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The governing party had a conference recently and I wonder to what extent these issues were discussed with the view of changing policies to enable us to reclaim our country from the clutches of criminals
Sanctuaries are meant to protect people from persecution. They are places of hospitality towards others. Places that need not check your identity to provide a refuge from a cruel and inhospitable world. In South Africa, that world is characterised by high levels of abuse of women and children and the rape of children by older men (a major cause of teenage pregnancy), (youth) unemployment, attacks on African foreign nationals, drug abuse and racism.
In 2015, I returned from a work trip to Cape Town to a home that had been ransacked by criminals who helped themselves to whatever they could before the private security company got to the house and stopped them. When I called the police, they thought it was an active armed robbery and sent a heavily armed police contingent. On arrival and realising it was not such, their commander declared, "Okay boys, it's a normal robbery. We can go." He proceeded to ask me to call again for another unit to be sent, something I vehemently objected to, and he had to call the other unit himself.
READ: WATCH: Violent mugging outside Johannesburg High Court caught on CCTV
The second unit was just interested in knowing if I had insurance cover. On confirmation that I did, there was a bit of relief that they didn't need to do much as I was covered. I pointed out how wrong that approach to crime was. I doubt it made any difference, as the team that was meant to collect fingerprints only came three to four days later. The guy told me since it was not a serious crime, the chances of them using the fingerprints were limited.
As George Carlin said: "Your home is your sanctuary." Mine had just lost that status and here were people who were supposed to be giving me a sense of hope about restoring that sanctuary who were telling me that they didn't think that such a violation was a big deal. Secondly, our law enforcement agencies need to adopt a different attitude to solving crime if they really do not want to surrender our country to criminals.
Sometime in the early 2000s, I called a good childhood friend to check up on him. When someone starts the call by saying "you are God sent", you must ready yourself for them to ask for a favour. And it was so! He told me how he had spent the night at a petrol station because his engine failed. He then spent the night without fear at a filling station. Fear is what a sanctuary is free of!
READ: Cop, employee among seven people arrested for petrol station robbery
When I called him to check the finer details of what had transpired back then, my friend told me that he recently had a thought cross his mind to rest at a filling station but decided against it when he realised how unsafe it was. He had a restless night due to his alarm going off several times due to load shedding compounded by load reduction in Matlosana. It is interesting that back then, most families didn't have access to electricity, but it was reliably available and today more have access with unreliable supply.
Recently, I was travelling home from an event and stopped at a petrol station somewhere in Midrand, Johannesburg. The first peculiar thing was a queue that was building up outside of people asking for assistance from the shopkeeper who was selling through a window.
I needed to use their toilet and I was duly pointed outside to use the workers' toilets, and they were clearly not pleased with these kinds of requests. They asked me if I wanted to do a number one or two, and when I said number one, there was a relief as they could point to the nearby garden, which was dark enough, they said. No consideration of the fact that it was unhygienic, as it would start to stink over time. I tried to insist on using their toilet, but then I gave up and went back to the car as I wasn't that pressed, or should I say as I'm still young enough to keep it in for longer.
I experienced a similar thing in Lichtenburg in North West, where they had resorted to selling through the window. So, no place is spared. Large metros and small towns are similarly affected by crime. I was reminded of how this sanctuary had been surrendered to criminals as I had seen many videos of armed robberies of patrons and petrol stations. In 2022, spending a night at a petrol station has become too risky.
Just stopping to refuel has become a risky business. In approximately 1992/3, a whole big number of mineworkers lost their jobs and our local Catholic priest decided to accommodate them while they were making plans to go back to their homes, as they were predominantly from Lesotho. The matter got resolved somehow and they left the church.
My understanding back then was that some were reinstated and others were able to be sent home. The church, a place of refuge, a sanctuary when all else fails, came through again. Similarly, when I was a young man in Khuma township, we virtually lived in the church. It was our refuge against all the social ills we could see around us. It was our sanctuary! It helped a lot that the local priest was Belgian and received support from home to buy games, such as table tennis, football, chess and many others. In addition to games, he managed to buy a marimba, which we used to get our skills sharpened on musical instruments. Today, that kind of support for local communities has been reduced drastically.
Let me hasten to add that the one incident happened just before midnight during an overnight church service and the second one happened on Sunday morning during a normal church service. So, it doesn't matter what time of the day it is, the church has to close its doors against the community it is serving.
READ: Armed gang walks into Johannesburg church and robs congregants
As Max Lucado once said: "Just as your earthly house is a place of refuge, so God's house is a place of peace." That peace was shuttered that morning in God's house. What triggered this article was a recent video of a car getting hijacked at a toll gate. Toll gates always have one form of law enforcement or another nearby.
Sadly, as things go, these criminals have no respect for any such authority - they even attack police stations to get access to guns and other forms of ammunition that they can use against citizens. Both toll gates and police stations symbolise the state's interaction with its people. Have we reached a point where the police need private security protection for them to be safe from criminals? Watching a police officer being assaulted on video and his colleague pleading with the assailant to stop filled me with anger at seeing how the police have been rendered useless at the sight of criminality.
I am reminded of the time when Small Street in Johannesburg's CBD was a no-go zone for shoppers as people were robbed and killed in broad daylight. Nelson Mandela visited the place and reassured citizens that it was now safe to shop there.
What now, citizen? Do we need a similar kind of leadership that shows it cares by taking requisite action to protect the sanctuary from total takeover by criminals? Do we have a sense of agency to do different and an urgency to act quickly to reverse this situation in 2023?
The governing party had a conference recently and I wonder to what extent these issues were discussed with the view of changing policies to enable us to reclaim our country from the clutches of criminals and restore the status of sanctuaries that we all desperately need. Too many questions as we ready ourselves for another challenging year ahead.
