Nic’s post entitled “Protest against crime in SA to be held in LONDON??” was a stab at these expats getting all fired up about the state of crime in a country they have seemingly turned their backs on. Nic argues that the best way to improve the situation in SA is to be here helping first-hand. The post has drawn quite a long commentary with veritable essays by some visitors, including yours truly.

The post did get me thinking however about crime in SA and how things have unfolded in the past few years. With my involvement in SARugby.com I often come across disgruntled South Africans who have a lot to complain about, and more often than not those complaints revolve around crime, transformation and in the case of rugby, quotas.

What often saddens me is that we seem, even after our 12 years of freedom, unable to argue an issue without racial stereotypes rising their ugly heads. Both black and white visitors to SARugby.com are responsible. A post made by a visitor will inflame someone else who will immediately say something like “you guys”, grouping all other visitors of the same, colour, creed or opinion in his rebuttal.

A case in point was an excellent article by our regular columnist John Gardener, entitled “What kind of Support?“, in which John lashed out at the disgusting behaviour of some drunk South African rugby supporters in Hong Kong who hurled racial abuse at SA 7′s coach Paul Treu after his lads lost a game.

John’s opinion was that these kind of people were the supporters that South African rugby didn’t need. The mistake he made was labeling them “beer-swilling, biltong-biting, boerewors-braaing believers in the nostalgia that South African sport should still be as white as it used to be”. WOW, did that cause a stink.

I don’t know if it was the reference to the biltong or the boerewors that got everyone so fired up but all of a sudden John was accused of calling all Afrikaans rugby supporters racists. Essentially because the Afrikaans community form the majority of rugby supporters, biltong eaters or whatever they felt any criticism of that kind of support was a direct criticism of Afrikaans people. I mean, come on.

I have noticed a similar trend when it comes to the crime debate. If you start ranting about the crime in SA everyone tells you to pipe down and stop being so Anti-South African. “If it’s so much better in Canada [Australia, England], why don’t you just move there.” they will say. Well, its easy really, because I don’t want to. Does that mean that the compromise of living in the greatest country in the world is living in fear. Does it mean that we shouldn’t be trying to do something about this situation?

There’s this ridiculous idea that the only people complaining about the crime are the whites. What?! If whites were the only ones being affected, every single white person would have been either murdered or raped by now. The stats are that bad!

In my opinion its our duty as people living in a democratic country to raise our concerns with the government we have elected to run our beautiful country. If they are not doing their jobs they should face the wrath of the people. So what do we do, complain to the Minister of Safety and Security? Not likely, last year that self-same minister, Charles Nqakula, said in his budget speech in parliament:

“The whingers [complainers] can do one of two things. They can continue to whinge until they are blue in the face — they can be as negative as they want to — or they can simply leave this country,”

So what are our options, I for one intend to support the guys organising that march. If they run a similar one here in SA I’ll be there. Otherwise, what else can be done. I’m not a vigilante what’s my next option? Any ideas?

Check out the ACTSA site at: http://www.act4sa.org