South Africa’s nascent democracy has for the past few years been grappling with the challenge of combating and overcoming the scourge of serious crime. Crime in whatever form prevents decent and law-abiding citizens from enjoying and exercising the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Recent events in Cape Town compellingly illustrate how crime threatens our democracy and the values of freedom and human dignity that underpin it. It is simply impossible for human rights to flourish under conditions that resemble a siege and it is wholly unacceptable that nameless and faceless criminals can hold a nation to ransom. 

Society demands, and legitimately so, that those responsible for these deeds of terror be arrested and prosecuted. It is necessary that the resources of the State and in particular the law enforcement agencies be fully harnessed to deal with this challenge. In this regard the intelligence and investigative capacities need to be seen to be responding in an effective, expeditious and decisive fashion. An important debate has commenced on the desirability or otherwise of introducing anti-terrorism legislation, and even the declaration of a state of emergency in appropriate circumstances. It is however important that State action, and in particular that of the law enforcement agencies, takes place within the parameters of the Constitution and the law and that the debate on the proposed anti terror legislation happens in a rational and dispassionate environment. 

While the primary responsibility for dealing with crime rests with the state, it is our view that all decent and law abiding South Africans have a duty to assist where possible in this process. They could assist the police in their investigations, make relevant information available and join in a collective effort to overcome what no doubt is a real and formidable threat to our society. However, we cannot condone citizens or communities taking the law into their own hands. 

We must take strength from the fact that the majority of South Africans are indeed committed to a society free of crime and terror. It is this resolve that has seen us overcome the demon of apartheid and oppression and it is this resolve that will see us overcome the demons of crime and urban terror. The SAHRC is convening a seminar on these other issues to take place in Cape Town during October this year.

South African Human Rights Commission, Johannesburg
14 September 2000

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