Deformation of Character?

By Mike Kurai Chimhini
With the high rate of crime in South Africa many people are now living their lives insecurely. Even in your own private space, one these days always have to be aware of the people around you, what they are doing and always to be defensive when trouble comes. People are now always hesitant of what might happen to them even in places where they are supposed to feel free and exercise their freedom to the maximum for instance homes and supermarkets.
Last Saturday in the afternoon I decided to wander inside Pick and Pay supermarket for more than 30 minutes with no intention of buying anything but just to observe the reaction of the customers and the securities. This was part of a Journalism task to do something that I had never done before. I was successful with my mission for the first 20 minutes till some old lady felt threatened by my presence in the supermarket and reported me to the guards that I had been following her in the supermarket since she had got in. As far as I was concerned, I was not following anyone but I was just moving around. I tried justifying my intentions but they would not believe me as they were convinced that I wanted to shoplift or I was targeting to steal from one of the customers after they were done with their shopping. After being searched and they found nothing on me I was asked to leave the supermarket if I did not intend to buy anything as I was now a threat to other customers.
What does this say about the South African community and crime? Was it deformation of character or not? If it was, who should we blame? This as well suggests that there are a lot of innocent people who are serving sentences when they did not even commit any crime. It is high time the whole of South Africa as a community work towards ending crime and the perceptions related tied to it.