Nearly two-thirds of respondents in a survey done in central Johannesburg and Hillbrow believed foreigners were to blame for crime.
Four out of every 10 of the foreigners participating in the study had the same opinion, Institute for Security Studies researcher Ted Leggett said on Tuesday.
The blame should partly be placed on immigration legislation that forbade asylum seekers to work while they were awaiting the finalisation of their applications — which could take up to two years, he said at a seminar in Pretoria.
There was no control over what happened to such people in the meantime. There were no refugee camps where they could go. Leggett suggested that, perhaps, there should be some form of geographical segregation, such as limiting them to certain areas.
He also suggested a ”white list” — a list of countries considered safe democracies and whose nationals should be excluded from asylum seeker status in South Africa. A quarter of the 1 300 respondents in the study were from abroad.
The survey showed foreigners were more likely to be victims in each category of crime.
Of the foreign respondents, 42% — and 77% of the Nigerians — said they had been robbed. Some 62% claimed they were victims of xenophobic attacks, and 43% said a public official had asked them for a bribe.
So-called ”victimless” crimes — where a victim like an illegal alien did not want to come forward — bred corruption, Leggett said.
Their status also prevented illegal immigrants from opening bank accounts, which made them easy prey for robbers.
According to Leggett, the significant shift from burglary to robbery in central Johannesburg and Hillbrow could be related to drug dependence.
A drug like crack cocaine created a strong urgency with users, who did not have time to break in to get hold of money for more.
Drugs also created a market for stolen property, fraudulent documents and corruption.
Thirty percent of all the respondents said they had been robbed in the preceding year. However, only a third had reported the crimes to the police.
”Of those who did not report robbery or burglary, 25% said they did not trust the police.”
Over 60% of all those surveyed thought the police did a good or fair job.
Three-quarters said they would be willing to have their homes searched once a month if it could help to curb crime.
One of the area’s problems was its transient population, with no sense of community, Leggett said. He suggested measures to reduce population density and stabilise the community, creating a core of long-term residents.
Another measure to reduce crime was to clamp down on guns and alcohol. ”Liquor licenses are handed out like candy.”
A by-law could be introduced to prevent people from carrying firearms on their person, like in the United States, he said.
Johannesburg area commissioner Oswald Reddy said that despite many interventions, including the deployment of the metro police and the installation of closed-circuit television cameras, crime had not decreased as significantly as expected.
”If these interventions had been made in any other area, one would have seen a difference overnight.”
He said the community was important in the fight against crime; however their apathy was a matter of grave concern. Another worry was the lack of trust in the police.
Often people gave information to journalists and researchers which they did not give to the police, the commissioner said.
Reddy welcomed the research and said he would consider some of the proposals. He also hoped a similar survey would be done in a year’s time. – Sapa