Blog note: Jesus indicated that one (of many) signs of the end times or the end of the age grace would be that love for one another would grow cold. Matthew 24:12, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” This can also be interpreted that lawlessness will abound. This includes violence, murder, terrorism, shootings, knife attacks, car/van attacks, chemical attacks and other similar acts of destructive and evil behavior. Yes, these things have occurred in time past. But consider the frequency, intensity and devastation of these types of attacks and mass school shootings. They are like birth pangs in frequency and intensity. This is just one part of the CONVERGENCE or CONVERGING of signs. End of note.

South Africa is ‘close to a war zone’ with 57 murders a DAY, says police minister

South Africa’s police minister has compared the country to a ‘war zone’

More than 20,300 people were killed from April 2017 to March 2018

The already high murder rate increased by seven per cent year-on-year

By AFP. PUBLISHED: 05:58 EDT, 11 September 2018 | UPDATED: 15:59 EDT, 11 September 2018

South Africa’s already high murder rate has increased by about seven per cent, prompting the country’s police minister to compare the situation to a ‘war zone. More than 20,300 people – some 57 every day – have been killed across the country in just 12 months, official statistics showed Tuesday.

Many murders were linked to gang violence in Western Cape province, whose capital is Cape Town. A total of 20,336 people were killed between April 2017 and the end of March 2018, up from 19,016 the previous year. The numbers reflect a 6.9 percent year-on-year increase, one of the highest per capita since the end of apartheid 24 years ago.

‘Fifty-seven a day, that’s how South Africans are murdered. It borders close to the war zone while there is a peace, there is no war in South Africa,’ Police Minister Bheki Cele told reporters. ‘The figures that always scare me are murder figures,’ he said. ‘South Africans must not take it as a norm that they can be hijacked, robbed and killed every day. We have to pick up the ball and change the situation for the better.’

Francois Beukman, who heads the police oversight committee in parliament, described the numbers as ‘alarming and totally unacceptable’. Presenting the figures to parliament, Norman Sekhukhune, the police official responsible for crime research and statistics, said murder rate had increased for the past six consecutive years. South African police often come under fire for failing to bring down crime levels, while police chiefs saying they need at least 62,000 more officers.