Descent into mafia state

The bedrock of any functional democracy is the social contract through which citizens relinquish certain liberties in exchange for state-guaranteed safety. In South Africa, that contract is not merely being breached; it is being shredded.

The recent surge in brazen violence within our public institutions — the very sanctuaries of justice, healing, and learning — signals a terrifying descent into what analysts now describe as a "mafia state". When gunfire erupts outside the Booysens Magistrate’s Court, teachers are gunned down within the confines of Eastern Cape schools, and pupils stabbed at school and doctors shot at hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, the message to the public is clear: no space is sacred.

These are not isolated incidents of criminality; they are symptoms of a systemic collapse. As Professor André Duvenhage rightly observes, the line between the political elite and the criminal underworld has blurred to the point of invisibility. We are witnessing the "hell on earth" that occurs when the state loses its monopoly on force and the rule of law is replaced by the rule of the bullet.

The response from the government has been a predictable cycle of hollow condemnations and unfulfilled promises to "upgrade security". Yet, as the Public Servants Association points out, a few extra cameras and untrained guards with sjamboks are insufficient. The crisis is deeper than physical infrastructure. It is rooted in a criminal justice system that has been hollowed out by state capture, leaving it unable to prosecute and deter.

When institutions like Rietvlei Hospital and our suburban schools become battlegrounds, it reflects a society where "statelessness" is becoming the daily reality for the vulnerable.The buck stops with the government. While society shares a moral responsibility, only the state possesses the mandate to restore order.

If the Justice Department and SA Police Service cannot secure the grounds of a courthouse, they cannot claim to govern. Without urgent, decisive action to reclaim these public spaces, South Africans will continue to "weaponise" themselves in a desperate bid for survival, further fracturing the democracy we fought so hard to build.