In South Africa, the growing dependence on social media to expose crimes has led to swift official responses, but experts warn it highlights deeper issues in state capacity. Lungisani Mngadi argues that this crowdsourced accountability creates uneven justice and fails to prevent harm. True governance requires institutions that act proactively, not just reactively to public outcry.
South Africa's public safety landscape increasingly relies on citizen-recorded videos of crimes going viral on social media, prompting rapid arrests and official statements. This pattern, observed in recent years, offers a corrective to high violent crime and corruption rates by stripping wrongdoers of anonymity. However, independent policy researcher Lungisani Mngadi contends that such visibility-driven enforcement exposes a reactive governance model that overlooks prevention.
Mngadi, focusing on state capacity and democratic accountability in Africa, notes that social media amplifies incidents after they happen but cannot deter them beforehand. Political science underscores the need for consistent law enforcement and a monopoly on legitimate force across all areas, yet citizen documentation suggests partial outsourcing of these duties. This approach yields uneven results: publicized crimes in visible spaces draw quick action, while those in marginalized communities, informal settlements, or private areas often go unaddressed due to lack of recording access.
The reliance on public outrage risks normalizing weak institutions, creating an illusion of efficiency without tackling policing shortages or investigative gaps. Mngadi emphasizes that while social media plays a crucial role in exposing corruption and abuse, it cannot substitute for systemic reform. He poses critical questions: Can the state retain legitimacy if citizens serve as its primary monitors? What becomes of unpublicized crimes that fail to trend?
Ultimately, Mngadi calls for rebuilding proactive institutions capable of anticipating and averting violence, ensuring protection for all citizens beyond episodic viral responses.
