Most major media reports usually concern crime or suffering of some sort.
Recent job loss figures shocked everyone and various sectors of society called for a job summit.
A point to consider is how can any society construct an entrepreneurial class where business operates in fear of crime? Criminals murder farmers and shopkeepers who are most often elderly.
Statistically 17 000 people are killed in South Africa annually, it must remain a concern why the stats increase without serious intervention. Example, Grace Mugabe hit some-one and politicians want to complain at the United Nations. Daily a business is robbed on the Cape Flats and nothing happens.
We know that villains roam our streets so few people want to visit restaurants and café’s like in Paris and New York. In a normal society where crime is low, outgoing behavior may be measured safe. In South Africa, to relax at venues distant from home, is stressful, due to anticipated criminality.
Instead of politicians looking for investment from Europe, how about securing the barber in Delft and butchers shop in Crawford from being robbed on a Sunday morning. It is common knowledge that it is the small entrepreneur that employ more semi-skilled compared to multi-national firms.
Already huge resources are utilized to arrest criminals who then escapes penalty due to legal obfuscation. It is doubtful if defense attorneys grasp the meaning of “justice” in its biblical sense.
Similarly, those who feed-off crime must know that they cannot feed and clothe their kids with dishonesty. In time, the kids will curse the parent for feeding them cursed wealth as this is a divine penalty. This includes the corrupt lawyers and law enforcement etc. who collaborate with criminals.
Offering the police serious rewards for crimes solved must be considered as a priority as few people will sacrifice their well-being if the rewards are not worthwhile. Decision makers must be realistic when hiring and empowering law enforcers and stop utilizing futile hypotheses.
In the words of the wise, if we allow criminals to dictate our current and future narrative then our historic struggles against slavery, colonialism and Apartheid and all the painful sacrifice was in vain.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress