Government officials meet to find solutions for crime-ridden Richmond

Alcohol abuse, child-headed households being drawn into a life of crime, the spread of illegal guns and criminal justice system failures are the biggest contributing factors to violent crime in the Richmond area in KwaZulu-Natal.

This emerged during an integrated ministerial stakeholder meeting in the largely rural town situated in the Umgungundlovu district.

Richmond has seen a surge in violent crimes over the past two years, including two mass murders with eight people killed in one and six in the other.

Deputy justice minister John Jeffrey said the problems in the area largely stemmed from social ills like alcohol abuse.

“What I know is that there are social problems here. Issues of alcohol are a big problem. When we had an alcohol ban during the lockdown, the crime rate decreased drastically. A lot of the murders and sexual crimes are linked to taverns so those are broader social problems we’re going to be looking at,” he said.

Deputy minister of social development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said attacks on social workers in the area made it difficult to tackle the social challenges.

She said there were almost as many taverns as households in the area and she was concerned about adults who did not see drinking with underage girls as a problem.

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said abuse of alcohol was contributing to crime in the area.

He added child-headed households were being co-opted into the world of crime.

“If you look at the stats (you will) see the number of families who are headed by children, where there are no adults. Youngsters who are 15 years or younger are living alone in those houses and turn them into a haven for criminals and all illegal things that are happening in there, like illicit goods.

“The youngsters become easy prey for the bigger syndicates, like drug lords, who capitalise on that by feeding drugs to these kids who then become aggressive and end up committing bigger crimes,” said Mkhwanazi.

He also expressed concern about illegal guns.

The community was urged to assist police in the fight against crime.

“The way our system works is that to find somebody guilty you’ve got to find and bring evidence to the court. So if the community wants people to be found guilty, they have to help bring in evidence,” said Jeffrey.

He added: “I’m also concerned about the criminal justice system in terms of the number of cases that go to court compared to number of cases that actually go to trial. There is too big a gap and we’re going to get to the bottom of why that is and what can be done to correct it.

“There are also reports of criminals who are in prison still seemingly involved in ensuring that crimes are committed by giving instructions from the inside and that’s something I’m very concerned about.”

Mkhwanazi said police have apprehended several suspects allegedly responsible for the murder of eight people in a drug-related war while some suspects had died in a battle with police.

“Most of the criminals are not from the here. They are called from Pietermaritzburg by older people to kill their rivals in the area,” he said.

Mkhwanazi said an additional five police officers would be deployed to Richmond, along with a mobile police station and vehicles which will be delivered in June after the new police recruits complete their field training.

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