Cyril Ramaphosa - SA is proving we can beat crime if we all work together

Crime and violence have become so common in our country that many South Africans often despair of us ever stopping it. It is no surprise that every time we hear another story of a robbery or a murder or a rape, we find ourselves asking why nothing can be done to tackle crime.

A recent update by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on Operation Shanela should give us encouragement that the fight against crime is gaining momentum.

Operation Shanela, which was launched last year, is a high-density initiative to enhance visible policing and to find wanted suspects, particularly those accused of murder and sex crimes. 

Importantly, Operation Shanela is a multisectoral crimefighting strategy. It is driven by the SAPS with the support of the South African National Defence Force, national and provincial traffic authorities, metro police departments, the Department of Home Affairs, the South African Revenue Service and the National Prosecuting Authority. 

It draws heavily on collaboration with community policing forums (CPFs) and community patrollers, and works with private security companies. 

Through roadblocks, stop-and-search operations, foot patrols and business compliance inspections, Operation Shanela’s teams have made important progress in dealing with crime hotspots and organised crime syndicates. 

The update delivered by the SAPS last week noted that solid police work over the past year had resulted in more than 700,000 arrests for various crimes, including murder, cash-in-transit robberies, vehicle hijacking and sexual offences. 

Over the past two years more than 20,000 firearms have been seized, including several homemade guns and rifles. More than 3,000 firearms were seized in the Western Cape, where gun violence among warring gangs is particularly rife. 

The SAPS has been working closely with the banking sector around the bombing of cash machines, arresting a number of suspects in Gauteng and in the Free State. 

Beyond the trauma and instability it causes in communities, crime is also an impediment to economic growth and development. 

During the sixth administration, we established specialised task teams to deal with economic sabotage such as cable theft, vandalism of power installations and railway lines, illicit mining and extortion in the construction industry. 

These crimes are highly organised and run by syndicates. As such, we have taken a multipronged strategy to combat them. Over the past five years, 722 so-called construction mafia suspects have been arrested for extortion at construction sites. Fifty-two have so far been convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from seven months’ to 89 years’ imprisonment. 

Read more: City of Cape Town and private sector join forces against construction mafia

Operations continue into the disruption of illicit mining activities, including working with mining houses and the Department of Mineral Resources to seal abandoned mine shafts. 

Our approach to crimefighting has had to evolve in response to new types of crime. These include illicit mining and construction site extortion, and, more recently, kidnappings for ransom and more sophisticated drug manufacturing and smuggling operations. 

The successes of Operation Shanela have shown the benefits of multisectoral collaboration and the value of specialised task teams. The SAPS and all stakeholders involved in Operation Shanela are to be congratulated for this sterling work. 

Crime, even if it has not affected us directly, is everybody’s problem. If we continue to work together as government, the business community, labour and civil society, we can restore the safety and security that is critical to economic activity and the creation of jobs. 

If, as communities, we play an active role in supporting the police through the CPFs and other structures, we can indeed take back our homes, our businesses, our communities and our streets from criminals. If we continue the good work started through Operation Shanela, we can beat crime and build a safe and secure country. DM

This is the President’s weekly letter to the nation, released on Monday.