Curfewing crime

Muckraker knew it was only a matter of time before the curfew was exposed as a patently daft idea contrived on the hoof. Being generous, she gave it a week or two.

But it took only a few nights for the plan to unravel.

While the police and soldiers were still putting on their uniforms, four people were murdered days after the curfew was imposed.

Those who had been sweating to defend the curfew are now back-pedalling.

Staunch bootlickers are either still in denial or concocting laughably inane excuses to explain why the murders are continuing despite the curfew.

Give it time, they say.

But time is something we don’t have, especially when we know the curfew is a wrong solution to a gravely serious problem. People are being killed yet the government is doing trial and error. The truth is that there is no plan to stop the murders.

The past half a year has been just one long experiment headed for a spectacular failure. The government is clutching at one crime prevention method after the other.

The joint operation of the police, army and spies is not working.

The recall of guns, legal and illegal, didn’t achieve much. You cannot command people living in a country with the highest murder rates in the world to surrender their licensed guns. Muckraker will bet her last coin that there are now more people looking for guns, legal or illegal, for self-protection.

Those with illegal guns don’t give a rat’s behind about such orders.

They don’t take instructions from either the government or their conscience. This curfew is the government’s last roll of a dice.

The past few days have already shown that it is not working.

Muckraker will not say she told you so. Instead, she will add a few things that make this curfew doubly ridiculous. The first is the penalty for violating the curfew.

Read slowly.

Get caught violating the curfew and you will face up to two years in jail or a M10 000 fine. Yet if you are caught with an illegal gun you are likely to get away with a M500 fine or six months in jail.

Those convicted simply have to sell a goat to avoid jail.

You sell a goat for M1 000, pay the M500 fine and use the rest for a celebration. Bingo! Cheers!

The second thing about this curfew is that its harsh penalties for offenders cannot be compared to those countries with justified curfews.

Take Ukraine, as an example, which has a curfew because it is at war. The maximum sentence for violating that curfew is 15 days in jail. You get the point.

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuu!

muckraker.post@gmail.com