Crime haunts ANC as hopes slim for change under Zuma
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - In the five days that the ruling African National Congress takes to elect a leader and approve major policies, more than 600 women and children in South Africa are likely to be raped and 240 others murdered.
Some 3,000 houses could be burgled and 2,500 robberies carried out in a country described as one of the most violent outside a war zone.
While supporters of President Thabo Mbeki and his challenger Jacob Zuma fight for the right to lead the ANC for the next five years, the bigger question for many is whether the next lot of leaders can reduce crime as well as HIV/AIDS and unemployment.
The crime crisis -- a report issued last week showed violent crime remained unacceptably high in the six months to September -- looms over the ANC as more than 4,000 party activists prepare to gather north of Johannesburg for the December 16-20 congress.
They are aware that the problem, if left unchecked, threatens to increase the exodus of skilled South Africans, dissuade foreign businesses from investing, as well as derail the 2010 soccer World Cup, which could draw 400,000 fans and visitors to host nation South Africa's shores.
The country's crime scourge was highlighted in October when gunmen murdered reggae star Lucky Dube in an apparent botched car-jacking south of Johannesburg.
"The high level of crime, particularly violent crime, is a serious concern for all South Africans, irrespective of what high-profile international events may be staged in this country," Graham Wright, deputy chief executive of Business Against Crime South Africa, said.
"Crime is a severe impediment to the growth and wellbeing of this society," he added.
More than 8,900 people were murdered in the six months to September alone. Nearly 23,000 women reported being raped and more than 92,000 robberies committed in the same period. On a daily basis, there were an average of 49 murders, 125 reported rapes and 503 robberies.
Opposition parties and other government critics say the latest figures disprove official claims crime is under control.
"The government is in denial about crime and regardless of their claims that crime is decreasing, the same is not being felt or experienced by communities and people at grassroots level," said Inkatha Freedom Party spokesman Velaphi Ndlovu.
Attacks on businesses also are on the rise, with Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula conceded last week that the problem was a major headache.
Analysts mostly blame crime on poverty and an unemployment rate of around 25 percent while its violent nature is also seen as a legacy of decades of an often bloody struggle against the repressive apartheid regime that only fell 13 years ago.
NOT WINNING ON CRIME
While Mbeki largely gets poor marks for his anti-crime efforts, few have publicly expressed faith in Zuma, who leads the ANC leadership race, to radically alter course if he succeeds Mbeki as state president in 2009.
Zuma has had his own brushes with the law. He has been dogged by the same graft allegations that led to his 2005 dismissal as the nation's deputy president and he was acquitted of rape in a 2006 trial.
"I have no faith in the man," said Johannesburg resident Sindi Ngcobo, who added that she plans to move abroad with her husband and two children should ANC delegates clear the way later this month for a Zuma presidency.
The bulk of crimes occur in teeming, poverty-stricken black townships, though the media tends to focus on sensational carjackings and home invasions affecting the affluent minority, many of whom have high-tech systems to protect their properties.
A South African newspaper recently reported a man stabbed his 79-year-old grandmother to death in a quarrel over food, while a woman was charged with helping her boyfriend repeatedly rape and sodomize her 6-year-old daughter.
Angry communities are beginning to take matters into their own hands. Last week a mob pummelled a suspected robber with sticks and stones before placing a tire over his head and setting it alight.
"South Africa is not winning the war on crime," the Citizen newspaper said in an editorial, dismissing reports of a slight decline in murder and robbery as 'cold comfort'.
"It (decline) will not substantially calm everyday fears of ordinary South Africans going about their lives without the luxury of bodyguards. Nor will it steady the nerves of potential overseas investors and tourists," it said.
Computer programmer Tinashe Musanhu, who fled an economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe, sees crime-riddled South Africa as the lesser of two evils despite losing his car to hijackers within a month of his arrival last year.
"I guess I will sit it out here, Zuma or no Zuma, and see how it goes," Musanhu said. "You can't keep running forever."
(Editing by Paul Simao and Mary Gabriel)
FIFA: South Africa Crime Rates Are A Cause For Concern
FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke is fretting over the crime levels in South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup...
Valcke, who assumed his new role in June after being sacked from FIFA's marketing department back in December, told a news conference in Durban of his unease as the tournament's preliminary qualifying draw jamboree approaches.
With the World Cup less than two years away, and the Confederations Cup set to take place there next summer, the prospect of crime is causing much concern at FIFA headquarters.
"When I arrived in South Africa and bought a newspaper, I read of all the crime. When you read about that, you start wondering about safety in the country," noted the Frenchman.
"In Europe, we don't hear as much about it. Therefore, it is more important in South Africa than abroad.
"We had no problems in Germany and must ensure that it will be the same in South Africa. Soccer must be the most important thing during the tournament."
However, the chief executive of the Local Organising Committee, Danny Jordaan, moved quickly to allay such fears.
He told SuperSport.co.za, "We have been the hosts, successfully, for large events such as rugby and cricket World Cup tournaments and the recent Twenty20 World Cup cricket.
"No incidents of crime were reported during these events. We admit crime is a problem in South Africa but it is a social problem that everyone should work on.
"About 14,000 new security positions have been created to address the problem.
"We want to prove to the world that we can run such as tournament successfully, and the draw is the start of it."
Sunday's preliminary draw marks the first real step on the road to the 2010 World Cup in terms of organisation, despite the fact that the likes of COMNEBOL have already begun their qualifying tournaments.
World Cup 2010
OK, I have read all the hoopla regarding South Africa hosting the world cup. Now lets hear your comments. Will South Africa fail and why...or will the 2010 Cup boost South Africa onto the international scene ?
Will the stadiums and transportation be completed in time?
Is there enough accomodation to handle the visitors?
Will crime statistics keep fans away?
As a South African, I hope the Government can pull this off but knowing the current situation I am not sure if they are capable. Yea Yea, I know it has only been 12 years...blah blah..
07/17/2006
Row over SA website crime warning
Article from The BBC News
South African officials have condemned a website urging would-be tourists and 2010 World Cup fans to stay away from the country because of the crime risk.
The International Marketing Council said the site highlighted negative news and ignored successes in the fight against crime.
The police ministry would not comment on a campaign launched by "one person".
South African preparations for the 2010 football World Cup are starting as the tournament draws to a close in Germany.
The Crime Expo SA website urges crime victims to tell their stories and send their photographs, which will be published unedited.
 |  That person is challenging South Africa and all of South Africa - there is no need for us to comment  Trevor Bloem Safety and security ministry spokesman  |
"Insulting politicians is not going to do the trick. Protesting outside in the streets is not going to do the trick. Voting for a fancier politician is not going to do the trick. Telling the international tourist what is happening between the airport and hotel is going to do the trick."
'Slaughtered'
The site says that "each year, about 20,000 people get slaughtered in the most gruesome manner by killers who have absolutely no respect for life".
The site reports incidents of stones being thrown at cars on the highway between Cape Town airport and the city.
"We call on international tourists not to arrive at Cape Town International Airport as routes from there are a death trap. Like others, you might have your skull crushed with your brains splashed all over your vehicle within minutes after leaving the airport," the site says.
Pages on the site deal with murder, rape, farm attacks and armed robbery.
A comment purporting to be an SMS from a reader in Sweden says: "South Africa was on our shortlist for our tour... we have heard about the crime situation but the Crime Expo website has made us think twice".
Criticism
The IMC, the body that promotes South Africa abroad, said in a statement it was "painfully aware" of the effects of crime and believed vigilance was essential.
"However, we are concerned about the appropriateness of any information campaign that focuses only on the negatives and ignores the growing range of successes in the fight against crime," the statement said.
"Any campaign that instils fear and undermines the economic opportunities created by increased international tourism and investment can only add to the very problem Mr Watson seeks to address."
Cape Town Tourism general manager Mariette du Toit told the Cape Times newspaper the website skewed the truth and was "very damaging".
Safety and security ministry spokesman Trevor Bloem said the ministry did not want to get involved in a battle with the individual who had set up the website.
"That person is challenging South Africa and all of South Africa - there is no need for us to comment," Mr Bloem told BBC News.
South Africa has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.
Delapitated World Cup stadiums
Football Stadium in Soweto still needs serious work and even IF the Government completes registration in time for the World Cup 2010, wh in their rightmind wants to take the chance of entering crime ridden Soweto.
07/16/2006
No Electricity in the Cape to Handle World Cup 2010
| Executive mayor Helen Zille: "We cannot have the World Cup, whether or not we have a stadium, (unless we can) up the capacity to generate electricity by 60%." |
The city has experienced sporadic and scheduled power cuts over the past few months due to a fault at Koeberg (the main power source in Cape Town). Let's face it SA is in shambles and the governing party has put it into a situation that will be impossible to get out of. The only postive that will come out of SA hosting the World Cup will be the worldwide exposure of the inabilities of Mbeki and all his ronies in the ANC.
Experts have said that R200 million will be needed to take the power capacities to where they will need to be by 2010.
One of the potential sources of energy is to come from a "green" energy source - namely the wind-driven generators at Darling Wind Farm. R70 million has been spent on this as a test. It is of course high risk financially speaking, but may prove extremely beneficial. Of course alternate energy doesn't come cheap and will be provided at 25% extra cost to that provided by Eskom. This is expected to be available in 2007.
Doubt over South Africa 2010
There are no doubts in my mind that South Africa will not be ready for World Cup 2010. In addition, the crime, transportation and accomadation all lack substance. The Crime is more rampant now than ever before and is getting worse by the day. Mass Transist, simple it does not exist. Accomodation for 3-5 million people, not going to happen.
According to the German sports news agency SID, Fifa officials have privately raised worries over South Africa's continuing failure to prepare for the tournament and have also discussed the possibility of staging the tournament again in Germany.
Doubt over South Africa 2010
According to the German sports news agency SID, Fifa officials have privately raised worries over South Africa's continuing failure to prepare for the tournament and have also discussed the possibility of staging the tournament again in Germany. Fifa's 24-member executive committee gathered in Berlin over the weekend to watch the World Cup final and, according to the agency, delegates meeting in the luxurious Hotel Adlon just opposite the Brandenburg Gate spent much of the weekend deep in conversation over what to do if South Africa fell further behind with its World Cup preparations. There are long-standing doubts about whether stadiums can be built and modernised in time but there are even more serious concerns about South Africa's transport infrastructure and whether it will be able to cope with the tens of thousands of fans travelling between venues.
Yesterday Fifa insisted that the tournament would go ahead in South Africa as planned. "The World Cup in Germany was wonderful. But the next one will take place in South Africa," its spokesman Markus Siegler insisted.
Fifa officials have indicated that no final decision is likely to be taken until after the president Sepp Blatter stands for re-election next May. Blatter, a big supporter of South Africa's ultimately successful bid, needs the votes from African delegates to ensure his re-election in the ballot next year in Zurich.
Lennart Johansson has announced that he will stand for re-election as president of Uefa when his term expires next year. Johansson, who has been in the role since 1990, was expected to stand down but at a meeting of the European ruling body's executive board yesterday he announced his intention to stand for another four-year term.
The Czech Republic's midfielder Karel Poborsky has announced his retirement from international soccer at the age of 34, as planned before the World Cup. He played a record 118 times and scored eight goals for his country.
FIFA set to make a killing as South Africa hopes for peaceful World Cup
IMPRESSIVE figures can be trotted out to support the view that South Africa is on schedule with preparations for the 2010 World Cup. The government have budgeted for the £760m required for fundamental upgrades to airport, rail and road networks and budgeted to spend £448m to redevelop five existing stadiums and build a further five from scratch.
Chief executive of the local organising committee Danny Jordaan claims that "billions of US dollars" have already been committed by sponsors to a sporting event FIFA have trumpeted will "change perceptions of Africa". Indeed, such funding is believed to be approximately 20% up on where Germany stood at the same juncture for the just ended, and hugely successful, 2006 finals.
Moreover, while half a million visitors are expected at the football World Cup in four years' time, between the 1995 rugby version and the 2003 cricket equivalent, almost two million spectators attended without any major incidents.
Yet rumours of FIFA having contingency plans to take their 2010 showpiece to either Australia or the USA refuse to go away because of one damning statistic: with 51 deaths per 100,000 population, South Africa is second only to Colombia in the global murder league. On average, one killing occurs every 25 minutes.
Alarmingly, security is said to be deteriorating as the result of neighbouring Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Around 100 people a day are being granted asylum in a country that cannot refuse them entry because of its beacon status across the continent since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Among the incomers are deserters from a long-unpaid army who have formed armed gangs behind an upsurge in violent muggings and robberies. They are said already to be making plans to exploit the tournament in four years' time.
Security fears are heightened because organisers want to house visitors in large tented villages to offset scarcity of hotel accommodation and create fan fests - where supporters without match tickets can assemble en masse to watch the action live on large screens - on an even grander scale than those in Germany because ticket prices, although set to be held at 2006 levels, will be beyond the means of most ordinary South Africans.
There are no easy answers as to how the World Cup organisers can guarantee the safety of the huge influx of football fans in 2010, but Jordaan spits blood at suggestions his country is not suited to hosting the planet's biggest sporting event.
"It is complete nonsense to say that FIFA are even considering alternative hosts," he says. "Africa has waited the best part of a hundred years for this. Some people simply want Africa to wait the best part of another hundred years.
"Ask FIFA how much sponsorship money the tournament has already generated and about the fact it will out-perform any previous World Cup.
"Does anyone seriously believe that large multinational companies would commit billions of US dollars to an event that might not happen? People forget that we lost the 2006 tournament 12-11, not 24-0 [New Zealand abstaining]. Then there was widespread faith in our ability to stage the finals and now we are in an even better position and comfortable with where we stand."
The direct correlation between crime and poverty leads Jordaan to believe that projected prosperity leading up to 2010 could indicate a downswing in levels of violence.
"Our country has just enjoyed its best economic performance in the past 24 financial years," he points out. "That is what will allow us to meet every FIFA requirement. Already we have successfully hosted 12 major events."
Jordaan says there is nothing sinister in the fact that a battalion of FIFA officials will arrive in the country later this year to assist the LOC. Football's governing body reputedly being more hands-on with this tournament than previous finals has been attributed to Sepp Blatter's personal zeal for staging a successful World Cup in Africa. His enthusiasm for doing so, his more cynical detractors have claimed, is owed to having an eye on the Nobel peace prize.
"I have been an overseas official for the past four World Cups and the duties and roles of those who perform these functions in 2010 will be no different from how FIFA have always operated," Jordaan maintains.
The South African parliament has until July 31 to pass legislation underpinning the guarantees FIFA demands from World Cup hosts. That will happen but won't be a promise of an infrastructure to support a finals along the lines of Germany's benchmark model. But an African World Cup could still be an event to treasure more than fear. If given the chance.
2010: Why South Africa will lose the World Cup
By James FrancisCan the country fix a host of problems in time?
Note: This is not an attack on South Africa, but an urge for a reality check. Blind optimism can derail anything, no matter how hard you worked at building it.
Germany! The World Cup is in full swing and the host country has proven that it can run a world class event. Logistically something like the Soccer World Cup is a massive challenge: accommodation, transport and safety are key concerns, but on top of that there is the country’s technology infrastructure, especially for the media, broadcast infrastructure, stadium infrastructure and many more smaller elements that fall under the category of building for prosperity.
South Africa’s chances of hosting this event, frankly, are none. It has been argued that the country successfully hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup, but this is an apples/oranges comparison – the demands of the sports are different, as are the sizes of the crowds they attract. Also, South Africa can boast some impressive rugby infrastructure, while soccer does not have nearly this amount of favour. There’s also the matter that more than a decade has passed since ’95, but the facilities locally have not met kindly with time. It’s becoming more and more obvious, especially with less than four years remaining, that South Africa does not have its house in order.
* The World Cup has turned into a vanity project. South Africa’s politicians are incredibly gifted at not seeing the forest for the trees. Not long ago the Safety and Security Minister commented that crime isn’t that bad and noted that people in townships don’t complain about crime. The reality is that they do, audibly, and that they are the biggest victims of daily crime in the country. A lot of the powers that be are convinced that South Africa has the ability and capacity to host 2010. But not even Gauteng, South Africa’s wealthiest and most developed province, meets all the requirements.
* Crime is rampant. I don’t want to sound like the negative hordes who always point to South Africa’s crime problem when they complain about things, but there is no denial that the country is a dangerous place. The affluent live behind high walls to protect themselves against very real dangers. Tourists are generally safe, but that’s because they don’t go to areas where they will be mugged or attacked. Now imagine thousands more at the same time: it will be a free-for-all for petty criminals. The Government doesn’t have control over the crime situation (and thinks it clever to simply not publish annual crime statistics) and until it acknowledges this South Africa will be a dangerous place to invite thousands of soccer fans to.
* When South Africans refer to ’public transport’, there are three options: ill-maintained buses that rarely keep a schedule, the traditional ’taxis’ which are privately-owned minibuses that mostly cart around people who can’t afford cars, and the trains. The trains are dirty and dangerous – during the recent Security Guard strike action several people were killed after being thrown from these trains. This is after security was heightened following similar deaths in the past. Those who use the train have to. Taxis are not much better, mainly because there is no set schedule for routes and the means to catch one and communicate your destination is confusing to most locals. Forget about tons of foreigners using this system pro-actively. The alternative is a traditional taxi, which are much scarcer and cost quite a mint. The buses might be reigned into a working unit for 2010, but you won’t find any local holding their breath. The main cities of Johannesburg and Tswane already suffer incredible congestion between each other, while Johannesburg in itself needs a lot in transport alternatives. One is the Gautrain, a R20 billion project that will eventually provide cheap rail transport amongst these two cities. But the first phase will barely be completed by 2010, which is a link from Johannesburg International Airport to the wealthy hub of Sandton. It won’t be of any use for most of the games. Also, this only affects Gauteng and not any of the other provinces that intend to host 2010 games.
* Telkom, the country’s sole telecommunications company, has maintained bandwidth and broadband costs that are up to 800% higher than in first world countries. This means that broadband infrastructure is not only slow and expensive, but poorly deployed (rather obvious when you note the difference of speeds between broadband hubs in the Northern Joburg suburbs to central ones; the former, busier ones are substantially slower - and this on 1024 and 512 lines; Europeans alone are used to 2mb speeds that are consistent and reliable). Wireless broadband is growing fast, but these companies are still subject to the bandwidth costs imposed by Telkom. In a nutshell: if you want broadband, avoid South Africa. Now, will the country be able to deregulate the industry and expand infrastructure in urban centers fast enough to meet the demands of the 2010 audience? This one is quite possible, except that no-one seems to be concerned about this.
* South Africa doesn’t have enough stadiums for International-level soccer matches, plus too many will require major overhauls. Feasible, but not in the 2,5 to 3 year time-frame that is left. Also, stadiums are being built in more remote areas, such as the proposed plan to level two schools for a stadium in Nelspruit, which are even more under-developed infrastructure-wise than the metro areas.
As a staunch supporter of South Africa these pain me, but in the same way I think it’s time the bubble under which the society – and in particular its politicians – lives gets burst.
Come to think about it, maybe 2010 should happen. We could use the shame it brings and get our house in order.
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