SA: The most violent country not at war?

South Africa is back on the front pages of the world’s media and leading international television news reports again. That should be good news, but as so often for us, it’s not.

Only months after a negative front page article in The Economist South Africa is shamed again. From “man to superman to gunman”, is how this week’s Time magazine front cover portrays Oscar Pistorius... the same man that was included in their list of the world’s 100 most influential people of 2012.

The death of Mozambican taxi driver Mido Marcia, who died in police cells near Johannesburg, after being dragged behind a police van in a brutal assault captured on cellphone video, is only the most recent example of many. The images have been broadcast around the world, fuelling the impression that ours is the most violent country not at war. First we had Andries Tatane who died after a police assault in 2011 and who may have been just a bystander at a protest. Then we had the Marikana massacre of 34 mineworkers by police fire.

This was followed by Anene Booysen’s unspeakable rape and murder and Oscar Pistorius’ admitted killing of his girlfriend in what he says was a terrible accident.  Add to these the murders of farmers, farmworkers and homeless people and the scourge of rape suffered by the very young and the very old – often right here in the Eastern Cape – and you have an international news story.

The common denominator is violence – violence by the strong against the weak, by police against civilians, by men against women and by groups against individuals.

We know that halting this plague will take time and action on myriad different fronts, but we must start where we can now.  The damage caused by apartheid and the armed campaign against it may well play a role. Poverty and the hopelessness it breeds amongst young men who should be setting out to prove themselves in the world of work are part of the problem.  Violence on television and changes to traditional social structures may be contributory factors. 

None of this can be undone by a series of school visits or an occasional rally addressed by the president. It needs science, education, training, social mobilisation and better policing to tame it.   

One immediate contribution should be to restore the moral heart of the police and that can only be done by someone who thinks like a policeman and who has the respect of the entire police force.  We have had a series of politically connected civilians parachuted into the job of police commissioner and we can see that it does not work. The police force needs to be run, inspired and motivated by the best police officer we have to begin to restore the pride of the police and to reverse the culture of impunity within the police service and reduce levels of violence in South Africa.