Some of the crime statistics included in the report covering the third quarter of the 2021/22 fiscal year are beyond upsetting. South Africa recorded 6 859 murders in the three-month period, up from 6 279 in the corresponding period of 2020, while 9 556 people were raped. Yet, instead of an all-out and united effort to address the scourge, South Africans are being subjected to ongoing and disgraceful security-cluster squabbles. It’s analogous to having a pair of scissors cutting through an already fraying thin-blue line.