The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is shocked by the brutal murder of Leon Brits, the owner of the well-known Pofadder hotel.
We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Leon Brits. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.
Just like communities across the province and the country, the DA is fed up with escalating levels of violent crime in South Africa and especially the increasingly vicious attacks on people residing in our rural areas.
The levels of crime that we are witnessing are simply unthinkable and inhumane. We cannot continue to live in a society where people are tortured to death on a daily basis and nothing is done about it.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, government leaders and the police must come to the table now. They cannot allow this to continue. They need to act or otherwise be seen as being complicit in the ongoing massacre of people residing in outlying areas.
We need drastically improved policing to stop the murders. We need more police officers, more resources and more upskilling of our police service. We need this today, not tomorrow or the next day because by then, more lives will have been unnecessarily lost.
We also need more perpetrators arrested and convicted as a matter of urgency, because otherwise the cycle of crime and the fear will simply continue unabated.
The killings must end today. People in rural areas also have the right to life and the right to safety and those who have fallen prey to ruthless criminals deserve justice too.