Why?

My family and I are leaving the country in about 90 days time (11 Jan. 2009)! Isn't it a bit late to ask this question now? :-)

Well, it's not that I am only asking myself this question now, but rather that I am feeling pressed to document my reasons. Perhaps someone will benefit from it. Perhaps, when times are really tough and all I can remember are the “good old days” I will be able to remind myself of why I left South Africa in the first place.

Every day, for years on end, you heard (and continue to hear) the following on the radio, TV, newspapers, local news web sites: Affirmative Action; murders; rapes; abortions; Black Empowerment; robberies; car hi-jackings; violent assault; children abducted from schools; children abducted from street in front of home; people murdered for mobile phones; 3 year old girls raped and set on fire or murdered; mutilated bodies of young children found in bush; drivers killed by rocks hurled at them on the highway; etc. etc.

Over time the following was added: corrupt government officials; corrupt police officials; corrupt vice president; Chief of Police good friend of head of organised crime; 10's of babies died in public hospitals; Nurse fired for public condemnation of pathetic conditions at public hospitals; Presidency applied pressure to get Minister of Health replacement liver; ATMs blown up for cash; continued violent hi-jackings; school boy stabbed with scissors; latest crime stats show crime is down; policeman murdered off duty; policeman murders entire family and then self; robbers steal luxury cars, ram armoured cash van, open fire on bystanders and get away with all the cash; woman raped daily; school violence highest in SA; another policeman commits suicide; district magistrates strike for better pay and working conditions; magistrate declares she is tired and closes court; policeman is dismissed for arresting allegedly drunken judge at accident scene; allegedly drunken judge drive car through residential home's wall; allegedly drunk Provincial Head of Police crashes car into wall at high speed (has firearms in boot); Public pays millions for Provincial Head of Police's court case; etc. etc.

Yeah, you can't say life is not interesting in SA! All through the above violent crimes increase and get closer to home while Police release stats proving crime rates are dropping and they are winning the battle. But just today (16 October 2008) IOL had the following: “South Africa's 'skyrocketing' violent crime rate and lack of vital policing skills is forcing police management to rethink their crime-fighting and training strategies. It's not getting any better!

I got this email the other day:

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

29 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year
373 in total or approximately 70%

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

its the 535 members of the SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENT -

(The same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year

designed to keep the rest of us in line!)

One can only handle so many babies being abducted and found days or weeks later in the veld with their genitals cut off, because you know the perpetrators are “witch doctors” who use the body parts in their dark rituals. One can only handle so many 3 year old girls being abducted and brutally raped, because you know the same witch doctors tell their patients that if they have intercourse with a virgin they will be cured of AIDS, the younger the better. One can only hear of so many violent car hi-jackings and burglaries before your stomach turns and you say enough is enough.

I distinctly recall five brutal incidents: The first, shortly after 1994, involved a woman on a Cape Town beach who was gang raped, had her her throat and tummy slit open. Hours later she regained conciousness and, holding her intestines with one hand and her head up by her hair with the other, she struggled along to find help.

In another incident the father of a family had holes drilled into his legs with his Black & Decker.

In another the family was tied up in one room and the burglars took the, I think 12 year old, daughter and repeatedly raped her in another room. The family heard her screams time and again. If I recall her brother, younger than her eventually jumped up and rushed to her aid but was shot dead. Last I heard the girl was in a psychiatric hospital, so traumatised she just sat there silently staring at nothing, like a vegetable.

Yet another incident was where a woman was pinned down and tortured by repeatedly throwing boiling water on her back over a period of 3 hours. They insisted she had weapons and money and wanted to know where it was. This woman died a couple of days later of the burn wounds.

The last incident was when a couple of men went from house to house in Gordon's Bay breaking into houses, raping women and killing people as they went. Survivors said they spent hours at a time in each house terrorising the occupants.

Excuse me, I have to go now, I'm sick to my stomach...