Let’s start with a few headlines from another quiet few weeks in South Africa
*Woman hijacked at traffic light
*Woman hijacked in own garage
*Hijackers throw woman from car
*Trauma over school gate killings
*Actor killed in driveway
*Robbers bomb ATM in Joburg
*16 hurt in Joburg taxi crash
*Mutilated boy ‘left to suffer’
*Baby killers ’showed no remorse’
*Child rape accused acquitted
*Woman raped, tortured, murdered
*Beware at OR Tambo International Airport
*Newborn found dumped in a field
*Fortress couldn’t save couple
The list goes on and on and on and on and…
And then of course there is the Lubbe Family! They were burnt with irons and the robbers threatened to rape the woman in front of her husband and children. During their ordeal, which lasted more than two hours, Rachelle Lubbe, 41, from a small holding in Hennops River, was burned with a hot iron on her left breast, arm and shoulder. Then, the robbers pulled down her trousers and burned her on her left buttock. Chris Lubbe, 43, a mechanical engineer, also was burned repeatedly on his back with a hot iron.
The couple’s children - twins Shelden and Cameron, 13, Damian, 16, and eight-year-old Savanah - also were assaulted and Damian was kicked in the face. During their reign of terror the robbers ate the family’s food and drank their beer and milk.
Now, if you don’t feel like reading this and wish the newspapers, websites and bloggers would stop labouring on about crime in this country, I have a suggestion for you… STOP READING.
I thought I would offset the bad news with a list of things to be cheerful about, some good news, something to lift the spirits. Well I searched about 10 of my favourite news sites from news24.com, 702.co.za, iol.co.za, iafrica.com and besides the Stormers beating the Chiefs and the Proteas going to the top of the ODI rankings, light-hearted, good news articles are few and far between.
South Africans are systematically being broken down. We find ourselves increasingly desperate and increasingly unable to protect our families against brazen criminals that torture, rape, mutilate and rob our families.
It is spreading to our schools and our children, our young adults and our universities, the work place and even the sports field. In 1994 the big question was, after years of apartheid rule, how were we ever going to heal this country? Today, I find myself asking that question with alarming regularity, how or who is going to heal our country now?
To the victims and their families of these horrendous crimes, I wish you all the strength and understanding that I am not even sure I could muster. I wish you all speed in somehow rebuilding your lives and I promise you that in your time of grief, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Millions stand behind you waiting to take up the struggle and the challenge.
Yes I am angry, yes I am bitter and all I can do is draw as many people’s attention to the plight of our country as possible because I still believe deep down in my heart that the pen is mightier than the sword and that one day someone will read this who is in a position to make a difference.
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