Johannesburg - The leader of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Gayton McKenzie, has called for the return of the death penalty to deal with high level of crime in the country.
He said people were being murdered every day in places such as Nyanga, Mitchells Plain, and other areas without any consequences for the poerpetrators.
McKenzie said the country’s obsession with democracy, which most people do not understand, had contributed to this state of affairs and the undermining of the laws of the country.
McKenzie, who recently stepped down from his mayoral duties in Central Karoo, was speaking during an interview on the latest Penuel "The Black Pen" podcast.
"We love democracy, but we do not understand this thing. We say we do not want the death penalty. We must have the death penalty. Someone can come in and rob you guys of these cameras and kill you. What is that?
“ I am saying the state must have the right to kill. People argue with me that the death penalty is not a deterrent. I was a criminal, and I am telling you the death penalty is a deterrent," he said.
He said that having been a gangster, he had learnt that taking out the leader of the gang was enough to stop gang wars.
"I have been a gang leader and gang boss; if you start with the boss, you will find other legal ways to survive. At the moment, we are only going for the small fish. Like in the Thabo Bester case, we have not seen the big guys come out. Something like that does not get pulled off without the big guys," he said.
He cited the example of El Savador where its President, Nayib Bukele, elected in 2019 on the promise to fight organised crime and improve security, was able to reduce the number of gang-related murders through tougher laws and even tougher consequences for murderers.
These included restrictions on gatherings and monitoring of communication following a spike in homicides in 2022, with as many as 30 violent killings a day.
"El Salvador had a guy that came in as president, Nayib Bukele. When he came, he had 30 murders a day, and today he only has one murder a day for 365 days. For that one murder, he sent the whole army and the whole police force to descend on that municipality," McKenzie said.
More than 6 200 people were killed between January and March this year in South Africa, the police's latest crime statistics revealed. This translates to almost 70 murders a day.
The Star