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Children mourn the death of a 56-year-old principal who was gunned down at her school

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- Weeks before an election that will end Nelson Mandela's historic five years as president of South Africa, presidential candidate Thabo Mbeki attended a tumultuous meeting in the sprawling black township of Soweto.

Mbeki is the prohibitive favorite to win the election on June 2 after a relatively quiet campaign.

But the residents of Soweto were anything but quiet in early May as they complained bitterly about the violence and crime besieging their country. Polls indicate that lawlessness is the pre-eminent issue concerning all South Africans.

"Give us arms!" cried one woman.

"Send the army to schools to protect the students and teachers," said an elderly man.

Their concerns are well-grounded:

• In the first year after Mandela became president, reported crimes increased in some areas and categories by as much as 75 percent.

• In 1997, there were 24,588 murders, 52,160 cases of rape, 249,375 home burglaries and 13,011 carjackings.

• Statistics now show that in this country of 43 million people there is a murder or attempted murder every 12 minutes, and a rape every 26 seconds.

• More than 230 policemen were killed in 1998; by early May of 1999, 77 more had been killed.

"Killing policemen in our country has almost become a national sport," said South African Police Service Chief Executive Officer Meyer Kahn. "Every decent South African must stand up and be counted."

Demonstrators protest violence and injustice in South Africa

The Business Times, the weekly South African business news section of the Sunday Times, found in September 1998 that of 11,000 skilled or professional workers surveyed, 74 percent were considering leaving because of the crime and violence.

"Some of our best brains and talent are leaving the country," Marthinus van Schalkwyk, leader of the opposition National Party told the Birmingham, England, Post. "Not because it is their first option. They are leaving because their families are murdered or are under threat of violent criminals."

"Incidents have increased, and its not just alarmism," said a U.S. Foreign Service officer who lived in South Africa and asked not to be identified. "No one I spoke to hadn't been a victim of crime or hadn't been close to someone who had been."

A number of violent crimes also have turned up the heat on Mbeki's ruling African National Congress. One was the death of Gwendoline Thandi Jele, a 56-year-old Soweto primary school principal who was gunned down by three young men who entered the school by climbing a broken wall.

When Jele confronted them, they shot her in the stomach. As she lay bleeding on the ground, they snatched her wristwatch, necklace and car keys.

At Jele's funeral, grief-stricken family and friends echoed the growing demand for a crackdown on crime, one of the few issues on which blacks and whites in this polarized country agree.

The violent death of Gwendoline Thandi Jele made front-page news in Soweto

"Our request to the safety and security minister and the justice system is that we don't want to see those criminals walking the streets any more," said Mike Muendane, a black member of the Pan Africanist Congress.

A white woman on the street agreed. "There are people whose kids are getting raped and kids are getting murdered, and [criminals] get put into prison ... and come out and do the same thing."

While burglary, carjackings and rural murders tend to focus on the nation's 5 million whites, lawlessness in South Africa is colorblind. Black victims have included politicians, entertainers, sports figures and journalists, and the homes of affluent and middle-class blacks are as heavily fortified as those in white areas.

Fences and walls are topped by electrified wiring, razor-sharp concertina wire and sharpened metal spikes. Windows are protected by burglar bars, and steel "rape gates" have been installed in many homes to separate the bedrooms from the rest of the house.

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Random informal surveys of South Africans support a poll taken two years ago that found that 71 percent of the respondents favored the restoration of the death penalty.

But the ANC has refused to support either the restoration of the death penalty or a referendum on the subject.

Upgrading the police force, eliminating corruption and strengthening the criminal justice system have also been recommended.

And if Mbeki requires further incentive, he need look no further than the economy. International investors and even indigenous companies are joining the flight of skilled workers out of the country.

Early in 1999, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange announced that violence in the city was forcing it to move to the suburb of Sandton. Two major corporations -- the Anglo American Corporation, a mining and financial powerhouse, and South African Breweries -- went even further, announcing they were moving their headquarters and primary stock exchange listings to London.

There is no mystery about the cause of the lawlessness. Decades of apartheid have left the overwhelmingly black population poor and poorly educated, if they are educated at all.

At the meeting in Soweto, 14-year-old Tepoho Mokoena wept as he told Mbeki about the poverty that has driven South Africa's young to crime.

"My mother and father don't work," he said. "Please give our parents jobs, because we are the future."

CNN Johannesburg Bureau Chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault contributed to this report.