Vulnerable and poor are invisible victims of crime

The Times Editorial: Politicians are wont to tell South Africans that we are over-fixated on crime; that the police will win the war against those who seek to harm us.

But there are times when the vulnerable among us - who stand out because of their age, gender and sexual orientation - are the victims of the most horrific crimes.

A four-year-old girl is raped while a three-day search for her is carried out. A seven-year-old boy is raped by a neighbour who is arrested, but his docket is lost and the case is postponed. Every day, the alleged rapist walks past the boy's house, threatening him.

Then there is the murder of a 17-year-old woman who is allegedly killed by nine men because she is gay.

All these crimes happened in Khayelitsha, a vast, patched-together township that is home to more than 300000 people.

The Treatment Action Campaign district organiser Lumkile Fizile says: "It's like they have neglected Khayelitsha - perhaps it is because it is a poor black area ... Rape and crime is such a problem here."

Fizile is, in all likelihood, correct in his assessment. The poorer the area - with all the attendant social problems such as unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse - the more likely it is that crime will not only escalate but escape notice.

For, however much we would like to believe otherwise, crime seems to matter far more when it happens to middle-class South Africans who have the means to make known their disquiet about it.

Today, when different organisations march through Khayelitsha to protest against crime, chances are that it will not make much difference.

The real change can only come when politicians and police say that all South African lives matter equally - and mean it.