ActionSA president Herman Mashaba believes that South Africa is on the verge of becoming a failed state if rampant lawlessness is not put to an immediate stop.
According to Mashaba, his party would put the restoration of law and order at the top of its agenda if it were to take charge of the Union Buildings.
Mashaba said this during an interview with Sunday World Engage.
Among many strategies that an ActionSA government would put into action to bring about law and order would be a mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
Also, charged Mashaba, prisoners would serve a life sentence in its literal sense and do hard labour as part of paying back society for their sins.
Mashaba is a firm believer in the death sentence.
With law and order in place, he said, economic prosperity would be guaranteed because foreign investors would be at ease investing in SA.
“We must immediately bring back the rule of law because the rule of law is the foundation for any successful nation. We must immediately capacitate the police and re-establish the Scorpions with less political interference,” said Mashaba.
“The rule of law must be the key priority. We would need to deal with corruption at home affairs and clean out all those who acquired their SA citizenship fraudulently. People of the world want to come to South Africa but they want to do so with a guarantee that their lives will be protected.”
Mashaba believes that illegal immigrants are among the leading causes and enablers of crime in SA since they cannot be traced. Their mass deportation should be non-negotiable, said Mashaba, if South Africa is to count itself among serious countries in the world.
“South Africa is a sovereign country, and in a sovereign country, there are borders. There are laws that regulate people coming in and out of the country. People must come here legally, and when they are in SA, they must respect our laws,” he said.
“People who come here bringing criminality and illegal activities, as per our constitution, must be sent back to their countries. Why should SA allow other countries to bully us like that? People must come here to invest and enjoy but there is no way we should allow people with criminal intent to come here.”
In his view, Mashaba said harsher punishment for criminals would act as a deterrent against crime.
As things stand, he said, hardcore criminals live nicely in South Africa, including those inside prison who are idle most of the time instead of doing public duty.
Hard labour such as the construction of public infrastructure would be reserved for prisoners to do for free if Mashaba were to ever become president of the republic.
“When one is sentenced to life imprisonment, it must be serving life literally with hard labour as a bonus. No nonsense of the parole. And prisoners must work for society; prisoners should not have time inside a cell during the day.
“This country needs to build infrastructure, and prisoners must pay back to society by doing hard labour. Harsher punishment is the way to go.
“Do not tell us about rehabilitation. Correctional services will be for petty crimes. For instance, there is no way we should even worry about rehabilitating Thabo Bester. That man must die in prison,” Mashaba said.
