Hello my Freaky Darlings,
As some of you might have heard, my brother was shot 17 times on the 1st of February at 4m. He miraculously survived. He’s already undergone a couple rounds of emergency surgeries and still has a whole bunch more ahead of him. Due to an ongoing police investigation I can’t divulge any of the details, which sucks, because I can’t tell you how heroic his actions were, or how incredibly brave he was. But what I can do is use his shooting as a means to put a spotlight on the horrific crimes going on here in South Africa.
My brother survived three years in Iraq without a scratch, in fact while he was there he would often tell us that he was safer over there than we are here. In one year we have more murders than war related deaths in Iraq for the whole of the Iraq war. A woman is raped every 40 seconds, that statistic is based on reported rapes and apparently only half of the rapes committed are reported, so that figure is a whole lot scarier in reality. This is a country where a two year old is shot execution style. Where little girls as young as two or three are raped because traditional healers (witch doctors) were telling AIDS victims that in order to cure themselves they had to have sex with a virgin, so no problem, they raped babies to make sure they were virgins. And then couldn’t understand why they didn’t get better. The most dangerous job in the world is being a South African farmer! This is a country where a machete wielding gang of thugs break in to an old woman’s home and hack her to death. These are things that happen so regularly they don’t even make front page news anymore.
I often hear people say that we’re still in the middle of a race war or that a civil war is on the horizon. But I disagree. We’re already living in a war zone. Criminals without any respect for human life declared war on normal law abiding citizens of all skin colours a long time ago and they’re winning that war. They’re winning because our government is unable to or refuses to do anything about it. They’re winning because criminals have more rights than their victims. They’re winning because we as South Africans don’t stand together and say ENOUGH! So this is me, stamping my little foot and shouting ENOUGH! Have you had enough?
Check out Shout SA – for a safer South Africa
Sorry to hear about your brother, hope he recovers well. I’ve had more than enough a long time ago. Best part is if you try to highlight these issues, you’re called paranoid or accused of having chicken little syndrome or being racist because supposedly we live in the land of milk and honey. How can we still have problems since Nelson Mandela magically fixed the Rainbow Nation? Unfortunately, reality doesn’t care about what we want.
Very sorry to hear about your brother, but glad that he survived. We have a number of friends and a bunch of Janet’s family still there in SA and worry every day. That one of the most beautiful places on Earth can be subjected to such uncontrolled rage and stupidity is very upsetting.
May your brother make a full recovery … what an excellent, thought-provoking piece … I don’t know anybody who hasn’t been affected by the unacceptable levels of violent crime in South Africa
It is time to get of your asses and make a stand…yes I am sick of reading the news, one crime after the other, corruption, rape, murder, hi jackings…on and on…law abiding, peace loving South Africans need to stand up with one voice and declare war on the criminals, the courts and the system…it’s a frikkin’ outrage, everyone has an opinion and a comment, no – one will do anything about it…your complacency and that South African adapt or die BS must end…take to the streets, arm yourself and get justice!!!