ANC blames other Africans for South Africa's high crime rate

James Butty:

The African Peer Review Mechanism, in a report to be released next month among African leaders, reportedly said crime, poverty, unemployment and the dominance of the ruling African National Congress are threatening South Africa’s stability. The group, which was formed by the African Union to help countries improve their governance, reportedly said while South Africa has made progress since the end of white minority rule in 1994, violent crime remains its most difficult challenge.

Smuts Ngonyama is spokesman for the ruling African National Congress. He said the South African government is not responsible for the rise in crime.

“I know for a fact that the government is working on the crime issue. The crime in South Africa is brought in here by a number of people that are coming from all over the world, and most of the people that get arrested are coming from a number countries in Africa, people that are involved in drugs and stuff like that,” he said.

Ngonyama described as “hogwash” reports attributed to the African Peer Review Mechanism which alleged that South Africa’s high crime rate may be due in part to the ruling African National Congress’ policies.

“I hope you will not undertake me as being rude if I say that is hogwash because if you look at the continent as a whole in Africa, the strongest country now economically is South Africa. You have next door to South Africa is Zimbabwe where the economy is falling flat. You have the economy next to us which is Mozambique is not moving. You can go to a number of countries in the continent. That’s why you have an exodus of people,” he said.

Migration to Cape 'cause of conflict'

SA failing children - report

The State of the Nation