The art of fighting crime versus South Africa's 'new' direction

The strategy of war has for many centuries been defined as an art. In 1967 Liddel Hart defined war strategy as '... the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfil the ends of policy'. In 1977 Rejai broadened the definition when he described strategy as: ... all actions, policies, instruments and apparatus necessary to achieve the political goal. It has four main components: leadership, ideology, organisation and the use of violence.

Applying the same logic and slightly adapting the above definitions, it can be argued that the fight against crime (or the war on crime) should also be developed as an art. Not only does it then imply that the South African government must have a proper policy in place to deal with crime, but also that it should use all its resources to achieve the ends set by its policy. However, it should be noted that the police and the rest of the criminal justice system (CJS) cannot be regarded as 'all the resources' that the government has to effectively fight against crime.

Editor's Comment
Closure as pain lingers

March 28 will go down as a day that Batswana will never forget because of the accident that occurred near Mmamatlakala in Limpopo, South Africa. The tragedy affected not only the grieving families but the nation at large. Batswana throughout the process stood behind the grieving families and the governments of Botswana and South Africa need much more than a pat on the back.Last Saturday was a day when family members said their last goodbyes to...

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