The following is an excerpt from an article that was published in the Daily Maverick newspaper dated 19 February 2023 by Greg Mills and Ray Hartley, under the heading supra:

"The latest South African crime statistics make for grim reading. The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, announced that in the last three months of last year no fewer than 7555 people were murdered, 3144 of them by firearms. To put this in perspective, some 7199 civilians are believed to have died during the first year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a conventional, high-intensity conflict involving indiscriminate missile attacks on blocks of flats and the site of gruesome executions, which has captured global media attention.

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[This is an extract of an article as published in Pollex in Servamus: May 2023. If you are interested in reading the rest of the discussion, send an e-mail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or a WhatsApp or SMS message to: 078 712 1745 to find out what you need to do to acquire the article. Ed.]