[Some excellent statistics in this media release. This is one mother of a violent country. Jan]
The recent killings of four South African policemen and eight gangsters in a Wild West-type shootout in a Johannesburg suburb made international headlines. It was reported on CNN, BBC and in the world"s press. After a five-hour siege at a house, fourteen members of a crime syndicate eventually surrendered to the police. The area was compared to a war zone, and Johannesburg was "under siege" according to some press reports. The drama started after twenty armed gunmen stormed a supermarket in a western suburb. Both criminal syndicates and the storming of supermarkets have become common phenomena in the new South Africa, and the killings revealed how fragile is the line between life and death for policemen in contemporary South Africa.
It is now well-known throughout the world that South Africa has become its crime capital. Crime has become a scourge, and a corollary of this rise is the dissolution and dissipation of the South African Police Service. Whatever one said about South Africa"s past, there was a reasonable level of law and order. All that has gone. Baby rapes, hijacking, and cash heists are other new phenomena which only appeared as crime categories after the present government took power. |