Ramaphosa: Our new struggle

2008-08-28 20:04

Johannesburg - It was time to organise the country's people for another struggle, this time against crime, businessman Cyril Ramaphosa said in Midrand on Thursday.

The country's democracy and constitution emerged from a struggle to overcome evil. "And we did overcome," Ramaphosa said at the conclusion of a four-day Action for a Safe Society convention attended by representatives of almost 300 organisations.

He said: "The last decade and more has demonstrated that we are able to work together to build our economy, to provide for the most basic needs of millions of our people, to make unprecedented advances in access to health care and education.

"We have been able, working together, to play a leading role in the reconstruction of our continent and in forging a better world.

"We have not lost that capacity. But we are called upon now to rediscover that capacity as we turn our attention to tackling crime and to building a safe, peaceful and stable society.

"Despite our best efforts, people do not feel safe and so many have been victims of crime that everyone feels a victim."

Harness people's determination

Ramaphosa said the way to defeat violent crime was not to descend into fear but to harness the determination of the country's people to overcome.

"It is time to organise our people for struggle once again. It is time to find one another's humanity and the common aspirations which will forge alliances between strangers and between unlikely allies.

"It is time to rediscover the leadership strengths amongst the ordinary people of our country and to ask them to stand up and be counted."

Ramaphosa said efforts to eradicate the legacy of apartheid were being undermined by violence and criminality.

"It undermines our ability to build a better life - for what is a better life if it is not safe?" he asked.

"We are working to build a united nation at peace with ourselves and the world, and we cannot allow criminal violence to divert us from our path."

Past political violence

Action for a Safe Society project leader Roelf Meyer said the campaign was about achieving specific, deliverable targets within the next three to five years.

A charter developed by the convention notes that crime and violence remained obstacles to rectifying the socio-economic climate essential for a better life for all.

While it acknowledges that it is important to fix the criminal justice system, it also concedes that an overburdened system will not be able to provide justice for all.

The charter requested the organisers to ensure the required mechanism and capacity were in place to implement the plans developed at the convention, secure funding and report back within 75 days on talks with government and civil society organisations not represented the forum.

Describing the problem of violent crime as "complex", Meyer said research indicated that just one of the factors found to play a role was the political violence of the past.

Institute for a Democratic South Africa (Idasa) crime prevention research leader Barbara Holtmann said children who witnessed violence when they were growing up sometimes became violent when they grew up.

She said people used violence to deal with conflict, anger, isolation, grief and political tension.

- SAPA