Last week, three DA MPs were attacked as they drove away from an oversight visit to the Philippi police training academy in Cape Town. Three young men smashed the car’s windows with bricks as they tried to hijack it.
Ian Cameron, chair of the portfolio committee on police, was one of the three MPs. He had a gun, and he fired at the assailants. Two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, have been arrested while the police investigate cases of attempted murder and attempted hijacking. The older suspect was detained when he went to hospital for medical help shortly after the attack.
You can imagine how violent this attack was. One of the MPs, Nicholas Gotsell, suffered a wound to the head and a fractured skull. Cameron apparently requires dental surgery.
Think about this: in South Africa, a senior MP has to carry a gun when he visits a police training academy as part of his work. That’s just not the way a normal country works.
Think about this: three young people who should have been in school waited, armed with bricks, to ambush a random car.
Think about this: if I am an investor considering putting money into South Africa and sending people to set up the operation, what does this crime tell me about their safety and security? What am I to say about running my business in a country where such lawlessness flourishes?
Think about this: that incident made the headlines only because the victims were three prominent politicians. Thousands more hijackings go unremarked: in just the first three months of this year a horrific 4,533 took place across the country; in other words, about 50 vehicle owners a day. Fifty. Every single day.
This is lawlessness on a grand scale, but it has become normalised. We hardly ever talk about hijackings any more, or murders, or rape (except when we put on our suits and “celebrate” Women’s Day in a country where a staggering 10,000- 11,000 cases of rape have been enrolled every three months in the past year).
The state has long lost the fight against crime. We are watching as brazen lawlessness takes even firmer root
South Africans are not safe in their homes, in their streets, in their neighbourhoods. Women walking to the bus stop, going to the post office, walking from the taxi, are not safe. The state has long lost the fight against crime. We are watching as brazen lawlessness takes even firmer root.
Read the signs. The anti-immigrant group Operation Dudula has for weeks — in some instances months — been blocking foreign nationals from accessing health-care services at state hospitals.
These ignorant groups have been advancing their illegal campaigns in broad daylight, at state institutions, and have generally escaped punishment for the lawlessness and intimidation that endanger the lives of patients and staff.
Operation Dudula is emboldened now. In parts of the country, it is visiting schools and instructing teachers to expel “immigrant” pupils.
Flouting of the law is entrenched in every nook and cranny of society. Principals sell teaching positions for R10,000 and for sex; government employees openly try to bribe journalists.
This week, we learnt from News24 that former police minister Bheki Cele made 10 missed calls to tenderpreneur Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala on May 9, five days before he was arrested on attempted murder charges. The incumbent minister of police, Senzo Mchunu — now suspended — has also been accused of having dealings with Matlala. This is lawlessness.
Lawlessness is followed by anarchy. Anarchy and chaos’s twin is collapse. Business, and every democracy-loving South African, should do everything necessary to stop the spread of this lawless culture. South Africa’s survival depends on it.
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