Government to blame for killing

E-mail your letter to The Herald

WITH the media trial of the year unravelling before us I want the entire society to start making waves.

Everybody else blames "apartheid" for their downfall in life. Is Oscar Pistorius free to do the same?

No! I believe he can only blame the "present regime".

Society is so busy clambering to feed off this tragedy to run their own agendas that it is on the point of becoming a circus. First a person remains innocent until proven guilty. You can debate as much as you want, but until you have run a mile on someone else's stumps you know nothing.

Now if what Oscar has said is the truth as he recalls it, then we need to learn from his errors. It is cheaper to learn from other people's mistakes.

If what he has declared is the truth, then the root cause is this present regime's fault. It has failed to keep him and others safe in their homes.

A friend of mine was killed by a shot through a door by robbers on his farm, so we know what it is like to lose a friend to violent crime.

If it was this state of mind that led to these unfortunate circumstances, one may start to understand how a string of events can go horribly wrong. If the state can't protect us, we are forced to do so ourselves – you have left us no choice.

We should not have to arm ourselves to protect ourselves from the high level of crime in this country if the present regime came out of the starting blocks with jobs for all and a crime-free society on its priority agenda. Oscar's paranoia with the need to protect himself or others under his roof is a natural instinct that even the most basic of animals are born with.

Now if we had a policeman on every street corner, if we had all the illegal guns burning in a furnace, if we sent all the drug vendors back to the northern hemisphere and if the death penalty got rid of all the rapists and premeditating murderers, then just maybe we wouldn't have the need to sleep with guns under our pillows.

When you remove deterrents against crime, blur or obliterate boundaries, the conditions are ripe for the quagmire of lawlessness that drives us to such measures. I place the blame at the feet of the minister of "law and order" – there is very little if any of it left in this country.

You spent millions trying to disarm the law-abiding citizens and did nothing to resolve the issue of illegal gangsters running around terrorising the nation.

This is a harsh observation on a perceived free democracy, but just look at the stats. If this "present regime" had border posts to keep drugs out, dealt with crime that would bring it down or to a stop, then just maybe we could sleep with our doors open in summer without locks on, let alone bars and the need for arms would dissipate.

This democracy has failed us, but let's just say it was a bad learning curve. You have the opportunity now to fix it.

Put all the murderers and rapists on Robben Island or in some remote desert if you are too chicken to re-instate the death penalty. Spend more money on education, teaching subjects like 10 basic laws of society: don't steal, don't kill, don't do drugs, etc.

Teach the youth to respect parents and authority. Teach boys to respect women and girls to respect men.

Pay men better so that women can stay home with the kids if they choose to do so. The pillar of the family is forced to work when men can't bring the bacon home.

This robs kids of a childhood as they are dumped off at day care.

The new regime has had 19 years to take corrective steps, instead millions of rands gets spent on private retirement villages. Will someone please start to make the right moves?

To have a nickname of the rape capital on the continent is a poor reflection on our internal policies. Creating jobs, conscription, military or police with trade theory training will go a long way to increasing a tax base that can earn to pay for services.

It is time for the "new regime" to set sound priorities that make democratic sense or go down in history as the dream that turned into a nightmare.