George Michalakis is the DA’s new parliamentary leader. (Photo: DA/X)
The criminal justice system in South Africa is failing at almost every level, and the government must use all available resources to reduce violent crime.
This is what George Michalakis, the DA’s parliamentary leader, said during the debate on the budget of the presidency.
According to him, the crisis in the criminal justice system is not simply a departmental failure, but a broader management failure that affects the state’s constitutional duty to protect citizens.
“The first duty of any democratic government is not simply to govern, but to protect.”
He argued that South Africans in communities across the country live in fear, while the police, courts, prosecuting authorities and correctional services are under severe pressure.
According to Michalakis, an average of 58 South Africans lose their lives every day due to violence. He says this figure does not represent mere statistics, but families that are destroyed by crime.
He said the criminal justice chain is breaking “at every link” – from investigations and prosecutions to imprisonment and rehabilitation. Among other things, he referred to police leadership which he says is repeatedly affected by allegations of corruption and misconduct, police officers at station level who do not have basic resources, incomplete investigations, insufficient prosecution capacity and large court backlogs.
Michalakis also said the correctional services system cannot account for more than 28,000 people on parole, while many offenders leave prisons more dangerous than when they arrived.
“This is not simply an administrative issue. This is a profound constitutional failure,” he stressed.
He pres. Citing Cyril Ramaphosa’s statements about mothers who have lost children to gang violence, the question is not whether the president can look them in the eye, but whether the state has done everything possible to prevent such deaths.
According to Michalakis, the government should consider practical proposals to give provinces and competent metros greater powers to investigate crime, gather intelligence, manage forensic functions and tackle local crime patterns more purposefully.
He said that this proposal is not aimed at weakening the state or fragmenting authority, but at mobilizing all available capacity.
“What is proposed is not the weakening of the state, but its strengthening. It is not the fragmentation of authority, but the mobilization of all available capacity in the service of a common goal.”
According to Michalakis, existing local safety initiatives, including Leap officers and community safety programs, are already showing measurable results where local governments have acted within their existing mandates. However, he says their impact is still limited by national legislative restrictions.
He believes that the Constitution already provides for cooperative government, and that political will is now needed to implement it.
“No party political consideration should outweigh that duty. No ideology should be more important than the life of a child. No loyalty should replace accountability.”
He added that South Africans deserve a government that sees every preventable death as a call to action and that treats public safety as the foundation of freedom, dignity and democracy.
“We cannot save those we have already lost. But together, if we choose courage over complacency and action over excuses, we can save those who are still with us.”