South African President and leader of the African National Congress(ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa, has vowed to prioritise crime prevention in a country that has been adversely affected by crime, with statistics revealing that the war on crime is slowly being lost.
This past year has seen violent crimes such as kidnappings, rape, murder, tavern shootings, illegal mining, and human trafficking dominate media headlines on a daily basis.
The ANC President was speaking during the declaration stage of the 55th ANC National Conference, which he brought to a close following a hybrid format held across the nine provinces of the country in the early hours of Friday morning.
While other provinces held their own conferences in their respective provinces, Ramaphosa was speaking from the Imvelo Safari Lodge and Conference Centre in Bloemfontein.
He said the newly-elected ANC leadership, which he leads, has committed itself to fighting crime amid an upsurge in crime statistics in recent years.
Ramaphosa urged the recently elected leaders of the ruling party to move far more decisively to implement some of the resolutions coming out of the conference with speed and urgency.
“The security agencies must more effectively tackle rampant crime and corruption. While we welcome the recent deployment of new police recruits, security agencies working with communities must take decisive steps to stamp out kidnappings, gender-based violence and femicide, gangsterism, the drug trade, illegal mining, and the wanton vandalism of public infrastructure,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa’s declaration on the need to fight crime has coincided with the news that millions of victims have been left high and dry due to the fact that South Africa’s 10111 call centres are in a state of disaster, with more than 40% of the ideal number of staff employed at the call centres and more than seven million calls being dropped.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) decried the shocking statistics at the SAPS emergency call centres and the lack of urgency with which this issue is being handled by the ministry of police.
“More than seven million calls to the call centres are being dropped. These statistics do not show the full picture of the inability of call centres to assist callers, as three provinces (the Free State, Limpopo, and Northern Cape) were unable to provide any feedback over the time period requested,” DA shadow minister of police, MP Andrew Whitfield said in a statement.
