MARIUS ROODT: How to solve SA’s crime problem - Business Day
Marius Roodt
Crime is one of the biggest obstacles to SA becoming a prosperous and successful country.
Our society is one of the most murderous on Earth, and rates of other crimes — especially violent ones — are high. All communities are affected. Every weekend there are reports of people being killed in gang violence, or of an elderly couple being attacked on their smallholding, or the body of a young woman being found after she went on what she thought would be an innocent date.
South Africans are under siege. In 2024 about 26,000 people were killed in SA, more than 70 a day. By way of comparison, next time you watch a match at Wanderers cricket stadium in Johannesburg and it is a full house, imagine every one of those spectators being killed. That is the scale of violence South Africans face.
Crime has other knock-on effects: it is a serious drain on the economy, preventing the country and its people from reaching their full potential. The breakdown of law and order makes it more difficult for people to build businesses, and investors are more wary of investing in the country. Funds that could be used to expand a business need to be used for security — fortifying a building and paying for security guards and so on. The World Bank estimates that crime costs SA 10% of its GDP annually.
The so-called “construction mafia” has become a growing presence in SA. In 2022 a major German construction company, Strabag, said operating its business in SA was more dangerous and difficult than in Iraq, Afghanistan and other similar countries because of extortion linked to the construction mafia, and related crime.
The human and economic cost to SA of crime is staggering. But it seems the government may finally be taking the crisis seriously. Following the visit by an SA delegation to the White House and President Donald Trump, it seems government has belatedly decided to tackle this crisis. Police minister Senzo Mchunu announced at the end of last month that it was time for the government to tackle SA’s high crime rate “aggressively”.
Should we believe the police minister and government? To answer that question must mean judging them by the results they produce. What would success look like here? When it comes to crime, success is easy to measure — is the crime rate coming down? Are fewer people being murdered? Is it safe for children to play outside their home in Mitchells Plain without their parents having to worry they may get caught in the crossfire of a gang war? Do women feel safe walking home alone at night? Can people live on isolated farmsteads without having to turn them into armed fortresses?
Like any difficult task, SA can turn the problem around only through determination, hard work and proper planning. Talk shops and empty platitudes will not be enough.
These results will be achieved only if serious reforms are made to the SAPS and how it functions. Talk shops will not be enough — there has to be actual reform and hard work to turn the police around. The wheel does not have to be reinvented when it comes to police reform. Much of what worked in the past or has worked abroad can be reintroduced or adapted for SA’s circumstances.
For example, there needs to be a concerted effort to reintroduce police reservists. The number of reservists — who fulfilled both support and actual policing functions — has fallen from about 50,000 in 2011 to only about 3,500 today. There are a number of reasons for this decline, but a revival of the programme could go some way to solving our current crime problem.
The commando system is another programme that we should consider reintroducing. Commandos played a key role in rural safety up until their disbandment by then president Thabo Mbeki in 2003. Just before they were disbanded there were about 50,000 commando members. They played a key role in supporting police operations. At the time, the move to scrap the system was heavily criticised by opposition political parties, security analysts and organised agriculture, and there has never been a serious attempt to fill the vacuum left by the abolition of the commandos.
The devolution of policing is another policy intervention deserving serious consideration. As has been pointed out by numerous observers, SA is simply too diverse — in terms of geography, culture, tradition, population density and terrain, to name just a few factors — to have a “one-size-fits-all” policing solution. Many countries, many that are more homogeneous and easier to govern than SA, have devolved and decentralised their police. And it does seem devolution can work in this country: there is growing evidence that where Cape Town’s Law Enforcement Advancement Plan officers are deployed crime rates are lower.
There are also too few police officers, and they often lack the equipment needed to do their jobs properly. We have all heard stories of police running out of airtime or being unable to attend to a scene because there are not enough working vehicles. Fixing this requires more money — to pay for more police and to ensure their training is rigorous and that they have the equipment they need. But it is clear that the state is struggling to find the resources for this. The Institute for Race Relations’ (IRR) Blueprint for Growth papers describe some ways in which more resources could be made available by reducing waste in public spending.
Doing this is imperative because high crime is one of the main obstacles in the way of higher growth. Once high and sustained economic growth has been achieved, more tax revenue will be generated and more resources will become available to pay for necessities such as policing. Higher levels of economic growth will also mean more people are able to reach their potential through employment and other opportunities that become available to them — many criminals are driven to break the law through desperation or a perceived lack of alternatives, rather than because of some sort of corruption in their soul.
Furthermore, much of the societal breakdown, and thus crime, in SA is due to the despair many people face daily. People lash out in different ways when they feel hopeless, and one of those ways is violence. A growing economy would mean more South Africans wake up every day filled with hope, rather than despair.
The scale of SA’s crime problem is daunting. But it can be turned around. Like any difficult task, SA can turn the problem around only through determination, hard work and proper planning. Talk shops and empty platitudes will not be enough.
Roodt is head of campaigns at the IRR.
https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2025-06-18-marius-roodt-how-to-solve-sas-crime-problem/