Community Justice and Law Enforcement

An alleged thief was stripped and severely beaten by a mob that caught him mugging a woman.

While I personally prefer the due process of law, I've started to tolerate communities that apply some home-grown justice. Is it just me, or has crime become endemic to this country and even its culture? If we haven't been the victim of it, we know people who have. Per Capita, South Africa leads the rape rate, is second with murders and fourth in robberies. Hence, it is no surprise when communities vent their frustrations on these hapless criminal who are clueless yet brazen enough to get caught by innocent bystanders.

If it's not a symptom of poor law enforcement, it's certainly one of a country with a flaccid sense of morality. If murder, rape and robbery are to remain unacceptable in our country, steps will need to be taken. I applaud attempts by government to implement 'moral regeneration' programs, or to decrease the unemployment rate (face it folks, boredom breeds peccancy), but the simple fact is that they need supplementary assistance. On the flip-side, kangaroo courts have a reputation for hasty and often incorrect decision-making.

I have a dream

"I still have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up against each other and erupt into an oasis of crime, grime and home to racial attacks and injustice.
"I have a dream that my children will be repeatedly raped, sodomised and left to fend for themselves long after HIV and Aids have taken me away.
"I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day farmers shall be brutally murdered and workers thrown into a lions' den.
"Let chaos ring from the streets of South Africa - and when this happens we will all join hands and sing: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'
"What have you done with your freedom South Africa?
"Don't let it go to waste, cherish it.
"This Freedom Day message sadly brought to you by Sowetan - the soul truth."