/ 7 February 2007

Thousands of anti-crime letters sent to Mbeki

People concerned about crime have sent more than 5 000 letters to President Thabo Mbeki via a website Solidarity set up, the trade union said on Wednesday.

According to spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans, more than 5 000 letters were e-mailed to Mbeki’s office within the first 24 hours of the website’s launch on Tuesday.

”At the moment between 20 and 30 people per minute send letters to the president via the website,” he said.

The website was launched in response to First National Bank suspending a multimillion-rand anti-crime advertising campaign on Friday, reportedly due to pressure from some government and big business quarters.

It involved print, television and radio advertisements and invited members of the public to write to President Thabo Mbeki about their experiences of crime.

Kleynhans said Solidarity had received ”numerous requests” from people who wanted to tell their stories to Mbeki.

Among them is a letter that reads: ”Dear Mr Mbeki, I have experienced 11 incidents of violence and robberies in the past three years, and the crime is now getting out of hand. Please, I beg you to please do something about this. We are all too scared to go out or to live a normal life.”

Another reads: ”I hate South Africa because of the crime. I cannot drive with an open window because I am afraid of being hijacked. I cannot walk from the bedroom to the bathroom without de-activating my alarm. I am a prisoner in a ‘free democratic country’.” — Sapa