One hundred and thirty-three murders - 69 of which were committed more than two years ago - and as yet not one murder conviction.
A disgraceful fracas in the Johannesburg city centre, with Metro police closing off part of a highway and exchanging live gunfire with policemen, yet, two months later, no charges have been laid.
These are just two scenes from a society in which lawlessness has apparently become the order of the day, rather than safety and security.
'We have so many cases of selective law enforcement that the wheels have come off'
Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said: "If we continue being a lawless society, which is what we are doing, we are well on our way to anarchy. The point is that, as admitted by Johnny de Lange, the deputy minister of justice, the system is not working.
"The second point is that, if the law is broken, then the authorities must act. But we have so many cases in this country of selective law enforcement that the wheels have come off in general."
The Sunday Independent this week attempted to find out what progress had been made in four high-profile incidents that occurred in the past few years - the police fracas, the deaths of 69 security guards during a strike in 2006, the murder of two Johannesburg Metrobus drivers during a strike in 2007, and the xenophobic violence in Gauteng.
No one has been convicted of murder in connection with the deaths of the 69 security guards who died during the security guards' strike between March and June 2006. Many of the guards, who were accused of being scabs during the strike, died in the network of railway lines that connect Pretoria and the East and West Rands with Johannesburg. Most were flung from trains. But many were also shot or severely assaulted.
Superintendent Eugene Opperman, a spokesperson for the South African Police Service, said this week that there had been "a few" convictions for assault and intimidation in connection with the murders.
'Where the unions are involved, there are not going to be charges brought'
A June 2007 statement by Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini, the Gauteng police spokesperson, said that, "by May 29 2006, 11 suspects had already been arrested across [Gauteng] and they were facing charges of murder, attempted murder and assault with grievous bodily harm".
But Opperman confirmed this week that no one had been convicted of murder.
"In cases, like these, where many were killed mainly by being thrown off trains by their supposed colleagues, it's very difficult to make murder charges stick," he said.
No charges have ever been laid for the March 2007 murders of the two Johannesburg Metrobus drivers, who were found burned beyond recognition in Kagiso on the West Rand, during the Johannesburg bus drivers' strike, a senior official of the Johannesburg metro said.
"The thing is, where you have political involvement, where the unions are involved, there are not going to be charges brought," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. "That's the way it is. You can forget about it."
There was better news regarding the 62 people murdered during the xenophobic violence in May. A number of cases have been prepared in connection with the xenophobic murders. But none has come to court yet and Tlali Tlali, the spokesperson for the national prosecuting authority (NPA), was unable give any firm dates for trials.
Tlali said that 56 cases relating to xenophobic violence were "trial ready", but had been postponed for further investigation and bail and legal aid applications.
In addition, said Tlali, there were 351 cases, involving 1 331 people, that were pending. But they were not trial ready yet.
The charges listed by the NPA for the xenophobic violence had theft, robbery, rape, public violence, house breaking, assault, inciting public violence and arson appended to them - with murder low down on the list of the charges.
Regarding the fracas on June 25 this year, when 400 striking Johannesburg metro policemen blocked off part of a highway and had a gunfight with police service members, Wayne Minnaar, the spokesman for the Johannesburg metro police department, said that the department would hold a press conference this week at which it would be announced whether the incident would be dealt with internally or by the NPA in open court.
Opperman confirmed that a decision was imminent on how the charges against the striking metro police would be dealt with. "[It] could be that it will be an internal matter," he said.
The Sunday Independent has contacted Charles Nqakula, the minister of safety and security, a number of times since Thursday midday, asking whether he had any additional information about any of the four incidents, and asking him to comment on justice being delayed being tantamount to justice denied.
But the minister had not responded by the time of going to press.
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