Of course you're right, Johnny, but in the absence of publicly available stats from the Police and the Justice Dept, perhaps tracking particular cases is a way to start! Do people remember the dramatic front page article in the Cape Times of August 14 2008 showing our Deputy Justice Minister apparently tearing his hair out in despair and frustration, alongside the headline, 'Minister's Crime Bombshell'? Among the points he made was that a staggering 660 000 dockets were 'thrown out' in 2007. This was in spite of the fact that in over 70% of the cases 'the perpetrators were known'. What is our success rate with murders? We don't know! 'It was impossible to say of the 18 000 murders that happened 5 years ago, what became of them.' What can we do? There is an election coming up and we can ask political parties what proposals they have to do something about what is an obviously dsyfunctional criminal justice system. And we can vote accordingly, and try to hold whoever is elected to their election promises. Rob
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