This past weekend, a 73 year old gentleman was senselessly murdered in his own home in Kempton Park at 0730 on a Sunday morning by intruders who apparently killed this gentleman for a cellphone, wallet, and some cash. Being a feisty kind of guy, crime scene evidence suggests this gentleman put up a fight as I suspect he refused to hand over his hard earned money to some useless, spineless, moral-less, lazy, murderers, who violently took his life for a few bucks.
For almost two years, I have been contracting in Johannesburg, flying up and down from Cape Town every second week. For this entire time, I have been using the services of this elderly gentleman, who picks my car up at OR Tambo airport on a Thursday when I fly home to Cape Town for the weekend, and he is always waiting for me at the airport on Monday mornings, with my car, always on time.
In spite of his advanced years, this man put in an honest days work for an honest days wages, 365 days a year according to his employees. He always had something good to say, always wanted to flirt with my partner (!) and always had some witty comment to make about current issues. I don’t know why this gentleman was still working at the age of 73 (I considered it none of my business to ever ask him) - perhaps he was supporting others, perhaps he needed the money to survive without a pension. But the reason he was still working is irrelevant.
The fact was that for many years he put in an honest days work for an honest days wages, every day, and in so doing created employment for two or three other guys who otherwise might not have had employment and a means of supporting their families.
And then this hard working man is senselessly murdered, strangled to death whilst trying to defend what was his, what no one had the right to demand or take from him.
This has deeply affected me, even though this gentleman was not a close friend, the savagery of his death will leave deep scars in many lives, and will probably also leave financial struggles for the families of the guys that worked for him.
Multiply this terrible murder by 1000s upon 1000s of meaningless murders in South Africa each year - official statistics show that up to 54298 murders are committed per annum in SA – and to put this in perspective, in 2011 there were 4103 civilian deaths in Iraq, and the emotional, psychological and financial carnage caused by these 50000 murders per annum in South Africa becomes a tidal wave of largely preventable misery.
And the ultimate blame and guilt can be laid squarely at the doors of a totally corrupt, incompetent, uncaring ANC government whose policies have led to mass unemployment and whose governance exhibits a total lack of accountability, which I believe have led South Africa down this road to becoming the killing fields of the world. The ANC has become a rogue government, intent only upon enriching itself and its cadres, and doing so at the expense of the voters who put it there.
The solution? With 2014 approaching, if the South African voter community again gives the ANC another mandate by voting them into power again, then perhaps we deserve the carnage unleashed upon us by them.
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