SA’s deepening crime crisis

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha. Photo: Phill Magakoe

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha. Photo: Phill Magakoe

Published Aug 4, 2015

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Durban - A triple break-in at Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha’s home in a gated complex was proof that South Africa was experiencing a “deepening crime crisis” a former high ranking policeman said.

Dr Chris de Kock, who headed the SAPS crime and information analysis centre for 18 years, said the three break-ins in two months at Masutha’s home was worrying.

He said the fact that one home was targeted three times showed that there was little proactive intelligence led policing being done, and that officers were providing “policing by chance”.

“One just gets the impression that there is no intelligence-focused prevention. It is highly unlikely that the minister’s home was broken into thrice in two months, without any other resident in the vicinity not also becoming a victim of similar crimes. There is a high probability that there is a crime hot spot in this area and that the same group of criminals are the culprits behind this,” he said.

Masutha, a member of the cabinet’s security cluster, has since moved into a hotel as he feels unsafe living in his home.

The department of public works and the police are upgrading the security to his home.

Masutha’s home in the Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof East was broken into three times between May and July.

Masutha’s spokesman, Mthunzi Mhaga, said that on May 23 the minister, who is partially sighted, locked himself in his a bedroom while robbers ransacked his house and took some of his clothes.

Early on July 15, Masutha again locked himself in a bedroom after he was woken by the alarm and heard voices in his house. Mhaga said he could not reach his bodyguards, who had gone home for the night, but got help from the private security company that monitors the alarm. The private security did not find anyone in the house. However, when they left, the burglars struck again.

According to Mhaga, they had been timing the response of the security company and had come back a second time to steal the Samsung curved TV.

Mhaga did not want to answer questions on when the minister was expected to move back to his home.

 

De Kock said that if a member of the country’s security cluster could be targeted three times in two months in a secure complex, what could ordinary South Africans expect.

“One thing is for sure, the average South African can in all probability not afford the kind of security that the minister had, and is now provided with. While he stays in a hotel, South Africans expect that the SAPS will ensure their constitutional right of freedom from fear, since one of the largest proportions of their tax money is spent on policing,” he said.

De Kock said he lived in a townhouse complex in the east of Pretoria, and in the same time period Masutha became a victim, there were 10 attempted and real housebreakings in 40 units.

He called on the police to release crime statistics quarterly so that communities were made aware of crime trends in their neighbourhoods, and together with local law enforcement, could act against it.

“South Africans should be empowered to keep the police accountable for crime reduction at all levels, since they had failed in this over the last few years. They had lowered reduction targets twice over the last 10 years. Other government departments, parastatals, and especially local government, can’t play their role in crime prevention without regular updates of the crime statistics or information,” he said.

Police ministry spokesman Musa Zondi had not responded to questions from the Daily News by deadline.

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