A few days ago, my brother got hijacked by a group of armed men, while he was transporting three women (his staff) to their home in Belville, Cape Town. He was parked in the driveway, waiting for the gate to close when he was attacked. He was incredibly brave and calm throughout the incident, and had the presence of mind to walk away from the car while the hijackers looked for keys, wallets, cellphones, and the like. In doing so, he drew attention away from himself, and the nervous hijackers sped off in his car. No one was injured in the incident.
Phew! Lucky! That's our first thought. We have come to expect a lot worse from these situations. Infact, my young brother-in-law was hijacked over a year ago. He was taken on a three hour hell drive through Joburg to Soweto (even past a police road block). He was dropped off near a vacant veld, fully expecting to be killed. He too was relatively calm and engaged the fuel cut-off switch as he was removed from the car. This prevented the hijackers from starting the car (which they spend 20 minutes trying to do) and eventually gave up and ran off with the car radio and cellphone when they sensed that police may be patrolling nearby. He was physically unhurt - just a few bruises. Phew! Lucky indeed!
Well South Africans are sick of it! It's bad enough to be hijacked or robbed, but all the senseless violence and killing with impunity is just too much to handle.
"Nothing is being done about!"
"It's just a matter of time before it happens to me!"
"Everywhere I look I see violent crime"
As if this wasn't enough, our rand is loosing value, the petrol price is going through the roof, interest rates are climbing, electricity is scarce, and our next president has a case pending against him for corruption, nevermind the shower stuff. Oh, and the one silver lining in the cloud - that booming property market we invested in - is now also sinking. Only one thing to do! Let's head for Australia! Hell, even the disbanded scorpions are packing for Perth!
I've been noticing this sentiment permeating the country. Tales of a mass exodus of skilled people out of this country. To be honest, that does sound like a wonderful proposition - to go to a place where we can walk outside without being paranoid about our safety. It's a big step to emigrate though, and most of us have ties here that keep us here. Infact, dammit, we WANT to stay here, if only the crime could be stopped!
So I've challenged myself to buck the trend. People WANT to believe things are so bad in this country that they HAVE to emigrate. That justifies their abandonment of their home country. It is as easy to read all the violent crime stories as it is to report on them - they are sensational! Do you actually hear the good news in amongst the bad?
Did you know that there are people fighting back? The e-blockwatch initiative, for example. Or even better, the Glenhazel Active Patrol in Glenhazel, that hires mercenaries from African countries armed with AK-47's to protect their community. This is so successful that other communities are looking to emulate it. Even the police, who we like to think are so useless, are making great strides in reducing violent crime, including cash-in-transit heists. They setup shop across the Mozambique border to catch those hijacked cars that leave our country. They have even apprehended terrorists operating in South Africa, a problem we don't even realise we have. Infact, one of the safest places in the world is right here in South Africa! I kid you not! Easier to move there than Australia, don't you think?
2 comments:
I've been lucky and have been unaffected by crime 'touchwood'. However I do live in Fort Knox with 8 foot walls CCTV cameras and duel alarm systems connected to armed response... all in all makes me feel I live in a prison.
My thoughts cannot deviate what the future will hold for this country, yes I agree with you when you say we should fight back, but we've been doing so since I was born... I cant even say I'm gradually sick of it, I've got a cancerous growth in my mind because of it.
I don't want to continue living watching news about brainless money farts in politics stuffing up the country I live in, and let the depression roll over me... I'll rather worry about my daisies not being watered... if you catch my drift.
Quality of live is whats it's about... I'm young and got nothing to loose, heads that's why I'm going to Oz...
Great post. Crime is an incredibly complex issue, far more complex than people generally think. However we can all agree that ignoring personal safety makes no sense.
I've stopped judging people who choose to emigrate, simply because it makes perfect rational sense from a self-preservation perspective. Also because if people really are suffering so much here, why would I want to condemn them to that. If they have the choice to end that suffering, they should.
I'm also not sure any of these initiatives will work. But I absolutely agree that we all need to participate in the solution, both in our personal worlds (state of mind, attitude, what we say and to whom) and in the public sphere, like these kinds of initiatives.
If we stay here, this place is ours. That's how citizenship works. Doesn't matter if you're the minority or majority; doesn't matter if you hate the next president or love him. You have an exactly equal right to every other person in this country. And you need to exercise it wisely.
It's all about responsibility actually. Anyone over 25 or 30 helped to shape the context in which we now find ourselves. That's hard to accept, but it's true. And we all either benefited from, or suffered under, apartheid. History works slowly. And consequences are long-term.
I constantly put myself at risk of being told "I told you so" if anything bad happens to me. I don't defend this country because I don't think there are problems. I defend it because it's my home, and because as a white person I have enjoyed privileges literally stolen from others. And because loyalty is the beginning of pride.
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