The other night we learnt from Checkpoint that some of the police who have turned into criminals have actually spoken out to justify their criminal activities as being a desperate means to provide for their families because, while assisting the police in maintaining law and order, functioning as reservists, come month end, the police receive their salaries while they do not get a dime.
That is one group of criminals. South Africans.
The other groups of criminals are Mozambicans and Nigerians who specialise in human trafficking and also, for Nigerians, drug trafficking and other highly organised and sophisticated online financial scams. Zimbabweans specialise in cash-in-transit heists, rapes and cross-border car hijackings. Basotho nationals terrorise communities with their engagements in what has come to be known as Zama-zamas.
So, defence minister Thandi Modise was spot-on in her proclamation that most of the syndicates operating in the country are not South Africans. Can she do anything about it? I don't know, but I assume it is the minister of police, minister of home affairs and related government entities that must figure out the way forward.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa, Midrand
The crime conundrum facing SA
The other night we learnt from Checkpoint that some of the police who have turned into criminals have actually spoken out to justify their criminal activities as being a desperate means to provide for their families because, while assisting the police in maintaining law and order, functioning as reservists, come month end, the police receive their salaries while they do not get a dime.
That is one group of criminals. South Africans.
The other groups of criminals are Mozambicans and Nigerians who specialise in human trafficking and also, for Nigerians, drug trafficking and other highly organised and sophisticated online financial scams. Zimbabweans specialise in cash-in-transit heists, rapes and cross-border car hijackings. Basotho nationals terrorise communities with their engagements in what has come to be known as Zama-zamas.
So, defence minister Thandi Modise was spot-on in her proclamation that most of the syndicates operating in the country are not South Africans. Can she do anything about it? I don't know, but I assume it is the minister of police, minister of home affairs and related government entities that must figure out the way forward.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa, Midrand