Durban — Presidential hopeful Dr Zweli Mkhize’s plan to reduce the high crime rate would be to address poverty and unemployment in South Africa.
This would be a first priority if he was elected as the president of the ANC.
Mkhize was speaking to the Daily News on Saturday, a few weeks after he got a strong endorsement in KwaZulu-Natal, backing him to run for the position of ANC president.
Mkhize has an impressive CV, being the former ANC treasurer-general and health minister. Mkhize said it was difficult to indicate what could have led to the increase of crime presently, but one of his plans to decrease it was by fighting poverty.
Mkhize felt that the current “formula” the government was using was not working. His focus would be to bring together government departments that could work together as a team.
“One of the problems we have is the Department of Transport is going to one community ward to talk about the road. Two weeks later, another department wants to go elsewhere to address the issues in the schools and the Health Department. All this makes communities exhausted and confused,” Mkhize said.
“One of the things that is important is to work together with the government departments and work with the people. At the national level, the government must have a very strong approach that will drive investments, growth empowerment, job creation programmes and the working of the police,” Mkhize said.
He said to successfully fight poverty, the government should go back to the drawing board, adding that it was going to be difficult to deal with crime and gender-based violence if poverty was not curbed.
“The police need to work together with the community. Otherwise, they will never be able to stop the crime,” he said.
“An 82-year-old man said to me we cannot only look at the issue of drugs but also look at poverty as the main problem. He said a lot of the druglords were not seen as criminals by the community, but seen as saviours because they also give people groceries at the end of the month and give children bus fares and so on. Therefore, these people will be shielded by the community.”
Mkhize further stated that during his time as premier there were various programmes that lifted tensions and protests in communities. Mkhize regarded the Sukuma Sakhe programme as a success which mobilised governments working together in different spheres, from municipal and national, in one area involving the communities.
“The department could sit together and come up with solutions to challenges the community’s facing,” he said.
Daily News