OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Former OneWorld editor Alison Raphael recently returned to the Washington, DC area after three years living in South Africa. She comments on the crime that has become endemic there and took the life of music superstar Lucky Dube last week.

Life in South Africa is dicey. On the surface of everyday life, people are extremely polite and proper. But underneath, I learned after three years as a resident, anger and violence are seething.

You can lose your life for a cell phone. Home invasions are common; those unlucky enough to be at home are often tortured, raped, and killed, including infants and children. South Africa's newspapers and news broadcasts are permeated by daily reports of sickening, ultra-violent crime.

Unfortunately, the focus of most concern is not on compensation for victims or rehabilitation for criminals. Nor are major efforts being made to delve into the roots of the violence associated with crime. Is it a residue of hatred generated by apartheid? Is it because so many young people are growing up without parental guidance, due to AIDS deaths? Could it be due to the fact that millions still live in leaky shacks with no water or electricity, 12 years after apartheid came to an end? Is it attributable to the degeneration of community customs, values, and controls resulting from urbanization? Or could it be drugs, more and more commonplace in South Africa's cities?

Instead, the question being asked is: will violence mar the 2010 World Cup? Or convince soccer fans to stay away, cutting into profits? South Africa has invested huge amounts of taxpayer dollars in building and upgrading soccer stadiums and transportation systems. If violence turns fans away, white elephants will dot the entire country.

The murderers of Lucky Dube were found quickly, which is fairly uncommon. Although the official story is that he was the target of a robbery, word on the local street is that the motive was mostly related to envy. He was shot execution style, neither his car nor his wallet were stolen. Although the majority of home-invasion victims are white, Lucky Dube was a wealthy and successful black man, one of a relative handful in South Africa.

If the motive for his murder was indeed envy, policymakers should be focusing on a whole series of issues related to social inequality, crime, and justice rather than the impact on 2010.