Family rehab, community policing, crucial keys in crime reduction in SA

Family rehab, community policing, crucial keys in crime reduction in SA, says Dr. Aba-Afari, Africa’s first female PhD police officer  

EVEN with the unenviable record of South Africa being ranked among the top five countries going by the 2024 highest crime index in the world, hope is not lost in reversing the negative trend. South Africa which comes behind Venezuela, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan and Haiti need to tap into the virtues hidden in African family values and community policing to engage the crime monster.

These are the fundamental keys required to turn the country’s security situation around according to Dr. Sarah Aba-Afari, Ghanaian, and Africa’s first female PhD police officer. She said in an exclusive chat with mdntvlive.com the seemingly intractable malaise could be sent tumbling if government pays attention to these areas. 

Following the well-established sociological tenet that the basic unit of the society is the family, Dr. Aba-Afari bemoaned its broken state in South Africa. She attributed the uncertain state of the family to the deliberate dislocation targeted at it by the Apartheid regime which enthroned poverty, poor quality education, and social down grade. 

“During the Apartheid, most rights were taken from the indigenes – the non-white population. They were subjected to poverty and given inferior education, and were not given opportunity to train themselves and have the needed skill sets,” Dr. Aba-Afari held. She added the relocation and dislocation of people from their traditional homes affected the status of the family and many lost important ties and grip on raising their children properly.

According to the top police brass, there is something tied to the African family values that would not allow any child to do what will cause the mother or grandmother to cry in lamentation. She added, “The African family wants nothing shameful, or even crime and related offences to be ascribed to the family; that is why no wayward child who partakes in criminality wants it done in its neighborhood. Every child is influenced by the family; the mothers especially have influence on all the children. Mothers could talk with their eyes and body without uttering a word, and the children understood.

Advancing her position, Dr. Aba-Afari said the Apartheid system did a lot of harm in dislocating families and communities thereby robbing parents the opportunity to raise the African child in the midst of deprivations. She argued that this missing link is all the policy makers need to restore, and then introduce or revamp community policing if already in place. Tackling of any kind of crime, she noted is dependent on information generated from members of the community.

Whether the community policing involves liaising with traditional heads, drivers’ union, market women associations, faith-based organizations, schools and different social groups, the information is still derivable from family members in a community. Therefore, success of crime prevention and reduction, she argued will largely depend on well raised households.

Dr. Aba-Afari called for policies that will support parents to train the children adding that many men are abdicating their roles in the family and turning the women to single parents. She charged the men to exercise the authority in the family for which African men are known.

The 2024 world crime rating obtained from Numbeo.com shows Venezuela at 81.2, Papua New Guinea 79.7, Afghanistan 78.3, Haiti 77.9 and South Africa 75.4