EDITORIAL | Since when is crime less important than load-shedding or service delivery?

At around noon on Tuesday, the bullet-riddled body of a suspected Boko Haram gang member was found on the N4 highway near Diamond Hill toll plaza. Police arrived on the scene to find one man dead, another injured.

Police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili said witnesses told of a black VW Polo being shot at by occupants of a silver Mercedes-Benz.

As the latest in several gang member killings in Mamelodi outside Pretoria, this shooting incident seemed to have cemented a new hero — or villain, depending on your vantage point, dubbed John Wick after movie of the same name, about a man who goes on a bloody revenge spree after a mob member beats him to a pulp and leaves his beloved dog, Daisy, dead. The dog had special significance because it arrived as a gift after the death of his wife.

According to the police, the deceased on the N4 was identified as 35-year-old Phillip Given Mnguni, “the number one wanted suspect in our investigations into the Boko Haram activities in Mamelodi”.

Though police crowed about the success in curbing the gangs, the community had another story to tell.

“There have not, in recent times, been reports of gang-related murders in Mamelodi, since the deployment of the task team and visible policing members. This indicates the measures we have put in place to stabilise gang-related crime are starting to bear fruit,” provincial commissioner of Gauteng Lt-Gen Elias Mawela said.

There is an old adage that goes along the lines of: don’t give people what you think they want, give them what they need. At best, listen to what they would like to see happen.

But Mamelodi West community policing forum chairperson Tebogo Mashigo told EWN last week that many in the community hailed “John Wick” as a hero.

“The sentiment shared by a lot of people is that it is long overdue. They are happy with the situation. But as the CPF, we are not happy. Whether they are part of the community or gangsters, it is one death too many and it affects everybody.”

And herein lies the problem.

While politicians have all seized the opportunity to try to get votes through the buzz words service delivery and load-shedding, it seems crime has taken a distant back seat. Way back, so far back it’s not even a blip on a radar.

Except for people like the residents in Mamelodi, in Westbury, on the Cape Flats, or wherever gangs rule and communities have to cower.

There is an adage that goes along the lines of: don’t give people what you think they want, give them what they need. At best, listen to what they would like to see happen.

No doubt, said load-shedding and service delivery deserves top spots, but so does protecting citizens from criminals who hold them hostage — and in the absence of a convincing crime busting system, people such as “John Wick” or any other form of vigilantism will flourish.

Increasingly, communities are stepping up where government falls flat on its face, whether it is through fixing potholes, running water projects or building communities.

It is along these DIY lines that a more sobering, dangerous gap is created — communities trying to rid their neighbourhoods of criminals. And if they can’t do it themselves, they will rush to the support of those seemingly capable of doing it — ignoring that in doing so, they are making the crime circle bigger.

Maybe, just maybe, politicians should have looked past their own noses and taken note of what communities truly need and want, instead of thinking only what could bring them more votes.

Maybe, just maybe, the votes will follow naturally if they speak to the heart of communities, and not treat everyone with a one size fits all attitude.