Almost 80% of murders in South Africa are committed by people who know their victim, and most occur in situations where people have been drinking, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday.
”You have something like … almost 80%, for instance, of murders in the country occur among people who know one another; not among strangers.”
Speaking in Cape Town at a meeting of the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL), he illustrated this point by saying it was unlikely anyone walking down Cape Town’s Adderley Street would be pounced on and killed.
Earlier, members of the NHTL had vowed to help put a stop to high levels of domestic abuse in South Africa, a commitment Mbeki welcomed.
”As I was coming here by car, listening to the radio, they were talking about people setting up websites on the internet just dedicated to this matter of crime.
”The discussion between the callers and the journalists sitting in the studio, almost all of it was about what is the government doing and what are the police doing.
”And I was saying to myself we still haven’t clearly communicated what is actually a very simple message: that rape occurs in houses. There is no police officer in the house. And there can’t be police officers in our houses.
”What was missing from this discussion on the radio was this element: what are we doing as a people against this domestic abuse?”
Mbeki said Cabinet had discussed ”various types of violent crime” during its meeting on Wednesday.
”You can see that a lot of the murder in this country occurs over weekends. Occurs in situations where people are drinking.
”The reason I say almost 80% of murders occur among people who know one another is because they are in that kind of setting. They get drunk, they quarrel, they take out knives and guns and break bottles and so on.”
Mbeki said it was not feasible to post a police officer in every shebeen.
”So what responsibility do we take as a people to confront these challenges. That is why it’s so important here what the traditional leaders are saying.
”That they will ensure that any domestic abuse taking place in the country will be nipped in the bud is a … very important example.
”This challenge, which is a serious challenge of rape, murder, assault… these are very serious crimes that must be confronted,” he said. — Sapa