Mbeki boosts police force as he finally admits to crime crisis

In his annual State of the Nation address, he said: "We cannot erase that which is ugly and repulsive and claim the happiness that comes with freedom if communities lived in fear, closeted behind walls and barbed wire, ever anxious in their houses, on the streets, unable freely to enjoy our public spaces."

South Africa has gained notoriety as the crime hotspot of the world, although rates are falling. For a population of 45 million, there were 18,545 murders in 2005 (down from 21,405 in 2001); 20,553 attempted murders (down from 31,293), and nearly 55,000 reported rapes (down slightly from 54,293).

Mr Mbeki, who has been pilloried for saying South Africa's violent crime and rape rates are "only a perception", knew he faced one of his most serious political tests as he rose to address parliamentarians. Newspaper commentators had called on him to say he recognised ordinary people's pain and accepted that crime has reached epidemic proportions and to apologise for appearing unconcerned.

South Africa's top cartoonist, Zapiro, yesterday depicted Mr Mbeki making a "State of Negation Address" with his head and a speech in his hand titled "No AIDS. No Crime. No Corruption. No unemployment".

Mr Mbeki has been condemned for denying that AIDS, which infects six million South Africans, is caused by the HIV virus; for claiming that his government is not corrupt, despite growing evidence that his ministers and top officials have accepted bribes from foreign arms companies; for saying unemployment is not a problem, when 40 per cent of people of working age are without jobs, and for refusing to recognise that crime syndicates are making people's lives hell.

Not daring to continue such denials any longer, Mr Mbeki said yesterday that the strength of the police force would be increased from 152,000 to 180,000 and that police pay and conditions would be improved. Police pay is so bad that many officers have joined criminal syndicates or taken contracts with security companies in Iraq and other international hotspots.

The president also said measures would be introduced to improve the standards of the private security industry, on which householders and industry rely more than the police to protect their lives and property.

Announcing a raft of other reforms, including the improvement of intelligence gathering, Mr Mbeki acknowledged that most violence in modern South Africa is directed by black gangsters against poor black people, although murders of prominent whites, white farmers and foreign tourists attract disproportionate publicity.

When Charles Nqakula, the safety and security minister, recently suggested whites who "whinge" about crime should leave the country, black victims inundated newspapers and radio stations asking where he expected them to go to escape the crime blighting their lives.

The novelist Andr Brink said he would not heed Mr Nqakula's advice to leave the country in which he and his ancestors were born and bred. But he added: "The violence we are experiencing at the moment, and which grows worse by the hour, has become the defining characteristic of the new dispensation."

PRESIDENT'S PRIORITIES

MUCH of Thabo Mbeki's speech highlighted the country's progress in overcoming the legacy of white racist rule and identifying an action plan for the next year.

He cited land reform as a particular priority. "Very little progress has been made in terms of land redistribution," he said. "We will undertake a careful review of inhibiting factors so that this programme is urgently speeded up."

White farmers still own an estimated 80 per cent of farmland, down from 87 per cent in 1994, and most analysts agree it will be hard to achieve the target for black and mixed-race communities to own 30 per cent of such land by 2014.

Many South Africans lack electricity, water and other basic services, and raising the quality of social amenities has become a major demand on Mr Mbeki's government. That was highlighted by the violent protests that erupted over the issue in the mainly black townships last year.