South Africa (MNN) — The rescue of kidnapped American pastor Joshua Sullivan in South Africa has drawn attention to the crime-ridden nation. 

South Africa ranks in the top five countries with the highest crime indexes in the world. Police statistics between 2023 and 2024 data periods show a nearly 19% rise in commercial crimes. Kidnapping shot up by 8% during that time as well. (Source: South African Police Service) Carjacking, murder, and armed robberies are also ills that plague the nation. 

“It’s just one of those things that is a result of the growing unemployment rate,” says Marietjie Prollius, the marketing and communications director with Trans World Radio Africa. “They want to get money. They abduct people, and then actually ask for a ransom. Some of these people are recovered. Some of them unfortunately get killed, which is a sad reality.”

(Photo courtesy of Trans World Radio)

Prollius says the increasing violent crime isn’t so much driven by political anger as by life in poverty.

“Part of it is also that there’s a lot of influx from other Africa countries. People come here to make a better living, but then they don’t find jobs and then they’re kind of destitute here,” she says.

That spiral can quickly lead people into situations they never thought they’d be in. For them and others caught in circumstances of their own or of others’ making, TWR has a simple message. 

“Our tagline is ‘speaking hope to the world.’ So our aim is always to speak hope into these situations where crime is rife,” says Prollius.  

TWR sends that hope by broadcasting biblical content in the heart languages of South Africans. The team invites and responds to listener prayer requests. Sometimes they can connect them with counseling services. 

“Many of them contact TWR and ask for prayer for safety, for their children just walking from and to school,” she says, “asking for prayer for children that get involved in gangs, asking for children that are involved in drugs.” 

Don’t let South Africa’s challenges discourage you in prayer! Ask God to bless TWR Africa with opportunities to keep sharing the hope and love of Jesus.

“[Pray for listeners], that God will open their hearts and their minds, and that they will find peace in the midst of the difficult situations,” Prollius says. 

“Please pray for the broadcasts that go out, that TWR will continue to find new and relevant broadcasting that speaks into the specific difficulties that South Africans find themselves in.”

Header photo: Johannesburg, South Africa (Photo courtesy of Clodagh Da Paixao via Unsplash)