The fallout of Oscar Pistorius' actions and case will undoubtedly add to the already heavily loaded negative perception internationally of South Africa and it's people.
Bad policing, rampant violence and murder, corrupt government officials AND private citizens, out of control drug abuse and excessive poverty all contributes to the sad but truly negative perception of South Africa.
Without pre-judging Warrant Officer Hilton Botha and the manner with which he conducted the investigation, it is a known fact that the South African Police has become severely crippled in recent years.
Disgruntled and shamed, dedicated, properly trained career policemen and women have left the police in their thousands and still are. They are not replaced by proficient officers.
The present status quo of our police force must be blamed on Mr. Bheki Cele and his "shoot to kill" policy. It is my belief that Mr. Cele had pulled the pin out of the hand grenade when his arrogant approach to law and order suddenly became the norm. This approach has unleashed a culture of reckless policing in the most shocking form!
I doubt many people realise that Pistorius, like President Zuma, like the Julius Malema debacle and many, many others before them, has through his/(their) actions compounded and re-inforced the decision of many an investor to "spend elsewhere".
In a country where the President wastes in excess of R200m on a homestead whilst there are provinces where school text books are lacking for thousands of children we can ill afford this type of negative publicity.
Mr. Lekota recently commented in parliament that thousands of children could have matriculated with the money wasted by the President on Nkandla. Mr. Lekota is absolutely right. We need education now more than ever. We do not need conceited wastefulness. We don not need bling.
When considering the smallest fact that OP's sponsors, though on a micro level, contributed towards the South African economy, people still don't stop to think how this is negatively affecting South Africa on a macro level.
I have kept an eye on international coverage of the murder as I felt this would be more objective than local broadcasts. What I noticed was chilling in the least. The commentary on major broadcasts of the state of our nation is sickening. This is where the eye of the world is on us. This is where we are hurt most.
The coverage of Reeva's murderer's bail application told the rest of the world the truth about South Africa. Cold, hard statistics. Rape statistics. Crime statistics. Murder statistics. Government failure. Police shame. All of this through international news media coverage.
We are tarnished, and not many clever companies / organisations would spend their money on a country that has come to be considered "a worthless piece of rubbish".
Suddenly OP's website has become devoid of sponsors logos. Business decisions have been made. Don't support this, is the message. I am fully in agreement with these sponsors. This is how things should be. Companies cannot be seen to condone violence against women and children.
This is all truly terribly, terribly sad. There are decent, upstanding people left in South Africa. Magistrate Desmond Nair is a prime example. He was a compassionate observer throughout the application. His judgement was word for word correct. He is a humble and fair man. I salute him, and the countless other upstanding South African citizens like him.
Sadly, the world does not see this part of our nation though.
As much as I hate the fact, it remains a fact - by killing Reeva Steenkamp in cold blood, Oscar Pistorius turned every one of us South Africans into damn losers!
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