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Thread: SA Bill of Rights and crime. Can we win?

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    SA Bill of Rights and crime. Can we win?

    I decided to have a look at the SA bill of rights as in SA constitution, chapter 2, sect.11 - 'Everyone has the right to life', and sect.12(c) - 'to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources'Then I found a white paper - 'Rights and Responsibilities in our Democracy - a case study of the Victims Charter', by Naomi Webster, Department of Justice & Consitiutional Development.Note the following two statements from this white paper:1) Active citizenry is when individuals understand that they have to participate in every sphere of social life, they have to claim their rights and exercise responsibility.2) We cannot lay claim to rights if we do not take an active role in asserting our rights. We should understand that asserting our right is based on knowing, understanding both the right and correlating duty and taking action.

    What does this mean? The way I understand it is that we as citizens cannot lay claim to (for example) these 2 bill of rights, we have to earn the right to these rights. How do we earn the right to claim these rights? According to government we must become actively involved as a partner with eg. government & private policing agencies to create and ensure a safer 'crime-free' environment.

    Then I think back (with a heavy heart) of the 100's of thousands of innocent souls (expired SA citizens) of all races over the years that have died a horrific death at the hands of brutal violent criminals roaming our land. Place of death: mostly in the safety of their own homes, Loot taken: stupid cellphones, little cash, some cars, Motive: greed and hate.

    I am sure a good % of the dead participated in some form of partnership with government in trying to exercise their rights whether be involved in community policing, educating someone in the joys of living in a safer community, etc.
    BUT now they are all DEAD!
    These % of dead people have earned their right to claim the 2 mentioned bill of rights above (if I understand the contents of the white paper above correctly), but what good is this so-called SA bill of rights to them? They are all DEAD!

    We need to stay alive to exercise our rights, we need to be safe in our homes.
    For the life of me, I cannot understand why some clever lawyer with guts hasn't taken this the Constitutional court. I am just a stupid engineer, guess what a young aggressive lawyer/s with guts can do.
    Oh, I forgot, there's the green (money) issue...
    Brother Angus (the preacher, with all respect) is probably a good thing, but if the 10's of 1000's he attracts can donate just 10 bucks, it can go quite a way to build a damn case with the Constitutional court they will never forget.
    If there's SA's out there with guts, let me know your ideas how to get the damn ball rolling. And the SA's I am talking about are citizens of our country (irrespective of race), we all have AT THE VERY LEAST the right to be free from violence and to be safe in our place of living (without having to earn it) in order to exercise the right to the rest of the SA bill of rights.

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Welcome to TFSA, Patzeel.

    I'm pretty sure your concern about crime is widely shared. The topic certainly comes up from time to time here. I see the problem in making real progress as...

    How do we get people to take up the issue in a meaningful way that will actually make a substantial difference?

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