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That there is a serious crime problem in this country has never been contested by anyone in Government, least of all in the entire criminal justice system.

What is contested, however, is the notion paraded all over in the media that South Africa is sliding into a hopeless situation of lawlessness which has overwhelmed the entire spectrum of law-enforcement agencies, particularly the Police. Hysteria, exaggerations and the hurling of insults at the Government are not going to help redeem the situation. Nor will political point-scoring take us anywhere nearer the desired end other than just providing short-term satisfaction to those politicians who have adopted this stance.

Yes, we do have a problem on our hands. But it is simply not true that the situation is out of control. It is not true that the criminal justice system is not working. The Court Process Project and numerous other initiatives that we have launched in the last two years are eloquent expression of our commitment to giving reality to the concept of an integrated criminal justice system - the first ever in the history of this country.

It is equally not true that the Police are overwhelmed by the situation. On the contrary, the Police are on top of the situation. Proof of that, in very simple terms, is the fact that the prisons of this country and police holding cells are bursting at the seams as a result of our National Crime Combating Strategy.

As South Africans we need a more sober assessment of our situation, the kind of self-assessment that will lead us to the conclusion where we begin to define in concrete terms what roles each of us must play to bring about normality in our society. We need a change of mindset and stereotypes and I am referring in this instance to those of us who sit on these benches in this Parliament. Already numerous South Africans have come forward and offered help in various ways - advice, finance, Information Technology equipment etc. They did so and continue to do so because they are inspired by the simple truism that South Africa is their country and that no saviour from up above, or the police just by themselves, will redeem the situation. There are those of us, however, who are still content to take a position in the pavilion, under the inscription. "The onlooker sees most of the game", and from that position of non-committed spectatorship hurls abuse at the Government. It does not help to spectate. Get involved in the act of your own liberation from crime.

Business Against Crime has been outstanding in this regard. On behalf of the cluster I would like to thank them most profoundly. But, like they would say in Xhosa, umthi ouengwenye uyakhuwelwa ngamakhwenkwe; I would like to take the matter further and say the handiest instrument in the fight against crime is the improvement of the socio-economic situation of our historically deprived communities which, to this day, continue to be the mainstay of all kinds of violent crime. The townships - the creation of apartheid system - remain ready incubators to hatch crime. Poverty and unemployment have forced some of them in some areas to collude with criminals in return for financial gains. The ideal would be for the industrial and commercial houses of this country to take a bold stand and say, alongside with Government, we are going to invest and create jobs in these historically economically depressed areas.

That single move by the private sector, whilst setting the scene for outsiders to invest in our country, must, at the same time, address one other crime related problem, i.e. the moral degeneration in our midst.

Issued by Ministry of Safety and Security

19 June 2001