In a hard-hitting analysis, the Institute for Security Studies has lambasted the ministerial report on which the Military Veterans Bill is based.
Doping is banned at the Soccer World Cup but the South African justice system is on steroids, with its special courts acting swiftly against crime.
Researchers have dismissed fears of a massive rise in human trafficking for the Soccer World Cup, saying NGOs could be trying to win extra resources.
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/ 21 January 2010
Researchers and the police trade union have warned that the South African Police Service’s drive to lure back 50 000 retired officers could founder.
Police National Commissioner Bheki Cele’s argument in favour of a moratorium on issuing crime statistics is “not convincing”, according to the ISS.
Race is one of the powerful factors driving voters in an election, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies said on Tuesday.
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/ 28 January 2009
Burundian peace facilitator, Jan van Eck, died of a heart attack on Tuesday at the Constantia Medi Clinic in Cape Town, the SABC reported.
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/ 3 December 2008
Government’s crime prevention strategy has failed in part because of its lack of understanding of the relationship between crime and its causes.
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/ 18 September 2008
Political analysts are divided over the fate of President Thabo Mbeki ahead of a watershed ANC meeting this weekend.
Sex work should be decriminalised and regulated by the same labour legislation as other sectors of the economy, a report recommended on Thursday.
The Western Cape has been singled out by police as having one of the highest incidences of child murder.
Two weeks of anti-foreigner violence in South Africa have highlighted the growing disconnect between a public impatient for change and a governing party that claims a divine right to rule. Although there is little prospect of the African National Congress (ANC) losing next year’s elections, genuine signs of anger have emerged during the crisis.
The South African government came under pressure on Monday to deal with the aftermath of deadly anti-foreigner violence that has displaced an estimated 35Â 000 people. As thousands headed for the borders, a growing humanitarian crisis was developing domestically with crowds of foreigners sheltering at police stations.
Although crime levels were lower, most South Africans thought crime was on the increase and had lower confidence in the police, said a survey by the Institute for Security Studies. ”Since 1998 house breaking and burglary has been the most common crimes that South Africans report,” said researcher Antoinette Louw.
It is possible that the crime-fighting Scorpions may not be incorporated into the South African Police Service by June, African National Congress national executive committee Siphiwe Nyanda said on Thursday. He was speaking at a seminar hosted by the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
South Africa has steadfastly refused to join in the chorus of criticism of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe despite paying an ever higher price for the crisis across its northern border. As Zimbabwe goes to the polls this weekend, analysts believe South African President Thabo Mbeki may feel little enthusiasm towards Mugabe but will never embarrass his fellow leader.
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/ 26 February 2008
There was no dictator in Zimbabwe, just unwelcome outside interference, its ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo said in Pretoria on Tuesday. Britain and the United States were financially backing the opposition because they wanted President Robert Mugabe out of power over his land reforms, Moyo said.
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/ 25 February 2008
Tourist guides from across Gauteng gathered under a hot marquee for the International Tourist Guides’ Day at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg last week — and, for a change, were on the receiving end of an educational tour. "We are who we are through others," were the words of Lungi Morrison, of the Gauteng Tourism Authority.
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/ 24 February 2008
The African National Congress has ordered an audit of all empowerment deals and tenders that were received by its investment company, Chancellor House, media reports said on Sunday. Earlier this month, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that Chancellor House would exit two multibillion-rand contracts with Eskom.
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/ 3 February 2008
The United States of Africa is one of few concrete plans on which African leaders agreed as they struggled with issues of peacekeeping and political disputes at this week’s continental summit. The problem is, so many countries want to be Washington, DC, and presidential candidates are already rumoured.
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/ 18 January 2008
There is a ”rising tide” of corruption in the South African Police Service [SAPS], Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille alleged on Friday. ”Minister of Safety and Security [Charles Nqakula] and the leadership of the SAPS need to find the political will to acknowledge the grave threat that police corruption poses to our country,” she said in her weekly newsletter.
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/ 7 December 2007
Not only are robbers hitting more houses, they now prefer to strike when residents are at home, the Institute for Security Studies said on Friday. ”It’s fairly obvious that this is what’s happening,” said researcher Johan Burger. ”There seems to be a correlation between the decrease in burglary figures and the increase … in the house-robbery figure,” he said.
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/ 3 November 2007
The police are obliged to investigate fraud and corruption charges against Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel if a criminal complaint has been brought, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said on Friday. This would be necessary, even if the complaint was the latest salvo in the police’s ongoing spat with the Scorpions, said senior researcher Jake Moloi.
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/ 1 November 2007
Corruption-related complaints about the South African Police Service surged dramatically after its Anti-Corruption Unit was shut down in 2002, according to research by the Institute for Security Studies. An average of 43 cases were lodged each year between 1997 and 2002. This shot up to an average of 125 cases each year between 2002 and 2006.
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/ 1 November 2007
A failed British bid to exclude Robert Mugabe from an upcoming European summit played straight into the hands of the Zimbabwean president, who gained instinctive support from his African peers, analysts said. Portugal said on Wednesday that invitations would be issued to all African states who would be free to decide themselves on the composition of their delegation.
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/ 1 November 2007
Tackling crime required community involvement and could not merely be solved with more police officers, a seminar on policing in Pretoria heard on Thursday. ”Because crime is a social problem, [there] has to be a social solution, involving more players than just the police,” Temba Mathe of the National Secretariat for Safety and Security said.
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/ 31 October 2007
Closing specialised police units may result in a loss of informer networks, expertise and team spirit, a seminar on policing in South Africa heard on Wednesday. ”To destroy this is a very serious thing that needs to be thought through,” said a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, Johan Burger.
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/ 21 October 2007
China’s push into Africa is prompting growing interest over Beijing’s motives in the world’s poorest continent, with opinion divided over who stands to benefit most. Speaking at the launch this week of a China research programme run by the Johannesburg-based South African Institute of International Affairs, its chief academic said China had ”changed the game of development”.