There is no polite way to say this. South Africa is not just dealing with a crime problem, we are a violent society.
Until we confront that truth, no police unit, private security company or well-meaning task force will be enough to stem the bloodshed.
The latest wave of kidnappings has stripped away whatever illusions we still had about the nature of our crisis. It is no longer just about money and survival as a casualty of poverty and inequality.
Victims are being raped, sexually assaulted and humiliated on camera to force ransom payments from their loved ones. These are not outliers. According to Col Ismael Dawood of the national anti-kidnapping unit, this grotesque tactic is on the rise — and the perpetrators are learning that it works.
The recent crime statistics from the South African Police Service prove that we have a societal violence problem more than other forms of crime — which the police can combat, as there was a decline in most crimes, though our crime rate is still alarmingly high.
The biggest percentage drop in crime statistics came from business robbery, heists and hijackings, while rape and sexual assault increased and the murder rate remained pretty much the same.
This is what we have become: a society where abductors see sexual violence as just another tool of negotiation. A society where women pray while being raped and men are sexually violated and used as pawns. This is a society where these images are not hidden in the shadows, they are sent directly to parents, siblings and spouses in a bid to use violence to extort money from relatives of victims.
And it’s working. Without proper mechanisms to combat such crimes and to give the public confidence that crime-fighting authorities have this under control, the criminals will continue to win using such vile methods.
The reality is that most South Africans do not have confidence that the SAPS is capable of preventing such crimes, or that when such crimes occur, it has the capacity to rescue the victims and bring the perpetrators to book.
Reported kidnappings have more than tripled in a decade, from 5,000 in 2014 to more than 17,000 last year. In the first quarter of this year alone, kidnappings increased by 6.8%, but the numbers only tell part of the story. The true horror lies in how we’re adapting to it.
We’re becoming numb — outraged for a moment, then back to scrolling. Traumatised, but not mobilised. All the while, criminals become emboldened, smarter, refining their criminal activity unabated.
The other question that should concern us is, who do these proceeds of crime actually fund? Do we have a crime intelligence crisis and perhaps a national security crisis where kidnappings are used to fund terrorist cells within our own borders, as has been the modus operandi of such players in other regions?
We owe it to ourselves and our future generations to stem the tide and actively work against violence and moral degeneration
We need to stop acting surprised when violence escalates. We live in a country where domestic abuse is rampant, where rape is endemic, where murder statistics rival those of war zones, and where children grow up witnessing brutality before they can even write their names.
What we are seeing now with kidnappings morphing into acts of sexual terror is not a deviation but rather an evolution of our unresolved violence as a society. It is easy to praise the efforts of dedicated police officers like Col Dawood, or to marvel at the support of private companies such as Vision Tactical, who have assisted in dozens of rescue missions. But heroism is no substitute for strategy.
One well-equipped task team is not enough to protect a nation that is fraying at the seams. We need more than operations. We need consistent police action and intelligence-driven action that results in criminals being successfully prosecuted and removed from society.
We also need introspection as people. The criminals who commit these atrocities are members of our communities and known to family members and friends, but morality has lost its value in our country, and we all just look the other way. South Africans must stop pretending this is someone else’s problem.
Violence lives in our homes, in our schools, in our politics, in our language. It lives in the way we resolve conflict, in the way we treat women, in the way we fail to protect the vulnerable.
This is the point of no return. Either we begin to take seriously the task of reshaping our social fabric, from how we raise boys, to how we deal with trauma and to how we teach respect and empathy, or we will continue to descend further into moral and civic collapse.
The government must lead. Not with platitudes, but with policy, resources and urgency. A special commission must be convened to understand and dismantle the systems that allow violence to thrive not just in crime syndicates, but in everyday life.
Anti-violence education must be embedded in schools, while rehabilitation and mental health services must be drastically expanded and bolstered to support fragile and vulnerable communities.
Real consequences and accountability must become part of our social experience, so we feel justice taking place in line with law and order. The National Prosecuting Authority needs to step up and do better at ensuring convictions and justice against criminals are attained.
This cannot be about headlines and hashtags. It must be about rebuilding the soul of a society that has lost its grip on the sanctity of life. Because if we don’t and if we continue to look away, then we too are complicit in the ongoing moral and criminal decay in our country — not just in the failure to stop violence, but in creating a society where violence makes sense, verbally, emotionally, physically or otherwise.
That, more than any ransom, is the true cost we are paying as a people. We owe it to ourselves and our future generations to stem the tide and actively work against violence and moral degeneration.
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