President Cyril Ramaphosa, through his weekly newsletter, has urged citizens to work together with law enforcement to fight and combat crime in communities.
"Crime, even if it has not affected us directly, is everybody's problem. If we continue to work together as government, the business community, labour and civil society, we can restore the safety and security that is critical to economic activity and the creation of jobs," President Ramaphosa said on Monday.
Honing in on Operation Shanela - government's multi-sectoral crime fighting strategy - the President said the vital initiative continues to gain momentum.
"Through roadblocks, stop and search operations, foot patrols and business compliance inspections, Operation Shanela's teams have made important progress in dealing with crime hotspots and organised crime syndicates.
"The update delivered by the SAPS [South African Police Service] last week noted that solid police work over the past year had resulted in more than 700 000 arrests for various crimes, including murder, cash-in-transit robberies, vehicle hijacking and sexual offences.
"Over the past two years more than 20 000 firearms have been seized, including several homemade guns and rifles. More than 3000 firearms were seized in the Western Cape, where gun violence amongst warring gangs is particularly rife," President Ramaphosa said.
He added that not only does crime cause trauma and instability, it is also an impediment to South Africa's economic growth and development - an issue which government is transfixed with solving.
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"During the sixth administration, we established specialised task teams to deal with economic sabotage such as cable theft, the vandalism of power installations and railway lines, illicit mining and extortion in the construction industry.
"These crimes are highly organised and run by syndicates. As such, we have taken a multi-pronged strategy to combat them. Over the past five years, 722 so-called construction mafia suspects have been arrested for extortion at construction sites. Fifty-two have so far been convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from 7 months to 89 years imprisonment.
"Our approach to crime-fighting has had to evolve in response to new types of crime. These include illicit mining and construction site extortion, and, more recently, kidnappings for ransom and more sophisticated drug manufacturing and smuggling operations," the President said.
He emphasised that through working together - citizens can take back their communities.
"If, as communities, we play an active role in supporting the police through the CPFs [community police forum] and other structures, we can indeed take back our homes, our businesses, our communities and our streets from criminals. If we continue the good work started through Operation Shanela, we can beat crime and build a safe and secure country," President Ramaphosa said.
