BARNEY MTHOMBOTHI: Crime shows we have the world's most useless government
'The word "crime" does not even begin to describe the scary phenomenon gripping this country'
EXTRACT
Neighbouring countries, for instance, which are much poorer and whose citizens have far less opportunities, have less crime. Incidentally, they also keep their surroundings much cleaner than we do.
Fact is we have the most useless government known to man. They can hardly run a tap. Anarchy would be preferable. At least we wouldn't have to pay for it. We've even stopped blaming the government. We don't hold it to account anymore. It's a waste of breath.
The primary responsibility of any government or state is the protection of life and property of its citizens. That's its raison d'être. Everything else pales into insignificance. Judged by that yardstick, this government has been a hopeless failure. It's almost as though it doesn't exist. The citizens are basically left to their own devices. And so the crime figures released by police minister Bheki Cele this week are no surprise at all. He shouldn't have bothered. He wasn't telling us anything new. He should probably only let us know when the situation improves. Right now it is prohibitively bad, and the message hasn't changed since as long as we can remember. It's a stuck record. The word "crime" does not even begin to describe the scary phenomenon gripping this country. Cele is quoted as saying: "It was a bad day for me to present these stats to cabinet." Well, he's lucky he just had a bad day. Many of his compatriots don't see the day. Fifty-seven of them will be murdered before...
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