MURDERED!
2007-02-11 22:57
Virginia Keppler
Pretoria - The single word in red that appears on the cross on Brent Hiscock's grave in Pretoria East cemetery says it all.
Brent's mother, Barbara, says she chose this simple epitaph to express her heartache.
"I am heartbroken and angry and I want everyone to know that my child was murdered.
"And yet the government insists that crime's not that bad."
Brent was shot dead at his parents' plot at Zwavelpoort near Pretoria, on New Year's Eve.
"I've become the voice of my son and all of those who can no longer speak for themselves.
"I'd like someone to do a survey of all the solved and unsolved murders since 1994.
Hasn't heard a word yet
"I want to know how it's possible for the police to arrest, try and sentence David Rattray's murderers within a week."
Rattray, an expert on the Anglo-Zulu wars, was shot dead at his house near Fugitive's Drift Lodge at Rorke's Drift in KwaZulu-Natal at the end of January.
His murderers were traced and arrested within five days. One accused has already been tried and sentenced.
"Up to today, I still have not heard a word from the police about my child's murder.
"How often are the murderers arrested within days when there are famous people involved, while those who kill ordinary South Africans are never caught?
"The police didn't even investigate the crime scene properly, because two days after the murder my friend found a second casing about two metres from our veranda."
Hiscock says she used to be just an ordinary housewife, looking after her sick husband.
"Now, I have become a woman I hardly know at times.
"There are people saving their money to come to our beautiful land in 2010.
'See reality in the graveyards'
"Meanwhile, there are criminals here who are already planning to rob them of their possessions and their lives."
She has challenged people whose relatives have been murdered, to follow her example.
"Then those who make the decisions in this land can walk through the graveyards and see the reality," she said sadly.
- Beeld