex with a toddler or baby!

A big concern for me though is the amount of illegal immigrants we have in the country. The whole RAINBOW NATION suffers under that. Black, colored and white! But, I have noticed that even that is a problem in many other countries too. So, why still does the crime here stand out against the rest of the world? Is it more propagated? Or is it really worse here than in other countries?

I walk around with a panic button on me and I am constantly aware of what is happening around me wherever I am. Am I paranoid? No, just cautious and safety conscious. Only because crime has already affected me personally, having 5 girlfriends who went through a “smash and grab”, my own dad was pick pocketed, my mom’s cousin was murdered for a TV, a friend of my mom was murdered for his car, my cousin and his wife were attacked in their own home, three times this year alone having armed robbers in the yard where I live, once in a shopping mall at the same time it was robbed, etc. (too many to remember all at once). So my examples are not cases I hear about in the news. I know/knew the victims personally!

In my opinion, the main problems for the high crime rate are:
1.Police force not big/strong enough
2.Laws not enforced firm enough
3.Inadequate punishment/sentence
4.Government in denial of the severity (sorry to say)
5.Too many illegal immigrants
6.High unemployment figure

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

There surely isn't a quick and easy answer to this question. South African society is complex and one fits all answers most often don't apply. The high crime rate can be attributed to various factors: Our Apartheid past - most black people did not recognise or trust (rather feared) the government, which led to a general lack of respect for the rule of law. This disrespect has lived on in some circels and is an unfortunate remnant of the past. SA society is in transition with things changing rapidly. Organisations (such as the criminal justice system) can't always keep up with the pace and leads to week law enforcement. Government has introduced a policy of affirmative action, which is in principle aimed at addressing racial eqaulity in the workplace (nothing wrong with that). Unfortunately, this is sometimes abused and qualified, well experienced white police officers, judges, lawyers etc don't get promoted, even when they are the best candidates for a post. This leads to disillisionment and the loss of experienced personnel within the criminal justice system. Poverty, and unemployment - If you're unemployed and have a family to feed, and there is virtually no social assistance, what would you do? A lack of political will from government to take action against crime - for instance, the SA minister of Safety & Security recently said that South Africans complaining of crime should leave the country. Corruption. Many police officers (such as other government officials are corrupt. Police officers are paid poorly, making bribes attractive. Illegal immigrants. With the advent of the new SA in '94, South Africa's borders (which were largely closed off) became open to immigrants from across Africa. Recent developments in neigbouring Zimbabwe and the poverty Mozambique has led to an increase of high numbers of illegal immigrants. These immigrants are competing for jobs in an economy with high employment rates, and often resort to crime to survive.

Answer 4

Well even though apartheid has ended, there is still an enormous economic gap between races. Just as in any society, economic unstability will drive people to do drastic things and have no regard for the government as they see the government as the reason for their suffering. In addition, since the economy is not very strong for all, the government is not able to weild the power it should. The government is trying to lower crime, but until South Africa becomes a nation with true equality the crime rate will probably not lower.

Answer 5

The history of south africa should give you a clue. SA had institutional racism in the government, which kept nearly all blacks at poverty level. Once apartheid dissolved and a new government was formed, you had this problem of the entire populace being poor so it was very difficult to reel in problems like crime, drug abuse since it was rampant even during apartheid. You aren't seeing much of a change other than that the crime is now being reported in the press rather than hidden.
It will take decades for the crime wave to go away once infrastructure is restored and a cohesive government can create the necessary social environment.

Answer 6

I have never read so much misinformed drivel for answers in my life. You want a source. Try www.crimexposouthafrica.org or Interpol or the SA governments own Police statistics. Some clot says it is no different elsewhere. Oh really? Has the UK or any other Country in the World, who is not at War, got an average 20,000 murders a year? Even that cannot be believed because Interpol say the murder rate is under stated and put it at more like 48000 murders a year. There is not enough room to mention all the other heavy crimes like rape etc and many of the victims are children.To the other clot who blames it on Apartheid, all I can say is you have fallen for Government propaganda as they blame all their ills on Apartheid. It surprises me that Mbeki has not as yet blamed HIV/AIDS on apartheid because he has no clue what causes it. His Health Minister has a cure for HIV/AIDS based on a drink made up of vegetables and fruit. Their latest trick is to stop reporting on crime because they are scared they will lose Tourists and the World Cup but it continues unabated. For anyone who is thinking of going there do yourself a favour and buy a bodybag for your return journey because they are running out of them down there.
To Vishartan N- Your comment is so crass and stupid that if you had your facts right you would see that the crime in South Africa is not drawn along racial lines. Stick to the sports sites and dont write rubbish on something you have no knowledge of!

Answer 7

Ask your parent to look at those links I send you. It is a bit mature content, but you seem more mature than most of adult I know, so....

Rape is a form of Mind control. The History have been manipulated by secrets societies. They forged the 2nd World War. It was an attempt to this New world Order they talk.

People of Africa is overexploited. There is no more slavery like the old term. But 2 Us $ / day, for me, it's slavery. So people commits crime to eat, and live. The terrrism is created to make war.

Investigate all my links, and come post your comments, and I'm serious, I want you to ask your parents to listen those video with you. They might learn a lot of thing too.

History is not like they learned me in school, and it's all the same now. Invesitigate, especially about Global Education 2000.

Answer 8

So much violence thru apartheid and then suddenly nothing to fight for. You cant just give violence up, then comes the poverty, as for the child rape thats some disgusting **** that im sorry to say black south africans need to admit they are the majority of offenders and they need to tackle that nastiness
Lawlessness derives from corruption, no real consequence of action and a bunch of unemployed black men who are becoming a menace to society.
The Govt and the people have to grab it by the Balls and turn things around

Answer 9

South Africa is in a state of anarchy. This was the result of the majority blacks wresting the government from the white South Africans and found out they are unable to run the country.

Answer 10

First, cite your source. Second: What, we don't have those things here? Third: it's a government, not magic. Do you think our government solves all of our problems? No? Then why do you expect South Africa's government to be able to make everything perfect?
Good point, Vishartan. After all, it was South Africa that was ruled by whites for so long and that had apartheid.