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New types of crime require a new approach to tackling criminality – Ramaphosa

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New types of crime including illicit mining and construction site extortion, kidnappings for ransom and more sophisticated drug manufacturing and smuggling operations are posing a challenge to law enforcement and require new methods to defeat them, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

Ramaphosa, through his weekly newsletter, said that not only does crime cause trauma and instability, it is also an impediment to South Africa’s economic growth and development – an issue which government is ‘transfixed’ with solving.

“During the sixth administration, we established specialised task teams to deal with economic sabotage such as cable theft, the vandalism of power installations and railway lines, illicit mining and extortion in the construction industry.

“These crimes are highly organised and run by syndicates. As such, we have taken a multi-pronged strategy to combat them. Over the past five years, 722 so-called construction mafia suspects have been arrested for extortion at construction sites. Fifty-two have so far been convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from 7 months to 89 years imprisonment.

“Our approach to crime-fighting has had to evolve in response to new types of crime. These include illicit mining and construction site extortion, and, more recently, kidnappings for ransom and more sophisticated drug manufacturing and smuggling operations,” the President said.

“Crime, even if it has not affected us directly, is everybody’s problem. If we continue to work together as government, the business community, labour and civil society, we can restore the safety and security that is critical to economic activity and the creation of jobs,” Ramaphosa said on Monday 5 August.

Honing in on Operation Shanela – government’s multi-sectoral crime fighting strategy – the President said the vital initiative continues to gain momentum.

“Through roadblocks, stop and search operations, foot patrols and business compliance inspections, Operation Shanela’s teams have made important progress in dealing with crime hotspots and organised crime syndicates.

“The update delivered by the SAPS [South African Police Service] last week noted that solid police work over the past year had resulted in more than 700 000 arrests for various crimes, including murder, cash-in-transit robberies, vehicle hijacking and sexual offences.

“Over the past two years more than 20 000 firearms have been seized, including several homemade guns and rifles. More than 3000 firearms were seized in the Western Cape, where gun violence amongst warring gangs is particularly rife,” Ramaphosa said.

He emphasised that through working together, citizens can take back their communities. “If, as communities, we play an active role in supporting the police through the CPFs [community police forum] and other structures, we can indeed take back our homes, our businesses, our communities and our streets from criminals. If we continue the good work started through Operation Shanela, we can beat crime and build a safe and secure country,” Ramaphosa said.

The President’s comments come as the Save South Africa Civic Movement called on Ramaphosa to declare a state of emergency on crime. In a statement on 29 July, the movement said, “it is not a secret that the citizens of this country are living in constant fear due to the ugly face of crime in our country. The criminals in this country have declared war against the citizens including the President. This ‘crime-flood’ is attacking our economy directly and it has the potential to destroy our tourism industry and Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs).

“Our country is in the hands of both the local and foreign criminals and the only strong and strategic way in facing crime head on is through the declaration of state of emergency. It is our view that the state of emergency will bring positive results as we have seen during Covid-19. We are further saying, if the President is serious about ending crime, criminal activities and crime committed by illegal immigrants, he will call for a state of emergency without hesitation,” said Save South Africa Civic Movement spokesperson Tebogo Mashilompane.

“The state of emergency will, one, deal with crime in general within the country. Two, it will be able to silence and get rid of foreign criminals who see South Africa as their playing ground. And this has nothing to do with xenophobia but crime and criminals. We reject any attitude that seeks to suggest that we will encourage xenophobia. This is about our country and nothing else”.

“So, we are saying Mr President, you have a Constitutional duty to protect the citizens. We are further saying; President make use of the powers vested upon you by the Constitution of South Africa and declare a state of emergency on crime once, and for all,” Mashilompane said.

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