'Don't come back to SA'
2007-10-09 08:00
Durban - A former Pietermaritzburg journalist, who was attacked in her home in Johannesburg last week, said on Monday it was pointless to hold a "Homecoming Expo" in London if it was too dangerous for former South Africans to return to the country.
Primarashni Gower, 37, and her husband, David, 46, her mother and their three children were held up by armed men on Saturday night and robbed of their most valuable possessions.
"That afternoon we were sitting on our veranda talking about a recent murder in a nearby street, and I said to my mother that we have been in this house for six years and I'm sure it is just a matter of time before it's our turn," said Primarashni, the co-editor of the Higher Learning supplement in the Mail&Guardian.
David went to the gym and returned at about 19:45, pulling up in front of his garage in the pouring rain. The garage door suddenly opened and a man held a pistol to his head.
Feared for her children
The man pulled him roughly from the car and took him inside, demanding the key to a security gate between the garage and the house.
"Security is like a religion to me," he said, explaining that the gate was one of several that closed off various parts of the home.
"I couldn't remember where the key was. One of them grabbed me between the legs, and I told him that wasn't helping, he must give me a chance to think. That I was scared. And I was scared," David said.
After he unlocked the gate, they went to a room where Primarashni, her mother and the children were watching TV.
The robbers tied David up and took Primarashni through the house to point out all the most expensive items.
One of their daughters kept asking what was happening.
"I told her not to worry, that daddy and the men were just playing a game," said David.
Primarashni said she was terrified that the men were going to rape her, but she thought that if that happened she would keep quiet, so that David would not try to rescue her.
"I thought that if they raped me I could get anti-retrovirals at Milpark Hospital, because I know they have them," she said.
"But if they killed my children, I thought I would ask them to kill me as well, because then I would have nothing to live for."
The men eventually left in their Peugeot 206 and Toyota Corolla Verso filled with the Gowers's computer, jewellery and, specifically, their LCD television.
"They wanted to know if we had a plasma-screen TV and how big it was. One of the robbers phoned someone in Soweto and told him what sort of cars and television we had," Primarashni said.
"It's ironic that next week there's the Homecoming Expo in London. We have a wonderful country, but I would never advise someone to come back," she said.
"Our government is out of touch with what is really going on. I voted for the ANC, but I feel abandoned."
"I wish the politicians were affected by crime."