EDITORIAL | Diepsloot: policing, governance and social crises are all to blame

The day after Elvis Nyathi was brutally murdered by his neighbours in Diepsloot, the police minister and commissioner were among the first government representatives to arrive. According to his friends and family, the father of four was not a criminal, but might have made the mistake of being undocumented and living in SA. Our constitution is clear that there are no crimes punishable by death in this country of 11 officials languages, nine provinces and laws that allow us to marry who we like. In this same country of the best constitution in the world, Elvis Nyathi’s crime was punished by death.

Police minister Bheki Cele’s blue lights will momentarily illuminate issues that are habitually cast under the strange umbrella of “xenophobic violence”. This is not, of course, our first rodeo. While SA’s poor policing and security apparatus can be blamed for some of the problems in Diepsloot, the list of true issues reads as long as one of chief justice Raymond Zondo’s reports on state capture. But to summarise, migrant workers are paying for governance failings that started in the Jacob Zuma administration and carried on into that of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s without skipping a beat.

The root cause of the police’s failures relate to insufficient resources, poor funding and, to a certain extent, money disappearing through dodgy dealings in Crime Intelligence.

Renewal promises made in each local and national election have proven to be fairy tales, money has been misspent as quickly as Treasury has issued it and the result is communities fighting for scraps. The 2011 census revealed that just 56% of Diepsloot residents were employed, with the average family income R29,400.

The likelihood is that by 2022 the picture would have worsened, just as the lack of jobs, road infrastructure, refuse delivery and housing have in the past 11 years.

Curiously, our government sees this as a policing issue, when the signs of a governance and social crisis are written all over the Diepsloot matter. Yes, citizens have complained about policing, but the root cause of the police’s failures relate to insufficient resources, poor funding and, to a certain extent, money disappearing through dodgy dealings in Crime Intelligence. The result is police stations without vehicles and despondent officers trying to stretch a plaster over a gaping wound. The municipal and provincial governments are not without blame. In every community in Johannesburg the complaints are the same — refuse is collected late or not all, roads are not repaired, electricity supply is unpredictable. And jobs. There simply aren’t enough, leading to questions about the nationality of those who are able to eke out a living in this country.

Ramaphosa has rightly said that those who killed Nyathi should pay. But so too should those who have systematically robbed SA of its hope, promise and ubuntu through corruption and ineptitude. Instead of trying to resolve the problems in Diepsloot from a purely policing standpoint, government would do well to really listen to the complaints and look at its own misdeeds.