South Africa is, contrary to what the government wants the world to believe, slipping even farther down the path of extreme, mindless violence and criminality. I grew up in Bloemfontein in a house situated on the edge of town (Google Earth screen shot left), because my father loved the fact that we could walk out of our garden into the garden of nature. There we played as kids learning about the richness of the Free State fauna and flora; the strong scent of wet plants after a summer rain storm still comes to me now as I write this piece. We had many happy years there, in fact we lived there from 1969, when the house was built for us and when my father died in 1988, my mother stayed on in the house up to 2003, when it became obvious that it was too risky in the new South Africa for her to be living there alone and we sold the house. This house was acquired by the parents of a school friend of mine recently and they moved there as it was becoming too risky for them to stay on the small holdings about 3 km west of our house. Murders, burglaries and rape occur regularly in these parts these days, none of it even making it to the local news papers anymore. No, it is more important to report on the serious issues in Gaza at this time (and I agree that no matter where you stand in this battle, it is a serious issue). But I am sure that for us in South Africa what is happening locally is also of the gravest concern.
To return to the topic of this piece: Yesterday the elderly couple hired a painter to help them with some painting around the house. When the husband left to quickly buy some supplies from a nearby shop, the painter went into the house and killed his wife in a brutal manner. The reason: no-one is sure, but it could not have been for money, because these people were not wealthy, it was not for food as the government often claims, or for a job, as both had been provided for through his employment on that day.
Maybe it was just because it is easy to kill and walk away from it in South Africa. It is easy to target the elderly. Some would even say it is easy to get away with murder if you kill people from the appropriate race or cultural group in South Africa, as was witnessed earlier in 2008.
Not many people read my blog as it is not an “open” blog, but those of you that do stumble upon it while surfing the web, please stop for a moment and imagine what it would feel like if you discovered that a brutal murder was committed in the house where you grew up n harmony with so many people and cultures. Imagine your room where you went to sleep safely every night, now the scene of a hideous crime, blood staining the walls. Imagine the sorrow of those hat have lost a loved one for no other reason that law will not be enforced by your government before an election they fear they might lose. Imagine your sense of powerlessness as part of a minority in a country where complaints about this situation is brushed off the table as eurocentricity or racism of some kind or just not being able to live with the reality of a new dispensation. Then consider whether you want to invest or support such a country.
I write this from another city in South Africa, and my mother is relatively safe in her new house behind burglar bars, alarm systems and quick reaction panic buttons. But my friend lost her mother and for her there will not be any real recourse to proper justice. A murder was committed at 175 Haldon Road in Bloemfontein and it does not even make it beyond a small article in the local news paper. These are the atrocities that we live with in Africa.
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