I'm a big advocate of nonviolence. I was raised by two pacifist parents. I'm a conscientious objector with a lot of interest in the works of Ghandi, MLK, and others.
I tell you all this to point out I share your values even thought what I'm about to say might cause you to think I do not share your values.
Have you read Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker? He's gathered a ton of data that I think clearly demonstrates that governments throughout history of reduced violence, even though they use violence to do this.
Your response above about insurance is a very interesting idea. That being said, I think your response to violence is exceptionally inadequate. You basically didn't provide any useful suggestion about how to deal with the problem of violence in South Africa. You just give a nebulous argument about loss of social capital needing to force people to change their behavior, but you say nothing about how to put in place the mechanisms for this loss in social capital to come about in a society in which violence is currently not causing the necessary loss in social capital that is needed to get the violence to stop.
So, I ask you again, how would you go about reducing the violence in this very specific situation?