When my family and I returned to South Africa this summer, we expected conditions to have changed from six years before, when last we visited. After all, news reports in this country periodically detailed both the country's transition to democratic government and the accompanying escalation in violence. Although our occasional conversations with our relatives who still lived in South Africa did not hint at any dramatic revolution, we anticipated some differences from the country we had left 13 years ago. What we found, however, surprised us.

My family's return to our country of origin began on a somber note. Barely five hours after we landed in our hometown of Durban, a dinner at a relative's house was interrupted by a phone call. We were told that a woman in the neighborhood had been murdered. A thief had apparently broken into a home a few blocks away, unexpectedly ran into one of the owners of the house, and strangled her. He committed his crime quickly, cleanly. It might have taken place in any of the nearby houses, including the one where I had stayed.

Violence in South Africa has unfortunately become epidemic. Here in the U.S., the nightly news regularly contains reports of the random killing that occurs in the townships. Images of men corralled in burning tires or beaten to death with grotesquely barbed polearms plaster our television screens with fair frequency. But the killing that took place so close to me was different. The thief did not strangle the woman because of politics or clan rivalry, which lead to so much of the violence in the country. His only motivation was greed. He was a burglar who saw an opportunity in a society whose standards of law and order continue steadily to deteriorate.

When we had lived in South Africa, we had always felt relatively safe--safer than we felt here in the U.S., at any rate. We had always believed that our property and lives were secure; we had never considered crime a major problem of our community. The strangling was a rude awakening to the changed realities of our former home.

My relatives no longer live in the same comfort they once enjoyed. All of their windows now have bars, their doors have iron gates, and their automobiles have alarm systems. All South Africans, whether they be white, colored, Indian or Black, are feeling the effects of increased lawlessness. Johannesburg, the country's largest city, was recently pronounced the murder capital of the world. Its per capita death rate due to violent crime far exceeds those of both New York and Los Angeles. The violence is especially pronounced in some townships. In Soweto, one two-week period witnessed the killing of over 500 people.

This massive outbreak of crime comes as South Africa stands poised to make some of the greatest steps towards democracy in its history. Enforced segregation is officially out of the lawbooks, and the country's first true national elections are scheduled for next April. Apartheid, the scourge which has made South Africans pariahs to the international community for so long, looks as if it will become nothing more than a bad memory. So it is ironic that at a time when South Africans should be rejoicing the beginning of a new era, many of them are instead cowering in fear.

Why has South Africa been plunged into this chaos? Why does the dismantling of Apartheid seem to have caused every crook to crawl out of his hole? The answer probably lies in fact that the abrupt changes in the old regime have weakened many of the institutions which formerly maintained order. The anti-Apartheid movement has challenged the authority of the national government, the army and the police force, whose grip over society has weakened. This, of course, has given the average person more liberty. Unfortunately, though, the lifting of the veil of repression has unleashed more than just the honest and law-abiding citizen.

Opportunists eagerly await their chances as the old regime crumbles, to be replaced by the uncertainty and instability which come from newfound freedom. Among these opportunists are both common felons and power-hungry leaders. Both of these groups fuel the instability by either committing or instigating violent acts; sometimes it is difficult to tell them apart. Indeed, the political opportunists are sometimes little better than the murderers. On one side, radicals scream "one settler, one bullet." On the other, reactionaries prepare themselves to overthrow any popularly elected government. As these two groups glare at each other from opposite sides of the shotgun and crossbow, the death toll climbs.

When will the spiral into anarchy stop? Who can say? Maybe when a coalition government with broad support comes to power. Maybe when economic conditions improve, and Blacks become better integrated into the workforce. One thing seems certain: South Africa's problems with violence seem inextricably linked to the societal transition. These birth pangs of democracy will only end when South Africa's new government has firmly claimed its authority and dashed the hopes of the opportunists, both criminal and political.

My family entered South Africa to a grim reception. We departed on a similar note. On the day we left, I read in the newspaper that an American student had just been killed in a township. The student had devoted herself to helping the cause of South African Blacks, and had been escorting a few of her fellow Black students home when she was approached and savagely killed by several youths. Her murderers belonged to one of the leftist groups committed to promoting discord for their own agenda. Ironically, they accused her of being a white racist as they killed her.