Now that they no longer need to spend their time battling apartheid, South Africa's Churches have found another common enemy - the nation's spiralling crime rate.

Crime has overtaken political violence as the major preoccupation of both politicians and the general public. According to official figures, a murder is committed every three minutes in South Africa.

"In 1994, more than 800 000 violent crimes were committed, including 18 000 murders, 67 000 armed robberies, 150 000 assaults and 30 000 rapes," an official report stated recently.

Another report said that white-collar crime doubled between 1993 and 1994 - "a trend blamed by experts on the trauma suffered by middle-class whites at losing their traditional powers".

The rising crime and the resulting distress and fear have caused deep concern in the Churches.

Now the Methodist, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Congregational and Presbyterian Churches in Johannesburg, the country's business centre, are engaged in a four-week moral crusade against crime in the region.

"The campaign is designed to challenge Church members to examine their own ethics and values, and ask whether they are helping or hindering the struggle against crime," said Methodist Bishop Peter Storey.

"Bishop Storey said the initiative was also intended to encourage Church members to help the police by forming local community policing groups and to "adopt" police stations. The initiative also encourages clergy to counsel police officers.

"This is being done by four Bible studies [programmes] designed to highlight Christian moral ethics and values," Bishop Storey said. "The campaign will climax just before Lent begins with special services in the various parishes where people can commit themselves to fight crime."

Analysts point out that the rise in crime is exacerbated by the problems of a society undergoing tremendous changes - as in Russia after the fall of communism. Previously, crime was kept in check by the repressive laws of apartheid. The impunity with which the former South African Police acted without accountability deterred many from crime.

There are, however, many signs that the public has become more active in fighting crime. Under apartheid, the police and other security forces were hated as the protectors of brutal political oppression. Today, under the leadership of National Police Commissioner George Fivaz, the new South African Police Service has to a great extent cleaned up its image. Now many residents, including blacks, are eager to alert the police about suspects trying to hide in formal township and informal squatter settlements.