The new quarterly crime stats are out and it is a horrifyingly sobering read.
In October, November and December of last year, there were 123 rapes per day, a total of 982 women were killed and every day, four children were murdered on average.
You read that correctly yes; our country has seen an almost 23% increase in child murders.
No matter how optimistic a person you are, these are the kind of numbers that can suck the hope and the joy right out of you.
At a time when we are meant to unite and stand together even firmer than before to beat an unprecedented global pandemic, we are instead turning on each other.
There were also more than a million house burglaries in the same period, most of them in the Western Cape.
So you can see how this increases the anxiety for one’s own safety and the well-being of our loved ones.
While the crime numbers are beyond worrisome, there is another stat that should be worrying the government equally as much.
In the majority of the crimes involving theft especially, only a percentage of victims reported the incident to the SAPS.
The implications of this are far-reaching.
Firstly, those who did report incidents to the police, may only have done so to get case numbers for insurance purposes, not for the guarantee that the criminals would be caught.
Secondly, those who didn’t report it, probably can’t afford insurance and didn’t have any, meaning they suffered a substantial and irreplaceable material loss.
And most crucially, it means citizens don’t trust the police to bring the criminals to justice.
And if these stats are the proof that crime is spiralling out of control, and the face of government’s defences are seen as ineffective, then the ruling party has a lot to worry about in the next elections.
The ruling party, and by extension the government, has many fires to put out at the moment.
The unemployment rate is at a staggering 34%, high interest rates are ballooning our debt, Eskom is insisting it needs an eye-watering 20% increase for the electricity they allegedly provide and another massive petrol price hike will lighten our wallets from next week.
And while a scourge that robs us of valuable resources, progress and morale, corruption is something ordinary South Africans could easily overlook, as it doesn’t affect our everyday lives directly.
The impact of state capture isn’t something regular people can easily identify with; the scale is too far removed, too enormous and the amounts of money involved too mind-boggling to fully grasp.
My family is not feeling safe in their own home – their supposed sanctuary, my hard-earned possessions desecrated and me living in fear for my children’s safety and sanity, those are fundamental things that cannot be ignored.
I might be able to defend myself against price increases and slowly approaching poverty, but I stand no chance against a home invasion by an armed gang of angry young men, hell bent on making my family one of the statistics.