The law enforcement authorities have got a fairly good idea of who are these principal criminals. Who are the people, for instance, who receive the cell phones? When a young person goes and snatches a cell phone, there's someone who is sitting somewhere who receives this. Lots of this kind of crime.
Thabo MbekiWe should never become despondent because the weather is bad, nor should we turn triumphalist because the sun shines.
Thabo MbekiYou'll find a lot of rural municipalities, very, very big district municipalities that actually have no tax base whereas our system of government presumes that the bulk of resources from government will come from resources that they will generate themselves.
Thabo MbekiThat is one of the reasons why we have raised this matter about the need to focus quite sharply on the function of local government, but also on the resourcing of local government. Because it may very well be that we say to local government, you have got to run an indigent policy.
Thabo MbekiCertainly the Government has tried to handle the matter of our relations with the rest of the Continent in a very sensitive manner.
Thabo MbekiThat it is not enough to catch a criminal and get them convicted and so on, because the victim remains with the consequences of the crime. Something needs to be done. Let's complete that process, interact with civil society about this, so that we will specify what is it that we do in the context of that Charter that would then make this positive impact on people who might have been affected by crime.
Thabo MbekiI think anybody who knows anything about South Africa and the South African economy would know that one of the big constraints to growth and development is skills shortages. So all of us, need to come at this thing as vigorously as is possible and, of course, the private sector has the capacity to take it on board.
Thabo Mbeki