400 000 SMSs against crime

29/01/2007 23:49**-*(SA)**
Marlise Scheepers, Beeld

Johannesburg - Several hundred thousand South Africans have spoken out on crime via SMS, and the majority feel that it is plain out of control.

The SMS poll was launched on SABC2, on Tim Modise's show Lekgotleng le Modise. By early Monday, 400 000 SMS messages had been sent, said the company that provides the service.

They say it's the biggest poll of its kind so far.

Viewers are asked each Monday evening to give their views on the subject under discussion on the show.

On Monday last week, viewers were asked to send an SMS if they thought crime was out of control in South Africa.

Only those who agreed were to respond.

Innovation

When he announced the results of the poll at 20:00 on Monday night, Modise said that when the production team were transferring the data of the results from Marketel, the system crashed.

The last officially verifiable figure was 352 000.

The question put was simple and viewers just had to respond with a "yes", but there was eventually quite a bit of innovation.

The original SMS message read: "If you think crime is out of control in South Africa, SMS 'Yes' to 33588 - a poll for the Tim Modise programme."

Later, an SMS was circulated with the expanded message: "Please send to as many people as possible and show Mbeki is wrong. Take a stand against crime."

People also used e-mail messages to whip up support.