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South Africa has degenerated into a lawless country filled with violent crimes: Herman Mashaba

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ActionSA president Herman Mashaba says South Africa has degenerated into a lawless country, where a daily occurrence of violent crimes has become common.

Mashaba’s remark follows the attack in which 15 people have been shot and killed at taverns in Soweto, Katlehong and Pietermaritzburg.

He asserts that if the government had prioritised safeguarding the Rule of Law and supported an effective criminal justice system, those who have lost their lives and their affected families would have been spared from this tragedy.

According to ActionSA, the proliferation of guns has reached an unacceptably high and alarming level in the country. He has called on authorities to act swiftly and urgently in apprehending the perpetrators.

Police say the motive for the shooting is still unknown.

‘Gun epidemic’

Gun Free South Africa (GFSA) says the country has a gun epidemic. GFSA Director Adele Kirsten says that corruption is worsening the problem of easy access to guns.

“We have a gun epidemic. It’s shocking, it’s tragic, and it’s preventable. And so the key issue, what we’re not doing is we’re not reducing the pool of guns that are available. Where do these guns come from? They were all once legal, they come from the legal pool. There are a number of sources of weapons, there are a number of ways in which illegal guns move from the legal market, into the illicit market.”

Video| SACC’s Rev Mzwandile Molo reacts to recent tavern shootings 

‘Senseless and brutal shooting’

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has strongly condemned the senseless and brutal shooting of people in taverns, saying there are numerous contributory factors to these incidents.

SAFTU’s spokesperson Trevor Shaku says “Crime and sheer violence spring directly out of the worsening socio-economic conditions in our country, Southern Africa, and the world over. This socio-economic crisis is reproduced by the political economy of capitalism, in which the hoarding of wealth by 10% of the population has driven an overwhelming majority of working-class people into poverty. To survive, the pauperised masses of unemployed people resort to odious methods such as hijacking, robbery, etc. And we, therefore, continue to witness the ever-rising crime and violence.”

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