This week, 35-year-old attorney Chinette Gallichan was brutally gunned down in the Johannesburg central business district. Her death was a stark reminder of the deterioration of law and order in South Africa’s major metropolitan centres. How can we begin to restore safety and security amidst such rampant criminality?

Gallichan was a labour lawyer working for the mining company, Sibanye Stillwater, and was killed outside the offices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA), where she was due to appear in a labour dispute that fateful Monday morning.

The motive for her murder is unclear, but it forms part of a worrying trend of attacks on the legal profession. Last year, insolvency lawyer, Bouwer van Niekerk (43), was killed in his offices in a targeted hit. At the time, Van Niekerk was part of an investigation into an alleged Ponzi scheme.

Meanwhile, advocates and judges are regularly held up at gunpoint while running the gauntlet to the High Court.

Others who have attempted to fix the mess in downtown Johannesburg have met a tragic end. Last year, celebrity DJ and podcaster Warrick Stock (AKA “DJ Warras”) was shot and killed by three suspects while overseeing the installation of security systems in a building near the Carlton Centre.

Chinette, Bouwer, and Warrick are just three of the countless victims of violent crime in Johannesburg. There are many more whose stories go untold.

Security first

I focus a lot of my time and attention on how to promote economic freedom and human flourishing.

Every year, the Free Market Foundation (FMF), in collaboration with the Fraser Institute, a free-market think tank in Canada, publishes the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) Index.

The EFW ranks countries according to various metrics of economic freedom, including the size of government, regulation, freedom to trade internationally, legal system and property rights, and sound money.

South Africa consistently ranks in the middle of the EFW index. The past two years it has ranked 83rd out of 165 countries.

One of the reasons for South Africa’s mediocre ranking is that the state seems intent on regulating, controlling, and inserting itself almost everywhere it does not belong, while continuing to neglect or ignore the basics of what a government should be doing.

Unfortunately, you can spend as much time as you like tweaking economic policy but if you cannot protect the basic rights of your citizens and enforce their private property rights, then you won’t make a meaningful impact on poverty, unemployment, and the various ills that come with it.

Who will watch the watchmen?

This week, it was revealed that National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, will face criminal charges over Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s allegedly fraudulent R360 million health services tender. The charges relate to Masemola’s alleged flouting of the Public Finance Management Act, and he has been summonsed to appear in court on 21 April.

Masemola will be the third serving police chief to be charged after Khomotso Phahlane and Jackie Selebi.

This takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, established last year to investigate the alleged infiltration of the security services by a network of criminal syndicates.

It is discomforting to say the least that the people entrusted with maintaining law and order may themselves be compromised. But you can only begin to solve a problem by first acknowledging its true nature.

Battleground Johannesburg

While many citizens of Johannesburg rightly bemoan the poor state of the city’s infrastructure, the upstream cause of these problems is not merely mismanagement, but in fact rampant criminality.

This is something that Helen Zille will have to confront should she become the next mayor of Johannesburg. Not only will she have to root out the deeply embedded corrupt elements in the city administration itself, but she will also have to deal with the breakdown of basic safety on the streets.

While the national government might have formal jurisdiction over policing, Mayor Zille will need to push the envelope of the city’s authority and do what is necessary to protect the rights of Jo’burgers.

We at the FMF have long argued that well-meaning local governments – and organised civil society – must simply do the work of creating safety as a matter of legal necessity, even when the law is interpreted as standing in the way.

Just do what needs to be done, given the nature of the crisis.

Light in the darkness

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by the Maharishi Invincibility Institute (MII), a youth empowerment and skills development centre in downtown Johannesburg run by the indefatigable social entrepreneur Taddy Blecher.

Graduates of the Maharishi Invincibility Institute security guard training programme on the steps of 44 Main Street, Johannesburg. Photo by David Ansara

The occasion was the launch of the Maharishi NextUp Institute of Technology, which focuses on equipping young people with the high-tech skills of the future, including artificial intelligence and cyber-security skills.

Located at the old Anglo American complex on 44 Main Street, MMI’s Education Town has already trained over 25 000 young people and helped to secure employment for over 22 000 of these graduates.

Beyond skills development, MII is also leading a revival of the downtown area in partnership with the non-profit initiative, Jozi My Jozi.

MII has trained thousands of security guards, many of whom now work to secure the Education Town campus and the surrounding area. They have also installed surveillance cameras and streetlights and to beef up security.

Jozi My Jozi and MII succeed without relying on government funding, instead benefiting from the generous support of corporates and individuals who have bought into their mission.

Initiatives like these have the potential to create virtuous cycles of growth that can have positive spillover effects for the rest of the city. But without security of tenure and basic safety, they will struggle to be sustainable.

This is not easy work. It is time and capital intensive. But the alternative – waiting and hoping for government to fix the problems it created – will only lead to further decay.

Ansara is CEO of the Free Market Foundation.