A better South Africa

Crime causation in the Free State looking at the South African context

By Nomvula Ndamoyi

“He who opens a school door closes a prison” (quoted by Victor Huge) the world we are living in has had many hardships that have left many in difficult positions. After twenty years of democracy in South Africa, Free State is one of the provinces still battling with its economy which is a huge disadvantage to its youth because of the limited opportunities available to them to pursue their cultural goals.

The economy of the province depends on the following sectors as their potential growth sectors: Agriculture, Mining, Manufacturing, Chemical, Tourism, Business processes outsourcing, Contact Centre, Logistic and Transport. The youth plays a very significant role in implementing new ideas and structures to make the province a better place to be because they are the future of tomorrow but with no opportunities they cannot pursue these dreams.

South Africa is facing a high crime rate due to the lack of job opportunities, low level of education and low income rates and a high population rate. Crime is not caused or committed because of drugs and alcohol use but simply because of the limit access of the better opportunities in life especially to those who are living in the lower class, staying at the squatter camps with large family members. It is important we as South Africans we work together to prevent crime.

 We can only do this by creating job opportunities and giving the youth the opportunity to further their education because some youth drop out of school without even completing grade twelve due to the fact that they are going to school hungry and that makes their performance weak  because they lack concentration and they end up failing then deciding to stay home and as soon as you’re staying home you get bored and look for other illegitimate opportunities to earn a living because you are failing to make the best of your life in a legitimate way, that is where the youth start committing crime and ending up in jail. It is important that we should create special projects that seek to raise awareness to the parents and community about the causes of crime. Some parents don’t know about how diet can influence crime because a good diet is good for the brain. Also work on the dysfunctional families because that is also a cause of crime, when a family doesn't have rules and norms also values that should be followed it is very easy for them to become offenders because they cannot differentiate between what is right from wrong. We need to also involve the government to help us on how to tackle the problem by creating or developing opportunities for the youth. To help the community to not look at crime as one way stream of making a living.