South Africa’s shocking crime statistics painted a picture of a police force that seemed unable to do its job effectively or at least improve its performance while South African workers and citizens in general bore the brunt‚ reflecting governments’ disinterest in protecting them‚ Andre Venter‚ spokesperson of trade union UASA‚ said.
“Not only are South Africans the victims of often violent crime‚ but they are also affected financially as they are forced to pay double for almost everything their hard earned taxes should have been applied for in the first instance. Just think about issues such as education‚ health care‚ personal safety and security‚ etc.
“The result is that workers‚ who find it increasingly difficult to survive financially‚ now have to fork out additional money to obtain the services of private security companies to keep them safe. Unfortunately‚ the majority of them cannot afford to pay for such services‚ which leaves them at the mercy of criminal elements.
“Besides paying private security firms to do the police’s work‚ decent schooling for their children is an expense that very few can afford. The result is insufficient education‚ which leads to the perpetual circle of poverty we see repeated in poor families and which may add directly to the increasing crime figures.”
Venter said that as long as “we have a government which seems to be comfortable with mediocrity in terms of service delivery in general and no clear signals that it is taking a firm stance in respect of rooting out crime and corruption‚ crime statistics will be on the increase”.
“It is time that South Africans mobilise against these unacceptable levels of service delivery and demand accountability from government‚ starting with president (Jacob) Zuma‚ demanding that he speaks out against all crime‚ and not only when members of the police force are attacked‚” Venter said.
RDM News Wire.
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