Zambia And South Africa: Anything In Common?

I spend about 20% of my day scrolling through Twitter. Actually, the truth has been altered here, it's way more than that, I'm just too ashamed to admit it. Naturally, I'll come across a new character or two in a day and the beauty of social media is that in 30 seconds, you would've already known what they do for a living, where they work, if they are homophobes or they occasionally want to choke their helper for frying 2 eggs and even, not too surprisingly since we attach our worth to our wealth, how much they take home. It's insane. Actually, scary is more fitting.

I'm rambling, this post is not about people oversharing if they enjoy hiking up the Table Mountain during weekends or if they spend the very little time they have here on earth gulping down a bottle of Hunter's Dry while loudly singing along to Adiwele all the while ducking and diving gunshots.

The latter is actually quite relevant here since we're talking about crime, specifically looking at the crime rates in both South Africa and Zambia. I know these are two different countries with different cultures and ways of life, even geographically it doesn't make much sense so it's a random and rather unfair comparison but a certain Twitter character inspired this post albeit I will not share more details as I will now also be oversharing.  

South Africa has a crime rate of 82,51% while Zambia sits at a low 48,53%. According to the Crime Statistics Report provided by the SAPS, just between April and June this year, 855 women and 243 children were killed in the country. We're not factoring in the thousands of women and children that seem to disappear by the second. It's very disheartening even writing this opinion piece. 

Obviously for this to make sense, I'd need to first look at the issues directly linked to, influencing and influenced by crime such as, inter alia, unemployment, a sense of hopelessness, the state of the economy, the lack of serious punitive measures, the culture of that particular society because I believe that children that grow up in a society which seems to embrace and participate in crime and substance abuse will most likely take that route (owing to the fact that that's what's in their immediate surroundings and there seems to be no alternative for them, that's the only life they think is there). We really need to do better as a society.

As I pointed out above, we cannot look at just one thing as the source or cause of crime, there's a lot of factors at play, most of them interlinked. Perhaps to be fair in our comparison, we should take note that the Republic of Zambia has a population of just 18.92 million while South Africa hosts more than 60.04 million people, the former has a GDP of $21.2 billion while the latter is sitting at $419.9 billion once again proving that this is a somewhat unfair comparison but let's soldier on. 

Zambia's unemployment sits at a low 13,3% while South Africa boasts 33.56%, I have to be honest, it's disheartening writing this. We have such high commission of crimes against persons (violence, rape, murder etc.), it is so hard to see these as just statistics when you know any time you leave the house, you can easily become a victim. Of course involuntary unemployment easily leads to a situation of hopelessness which can exacerbate crime, a state of hopelessness is also worsened by a claimed growth in the economy which the ordinary person never enjoys\benefits from (it just seems to make no difference for the average Sipho in the street, their life still remains as hard as it was during a recession). 

Sure, we have what has, on many occasions, been praised as 'the best Constitution in the world' but just like the many policies we continue to produce from these endless Conferences and Symposiums, implementation is always a hindrance. Also, I've written on one of my other posts about how South Africa's chasing for this title has oftentimes been to the detriment of its citizens, our justice system is restorative as opposed to being punitive and maybe this is a huge problem and it further perpetuates the increasing crime rates. Often people do not refrain from committing crime not because they don't want\aren't able to but simply because there lies punishment on the other side, people commit crime because they know they can get away with it which is why if you take that away then you've simply given them manna from heaven. 

"Our justice system is weak", "our justice system favour criminals", these are statements we've all either heard or uttered ourselves. The most important of these causes is the cycle it creates; children grow up in an environment that not only encourages but even rewards crime, this is the only life they're exposed to, of course they'll participate in such and just like that it becomes a never-ending cycle of life. The only things in common between these countries are the causes of crime despite the huge gap between its commission. 

I don't think it's necessary for me to provide solutions, these Symposiums that government invests in year in year out has all the solutions, they've produced papers and reports fully detailing what needs to be done, our Law outlines it. Like I said, implementation is the one thing standing in the way of 'a better life for all'.