Lucky Dube's unlucky killers

I was extremely saddened to hear of the tragic passing of a South African music legend. Not only was his music of the highest calibre but his words were about peace, family values and a call to his listeners to respect each other, the world and all of creation. Yet he knew, wrote and sang about the terrible violence we as South Africans face every day.
This great icon of our beautiful country was murdered in cold blood, killed in a hail of bullets in front of his children. What barbaric and savage psych allows a human being to commit such a heinous crime? In another mindless attack a young father's throat was slit in front of his two children two months ago in Johannesburg. He was tied up and immobile at the time. His children watched him die as he bled to death in the same room as them. No arrests have been made to this day.
Why then are Lucky Dube's killers unlucky? Every year nearly fifty five thousand reported rapes occur, some of them due to a bizarre belief among some African black men that sex with a virgin can cure HIV/AIDS. An unbelievable figure of over nineteen thousand people are murdered in South Africa every year. That is about fifty murders per day! While some perpetrators are caught most aren't. Even if they are, the inefficient and corrupt criminal justice system cannot cope with the amount of criminals resulting in high escape and low conviction rates.
Who is responsible? Is it the sometimes inept police department. Just try report a crime at your local police station and see what the odds are of walking out feeling confident of a favourable result. In all fairness though, there are some phenomenal police members out there who put their lives on the line for minimal salaries so no, I don't believe the individual members are responsible, I think they are working their butts off for the most part.
I have called the police twice this year, once to arrest a criminal I had caught myself. After two hours I called our private security company to escort the criminal to the police station as they had not pitched. I was rather dissapointed 3 months later when the court date was set for a later date due to a strike. The second time I called was for an attempted break in at my home at midnight on a Thursday a few months ago. Three cars and six police arrived within 12-15 minutes which was extremely appreciated. Thank you again to the guys at Durban North police station!
I won't even start on our illustrious Jackie Selebi who is beyond reproach...yeah right. I think only Jacob Zuma and the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang believe he is completely innocent. I would mention Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula at this point but hey, he just wants us folk who complain to leave the country. I wonder if Charles and our Northern neighbour Robert Mugabe compare notes each evening. I think Charles is a little jealous as ol' Rob gets to beat the crap out of his citizens on a regular basis. OK I finally think I am starting to zone in on those who have the power but maybe not the inclination to do anything about the crime in South Africa.
What about those over-crowded prisons you may ask? How can we send criminals to jail when there is no space to put them? Well, what about the billions of rands being used to build new stadiums for the 2010 world cup, when some of the older stadiums could have been enlarged and refurbished at less than half the cost. That money could have been used to build prisons and wait for it...yes you could have built houses, hospitals, infrastructure and actually brought amenities like water and electricity to hundred of thousands, maybe millions of impoverished citizens. Imagine that, what a crazy idea. Am I the only person to have thought of this?
Well here I am rambling on but I have not answered my own question. Why then are Lucky Dube's killers unlucky? Because you killed a CELEBRITY you idiots! The chances of you being caught for killing a normal South African of any colour or creed were really slim. But you went and killed a celebrity. That is news that travels around the world in minutes and you know how our politicians hate bad publicity. Just in case there are one or two people worldwide that don't know that South Africa's crime situation spiralled out of control years ago.
The crime was committed on a Friday and by Monday five people were arrested for the crime. They were found in possession of illegal firearms, stolen cars and other presumed stolen items. My question is how were they found so quickly? I may be wrong but I believe that the crime fighting authorities are aware of crime syndicates and are either too scared, too under-equipped (think billions spent on soccer stadiums) or too well paid (at a senior level) to want to do anything about them. Strange that JS has been linked to a notorious cartel or two.
Come on government, get your priorities straight. Stop worrying about what the rest of the world thinks about you. Sort out the mess that we are in, in a logical and sensible fashion. The rest of the world can then enjoy our shores by visiting us as tourists, unafraid of violent crime and just enjoying our beautiful people, sea-sides, forests and mountains. This will in turn bring much needed foreign currency to us as well as kick starting job-creation: The only truly sustainable way of reducing poverty and crime in our South Africa.

Your memory will live long Lucky Dube...Jah Rules