Crime and Punishment ... To Live and Die in SA

A couple of days ago two of my colleagues here were violently attacked.

One was walking out with a visitor from the US on Durban beach at sunrise .... surrounded by dozens of surfers, holiday makers and even policemen ... when they were beset upon by two youths with knives who kicked, punched and stabbed her .... apparently they looked as though they had been sniffing glue and so didn't listen to her screams that she wasn't carrying anything of value .... and she finally managed to fight them off .... the poor visitor screamed herself hoarse trying to attract attention ... but in this country everyone is too scared to help ....

So because they were getting stitched up and bandaged .... they ended up being late to meet another colleague (a black South African woman) ... who was waiting for them outside a shopping centre in the nicest part of Durban ... a place where even a scaredy-cat like me would walk to ..... but as she waited ... she was held up by two men who held knives to her throat as they took everything she had on her .... phone, keys, jewellery, money etc ....

When the others finally turned up to pick her up .... she wasn't at the meeting place and was uncontactable ... and so a full scale search ensued .... and she was finally found terrified at a police station ..... this on the background of her husband having been carjacked and stabbed just a couple of weeks ago .... he was missing for over 24 hours .... and eventually found unconcious in a hospital .....

Many of you know that I was mugged at knife point with a colleague on my very first day here .... luckily I didn't have anything on me to even give the guy .... and since then I've been accosted in my own driveway by two guys .... and even had my car (rental) stolen from my own drive as well .... (by the way ... please please please don't tell any of this to my mum .... you know she would make me get on the next plane to london) .... I haven't dressed nicely or worn jewellery for months .... and walking home from the pub at night .... in fact walking anywhere has become something i dream about wistfully (ha! who would have thought!)

Now when I first arrived ... I was determined not to become like so many foreigners and white South Africans .... for whom discussion of crime levels is like talking about the weather to the english .... they all live in huge houses behind high walls with wire and armed security .... keeping the "black menace" at bay .... but it is true that everyone here has a story .... they say in Johannesburg everyone knows someone who has been shot ... I've lived all over the world .... in places much poorer and deprived .... and yet I've never felt such an undercurrent of violence and tension as we do here .... now we all understand that the history of this country has deeply influenced income disparity and opportunity ..... but my (perhaps naive) attitude is rob me blind if you have to eat .... just please don't murder or rape me as well ....

But the final straw in a country where 51 murders and 151 rapes are reported DAILY (and those are only the ones that get to be reported) .... was the safety and security minister recently telling Parliament:-

"They can continue to whinge until they're blue in the face, be as negative as they want to, or they can simply leave this country so that all of the peace-loving South Africans, good South African people who want to make this a successful country, can continue with their work."

Can you imagine ANY minister ANYWHERE keeping his job after telling his people that if they don't like the crime - they can just emigrate?! It shows that in this country ... even the fight against crime is still prejudiced by colour .... its seen as a white whinge topic ... even though the majority of crime is against black people ....

This has sparked all manner of debates at to what kind of responsibility the SA government is taking over the levels of violence here .... and some people have taken the matter into their own hands through an internet site ... and tried to highlight to the international tourists the realities and dangers of travelling around here ... and even casting doubt over whether it will be safe to have the 2010 World Cup here ..... a real kick to the balls as it were ....

Welcome to the new South Africa.