by Caiphas Chimhete This is the third in a four-part series on crime in Southern Africa.
Although southern Africa is enjoying relative political tranquillity, this is not corresponding with social and economic growth as crime, a legacy of civil disturbances, still haunt the region.
Arms of war in the wrong hands, poverty and poor economic circumstances are among the major causes of crime in the southern Africa region.
Criminals in the region are taking advantage of the transition from civil war to peace to perpetuate crime, especially in Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, where they have easy access to cheap guns, formerly used in civil wars and against apartheid. IV 1995, guns were being exchanged for food, as hunger took its toll on Mozambicans, but now they are being sold for a “small fee.” Mozambique News Agency (AIM) says most of those who are committing crime are disgruntled demobilised soldiers still in possession of arms of war.
Meanwhile, Mozambique has embarked on a gun-far-hoes campaign, where guns are being exchanged for hoes and seeds, to get the arms back and also to boost agricultural output. The Mozambique Council of Churches, which is implementing the programme, says it is getting an encouraging response. In Angola, a similar programme, where guns would be exchanged for money, is under consideration.
“People are very poor in Angola … and if you had an exchange of guns for money, or guns for food, this might prompt people to turn in their guns to the government,” says the information director of the Free Angola Information Service, Malik Chaka.
Last year, the Zambian government called on people with unlicensed guns to hand them in, however, the call did not yield the expected results because there were no incentives to lure them.
Firearms are used in committing crime such as robbery, murder, rape, vehicle jackings and drug dealings thereby frustrating economic growth and social stability.
The region’s opening of its inadequately guarded borders and weak legislation make it easier for criminals to smuggle guns and other loot across borders. Speaking at the First Crime Working Party Meeting for African English-Speaking Countries in Harare recently, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Home Affairs, Dumiso Dabengwa said weak legislation compounded by lack of harmonisation militates against forces of law and order and are of immense advantage to the criminals.
“Such imbalances tend to create havens for criminals. A criminal who commits a crime in one country where there are stringent laws and stiff punishment moves to a country where he can enjoy the fruits of his criminal activities with impunity,” he added.
The South African eastern border area has long been the major supply route for illegal arms entering the country from Mozambique. Other guns from Mozambique find their way into Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Guns also flow from Angola into neighbouring countries such as Namibia and Zambia.
Dabengwa says the protocol to allow free movement of people within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has not been ratified “because ministers felt that this would have opened floodgates for criminals to roam throughout the region at will.”
Stolen cars, especially from South Africa, find their way into Angola, Zambia, Zaire and Zimbabwe. Some cars are stolen again from these countries and resold in other countries in the region, says a Zimbabwe police spokesperson. The spokesperson advised members of the public who buy from other countries to check with national police records to see whether the cars were stolen or not. Criminals have also established drug networks in different countries. South Africa alone has at least 481 organised crime syndicates, some of them specialising in drug trafficking and car theft.
Drug trafficking is also prevalent in Mozambique as criminals take advantage of the “transitional confusion” from civil war La peace. AIM says that at one time up to a tonne of mandrax tablets were being seized in a week at Maputo harbour. The drug, mainly from India, is popular in South African townships.
South Africa lost more than R13 3 billion (about Z$72 billion) to crime in 1995. Research by Professor Robin Lee for Nedcor on crime, violence and investment in South Africa says the losses were “unsustainable in a developing country” and were threatening to wipe out any chance of creating growth not only in South Africa, but the region as a whole.
Widespread poverty is also forcing people in some areas to commit crime for survival. In southern Africa, poverty has been exacerbated by the unequal distribution of resources under apartheid and racial-based minority regimes. Recurrent droughts and high population-growth rates further compound the problem.
Poor economic performance — resulting in unemployment and retrenchments — by many countries in the region is also another factor contributing to the escalating crime. Many job-seekers, frustrated by roaming around industrial sites to no avail, turn to crime as the last solution for survival.
“An unemployed man is penniless. When someone gives him a gun and tells him to rob a store he does not refuse,” says a South African businessman, Archie Nkonyeni, who recently led a business delegation to Zambia.
South African Labour Minister, Tito Mboweni, says only 3-4 percent of the more than 400 000 school-leavers secure employment in the country. Similar disparities exist in other countries in the region
Regional law enforcement agencies say the current rise in crime is frustrating economic growth in southern Africa and have committed themselves to the adoption of a co-ordinated and effective strategy to curb crime.
This coordination saw governments in the region forming the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO) last year, with the sub-regional bureau for the region stationed in Harare, Zimbabwe. The organisation carries out regular reviews of joint crime management strategies and monitoring of cross-border crime in an effort to reduce it. (SARDC)
