South Africa has experienced a rise in violence since the last general election, particularly of murders. Voters are demanding action and leaders are spouting rhetoric. Calls for a return to formal capital punishment are being made only by smaller parties on the fringes, even as the extrajudicial killing of suspects becomes common.

Earlier this month, police in KwaZulu-Natal approached an RDP house in Mariannhill occupied by a group of men who had been accused of terrorising the local community. Police reportedly fatally shot nine men inside the house while two others escaped.

On the same day, in Mpumalanga, five people were killed during an attempted cash-in-transit heist.

Incidents like these are increasingly common.

Mariannhill community members said the nine men had committed murders, rapes and robberies.

Such violent criminality has become the daily lived reality of many people in South Africa.

In Khayelitsha, people have to pay brazen extortion gangs so their televisions are not stolen. Some young women have reported having to pay young men protection money for the weaves on their heads.

The rising crime levels are -- understandably -- leading to anger erupting in our communities.

In other countries, similar problems have had huge political consequences.

Famously, in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte came to power promising he would order police to fatally shoot drug dealers and users. He claimed to have personally killed 10 while serving as a mayor.

In office he fulfilled his promise, ordering police to shoot to kill.

However, such a policy never ends with...