In a typically hard hitting interview, Ian Cameron of Action Society describes South Africa as a “total bloodbath” and a “slaughterhouse of humans,” referencing the data on escalations in murders since the ANC came to power in 1994. He criticises the government’s detached attitude towards soaring crime rates, likening ministers and police commissioners to passive spectators of a violent sport. Cameron attributes police inefficiency to political interference and the influence of the “untouchable” police chief Bheki Cele. He accuses the ANC of ignoring internal issues while pursuing international justice, neglecting the alarming rates of murder, and the unprecedented rape of women and children in South Africa. Cameron suggests the ANC’s reluctance to reform the police stems from fear of exposing their own corruption.
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Relevant timestamps from the interview
00:00 – Introduction
00:31 – Over 630 000 murders reported
01:13 – How would you describe that level of deadly violence?
04:11 – What similarities do Jamaica and South Africa share?
07:20 – Where did it go wrong in the police?
13:50 – Turning around the fight against crime
17:10 – What can be done without the help of the SAPD?
19:39 – Why does the Minister of Police still have a job?
22:02- Do you think the ANC care more about the people dying in foreign countries than in its own?
24:26 – Conclusions
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Highlights from the interview
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South Africa has become “a total bloodbath” – and “a slaughterhouse of humans”.
These are the words of crime fighter Ian Cameron of Action Society who speaks to Biz News about the hundreds of thousands of South Africans who have been murdered in South Africa since the African National Congress (ANC) came to power in 1994.
“When we see crime statistics being spoken of in a very nonchalant, very relaxed way by ministers and police commissioners, it almost seems as though they are spectators to a violent crime sport. It’s almost as though South Africans are merely collateral damage in some kind of a contact game that these so-called leaders are watching.”
Cameron describes how political interference and political appointments have hampered the efficiency of the police – now run by the untouchable “Godfather” Bheki Cele. “Remember, the ANC doesn’t want the police to function properly because then they themselves would be caught out for their corrupt dealings.”
He also slams the ANC for taking another country to the International Court of Justice “while they themselves are onlookers to South Africa being slaughtered in droves and where women and children are raped at unprecedented rates”.
Here some of the other highlights from the interview:
Statistics showing over 630,000 murders were reported between 1994 and September 2023:
“South Africa has slowly, but surely, really seen an increase…especially the last decade. In fact, if you go look from about 2012 up until now, there’s been almost an 80% increase. I think it’s around 77 % increase in total in murder. So we’re not too far off from reaching that million mark. At the rate that it’s currently increasing, we can expect anything between 27 and 30 ,000 murders per annum.”
Nearly 90 % of murders going unsolved:
“It actually means that we could go as far as saying that if you want to kill someone, do it in South Africa. I’ve even heard cops jokingly say in cases that we work on that if you want to commit the perfect murder, you should aim to do it in the Eastern Cape or in KZN. And I’ve heard the same jokes about other provinces, but it really isn’t something to be laughing about. This is becoming a reality in South Africa.
“If things like murder are increasingly not being reported in South Africa, it means that other crimes that are considered less serious are being forgotten completely. So it’s becoming a free for all and we are on our own.”
SA having the second highest murder rate in the world, with 75 people killed every day:
“I think what makes South Africa unique at the moment is the fact that there’s almost zero real consequences for people that commit serious and violent offenses.
“If we look at the amount of criminals that are inside the South African Police Service, it is really is astounding.
“I stand to be corrected, (the SAPS) I believe is likely the biggest single firearm provider or supplier to criminal networks in South Africa.
“So, you know, when it comes to murder, it comes as no surprise that it’s being made easy for people to commit the crimes that they do and that life is becoming increasingly cheap. “
Where it went wrong in the police:
“One is definitely political interference, political appointments, and it’s simple.
“They (the ANC) don’t want institutions like we had, like the Scorpions, to function properly because they can’t centralize power then.
“The first thing that people like Minister Bheki Cele has done in the South African Police Service has really been to centralize power in a way where he even has operational capabilities. Not legally, but he just does that. He just makes sure that he plays this political chess game with the South African Police Service and its partners in a way that he can really control the operational capabilities of SAPS.”
Why Minister Bheki Cele is so “untouchable”:
“I think he has major influence in KZN. So that’s one potential reason. I think he likely has a lot of information on a lot of bad things that a lot of bad ANC people have badly done over a long time. And for that reason, it’s a comfortable place to keep someone that can fix things for you.
“And again, I stand to be corrected, but it just simply seems that he’s got more power in some cases than the president does. And it really does feel like some kind of a godfather role that is played. I mean, it’s blatant. He is blatantly incompetent in his job.
“So he’s really helped to make South Africa a bloodbath…”
SA taking Israel to the International Court of Justice:
“I don’t think they care more about people dying in Israel or Palestine. I think they are simply using it as a publicity stunt to get some kind of favour before the election. I really don’t think they care because they simply don’t care about their own people in South Africa. Far more people have died here over time than in Ukraine and Israel slash Palestine combined. Why didn’t they go to the International Crime Court when over half a million people were killed in Syria?
“I think it’s very rich coming from the ANC when they want to point fingers, but they don’t even have the capacity to investigate more than 14% of murders in South Africa.
“I think the other part that we need to consider is the larger international political role that they are trying to play, but they’ve clearly chosen sides. And I think they’ve caused a lot of reputational damage to South Africa.
“… the point is that in South Africa, probably today, we’re going to have between 75 and 84 people murdered and they will do nothing about it, yet they have the money or they managed to get the money from somewhere to go to an international crime court instead of just starting to fix things for their own people.”
The chances of turning around to fight against crime:
“To be very honest, I don’t think we’re ever going to be one of the safest countries in the world, but I think we can have enclaves of better and good governance in certain parts, in terms of specifically criminal justice. I think the federal approach is important. The more we can push for federalism, the better, especially in a Western Cape context. I think it could open the door for opportunities for local, provincial, municipal investigative services and even forensic services. And I think we need to work hard towards that.
“…in terms of the police management, we have to make sure that we audit the South African Police Service management in terms of skills…determine who was appointed according to merit or not, and if not, they need to be removed.
“And then obviously we need to go through the whole corruption effort, and whether it is through polygraphs or otherwise, we need to find a way to point us in the right direction of how to manage this.
“One very important part is to get out of this mindset of centralising everything…People are losing property, people are even losing their lives because they aren’t willing to work with community structures. And if that type of approach doesn’t change on a national level either, then SAPS cannot be fixed in my opinion.”
How citizens can better combat violence crime:
“….communities must organise themselves, whether it is to have community communication structures, whether it is to have reaction groups, both communication and reaction groups, that’s fine. But patrolling in your community building, and I wanna say it straight, an intelligent structure. I know that the authorities always have a big eye roll, and skip a heartbeat when they hear anyone else speaking of intelligence. But having solid information systems or intelligence systems that guide you in the right direction for when to patrol, where, what to look out for, and understanding what the powers are, what you can do as a community member.
“So we need to be formal, outspoken, and actually aggressive towards it. I’m not saying causing trouble, but being ready for trouble to come to you – and it’s a lifestyle change we need to make and the better we train and prepare ourselves, the smaller the chances of us living in constant stress or fear because you feel prepared, you’ve changed your mindset, you’ve changed your approach to a point where you feel but I will be able to maintain or handle myself in a certain way should that incident occur.”
Read also:
Ian Cameron gets justice for Liezel de Jager
Ian Cameron: Bheki Cele’s fedora at the helm – The decay of justice and democracy in South Africa
SAPS: The ANC’s “Iron Fist” with Ian Cameron
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