The UCA Report on Murder in South Africa reveals that according to the official statistics, in the 44 years from 1950 to 1993, there was an average of 7036 murders per year. This covered the turbulent strife of the apartheid years of warfare, conflict, terrorism, riots and repression.Criminals released from jail early. Poor clearance rates by police, poor rates of successful prosecution and short sentences all lead to reduced fear of (or confidence in) the criminal justice system and a recidivism rate of about 94%.
However, in the first eight years (of peace) of the new democratic dispensation, under the ANC, an average of 24 206 murders were committed each year. However, if the Interpol statistics are accepted, then the murder rate in South Africa during the ANC years has averaged 47 882 per year.
Today's BBC reports that Desmond Tutu wonders what happened.
He is worried about crime - the high murder rate, the rape of children, and the cold-blooded, gratuitous killing of motorists whose cars are hijacked.Since the ANC - before it was finally able gain power - routinely murdered people who opposed it, I would say that the example of the past lives on in the present.
So are the police fighting organized crime, or even fighting crime generally? No, they are busy created more unarmed victims who will be more readily killed for their cars. It is much easier to harass law-abiding citizens than it is to track hardened criminals.... who won't serve much time anyway.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.And what does the gun-banning left think will happen when you disarm the law-abiding people? [hat tip A Tangled Web]
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
[from 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings' by Kipling]