Stabilising crime 'not enough'

2003-06-10 19:17

Cape Town - Winning the war against crime takes a lot more than stabilising crime levels, Democratic Alliance Chief Whip Douglas Gibson said on Tuesday.

Speaking during debate on the safety and security budget vote in the national assembly, he said government "seems very satisfied to claim that crime levels in the country have stabilised".

"This makes a mockery of the unacceptably high level at which it has remained for a number of years, and clouds the fact that the goal is not to stabilise crime, but to eradicate it.

"At the very least, the criminals must pay for their deeds, but unsolved crime and unsuccessful prosecutions are increasing and not declining," he said.

Winning the war against crime urgently required a full-scale effort to reduce, dramatically and visibly, criminal behaviour once and for all.

"Such an endeavour may be too much of a tall order for some, but anything less means that the lives of South Africans continue to be placed at mortal risk on a daily basis."

On 2000 police statistics showing the number of murders as 21 683, Gibson said the Medical Research Council put the figure at 32 482.

"If the police say only 21 000 were murdered, what has happened to all of the cases which should be investigated? Does this mean that the police are not pursuing an additional twelve thousand murderers?

"Are they unaware of the fact that these murders have taken place? All of this is unconscionable, and the minister needs to explain it to the House today," he said.

- SAPA