Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi lives with violent crime on his doorstep in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria, but he is spared due to protection by armed guards, the Sunday Times reported.
The report said most people who live on Selebi’s street have been victims of crime, and residents live in constant fear of attack. Selebi, however, is protected by two armed guards.
Police statistics show that since 2001, when Selebi moved into the area, armed robberies reported to the nearest police station have doubled.
”Criminals have so little respect for police that they think nothing of committing crime right in front of Jackie Selebi. There’s a constant police presence at his house as they change guards and drive up and down, but the criminals are blasé; they don’t care,” said Selebi’s neighbour Dave Smith.
His wife, Ina, said it is no help having the protected police commissioner next door, as his guards are ”not interested” in other residents. ”They get paid to protect him, not to protect everybody else,” she said.
Meanwhile, another report in the Sunday Times said at least seven armed robberies were reported in President Thabo Mbeki’s Pretoria neighbourhood, Arcadia, in one month.
Diplomatic missions have also not been spared from criminal attacks. The report said at least seven embassies have had staff and, in some cases, their main residence or offices attacked.
In his State of the Nation address at the opening of Parliament in Cape Town on Friday, Mbeki said ”we cannot erase that which is ugly and repulsive and claim the happiness that comes with freedom if communities live in fear, closeted behind walls and barbed wire, ever anxious in their houses, on the streets and on our roads, unable freely to enjoy our public spaces”.
”While we have reduced the incidence of most contact crimes, the annual reduction rate with regard to such categories as robbery, assault and murder is still below the 7% to 10% that we had targeted. And the abuse of women and children continues at an unacceptable level,” Mbeki said.
During 2007, among other measures, more effort will be put into improving the functioning of the country’s courts, to help clear case backlogs, he said, and the personnel of the South African Police Service is expected to be expanded to more than 180 000 within three years.
However, opposition parties and other commentators criticised Mbeki’s take on crime in the speech.
It contained nothing to ”make the criminals quake in their boots”, said Janine Myburgh, president of the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said: ”I must confess to being disappointed about the way in which President Mbeki dealt with the crisis of crime. When the country is crying out for empathy and passionate commitment to fighting crime, he gives us bureaucratic lists of things to be done.
”While I believe crime received more space in the address because of direct public pressure, it remains to be seen whether the proposed steps and improvements announced will yield positive results.”