'Poverty no excuse for crime' - Judge worried that blacks are committing serious offences

A FREE State high court judge has dismissed suggestions that poverty is the reason behind some of the crimes in the country and questioned why whites were not committing serious crimes.

"What worries me is, why are whites not doing it? Why are blacks mostly incriminated in serious crimes," asked Judge Mojalefa Rampai at a public function.

"People then look back and blame poverty. Raping an old woman. where does poverty come into the equation?"

Rampai was speaking at the official opening of the Thabo Mofutsanyana Secure Care Centre in QwaQwa yesterday.

Social development MEC Sisi Ntombela has previously called for child rapists to be castrated. But Rampai said that was unlikely to bring the high levels of rape down.

"That type of punishment will never work. It will also be a violation of human rights. It will be similar to bringing back the death penalty and we have to respect our constitution. Whatever punishment is meted out should not be inhumane."

Rampai, however, admitted that even harsher sentences, such as life, were not enough to deter criminals.

"You get a guy released on parole and a week later he commits a crime and goes back inside.

"You never hear of old men gang-raping a woman, it is mostly young men. We must do more to teach them about the consequences of crime."

Ntombela said the centre, which includes a courtroom, would rehabilitate young offenders to be better human beings.

selebim@sowetan.co.za

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