Over years I have written many letters pleading for the return of the death penalty.
Monday 5th June, I attended a “Missing Children” program in Athlone as a guest of ward Cllr Rashid Adams. I met with mothers of missing, raped and murdered kids and I was traumatized by the misery of mothers crying in the audience.
Across South Africa we witness the result of not having the death penalty.
We have the highest rate of murder in the world and could be measured the most dangerous nation if not for the war in Syria. Besides the annual average murder rate of 16 000 over the decade, South Africa boasts the highest rate of child rape, rape in general, drug abuse, house breaking and so on.
More people were killed in South Africa last year compared to the war in Yemen where bombs are dropped from fighter jets. What our media is not saying is that South Africa is actually engaged in a low-scale war where heavy artillery is not being used but the death rate is higher than during the cold war between Russia and America. More people are killed locally than in most global civil wars.
Everyday citizens are massacred on a scale worse than an actual war. Fewer people were killed during the border wars between the Apartheid Military and ANC during the liberation struggle. South Africa experiences a “Sharpeville massacre” daily as 52 people are killed on average.
What is apparent is that our national political leaders do not regard these increasing rate of murder as important. Since these leaders enjoy state security, guards and so on, they do not care about a nation where violent crime is measured normal. Has our nation been betrayed by its leaders?
I propose the Constitution be amended so that a federal system of government be instituted where each province can take accountability for its own law enforcement and judiciary like in the USA.
We can then implement the death penalty for child rape and murder etc. in the Western Cape and other provinces can make their own decision. The national government could exercise overarching control via an agency similar to the FBI in the USA.
In the words of the wise, talk is futile, action is required.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress