South Africa has one of the highest, if not the highest, rates of gender-based violence in the world. It’s prevalent and normalized such that one can be involved in GBV and barely recognize it.
Happily, if one spends the time, asks for and follows advice, is supported in following through, one can succeed at least in receiving legal protection.
Open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa on farm murders:
News blues…
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| Article from Mountain Echo newspaper of Underberg Page 5 of 8 Click to enlarge and read. |
Mr President,On September 26, 2018 you spoke to financial news service Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York. In the interview, you said that there were “no killings of farmers… white farmers in South Africa.” In fact, farmers (black and white), farm workers (black and white), and visitors to farms (black and white) were being killed, and are still being killed today. These murders often involve the most terrible torture of the farmers and farm workers, their parents, their wives, and their children. What you said then was false. You in fact contradicted yourself in that 2018 Bloomberg interview, because in November 2017, in the NCOP you said: “We condemn the farm killings that continue to take place in our country, because we can never justify any form of taking of life. The farm killings must be brought to an end.”
We are not sure of your motivation in denying to the world 10 months later that these heinous murders, tortures and kidnappings were taking place. We, as the Official Opposition, ask that you, Sir, put this matter to rest once and for all. In 2018, when you made this claim, there were 54 farmers and farm workers who were horribly murdered on South African farms and smallholdings. There were 394 vicious attacks. Farmers and farm workers in South Africa, instead of being supported as workers within a Strategic Asset, feel today that they have become persona non grata as the Police Strategy fails them year after year. In 2017and 2018 combined there were 136 murders on farms, a figure which contradicts what you announced to the world. This year, during this lockdown period, we have seen a large increase in attacks on farms and smallholdings… (Read the full letter, page 5.)
Glad you’re not a farmer?
The bad news: In South Africa, you are most likely to be killed not on a farm but in public.
Between April 2019 and March 2020, a total of 7,735 attempted murder and 30,272 assault GBH cases were reported in a public space.My own confrontation with a drunken male, also a convicted rapist, threatening me with death, rape, and mayhem completed another phase. See that story below.
Police minister Bheki Cele said gender-based violence (GBV), political killings and farm murders were some of the most stubborn crimes plaguing the country.
Overall, 5,522 people were murdered at residences, while 853 were murdered at shebeens and 467 at business premises.
The statistics further showed that 232 people were killed in modes of transport, 166 were murdered on a farm or smallholding and a total of 88 people were murdered at a lake or river. The recent murder of an elderly couple and their daughter on their farm in Hartswater sent shock waves across the country. Danie, 83, and Breggie Brand, 73, and their daughter Elzabie, 54, were found dead in open fields in the Taung area on Tuesday. Five suspects have appeared in court for the brutal murders. Shockingly, 33 people were murdered at a petrol station while a further 60 attempted murder and 269 assault GBH cases were opened.
Last year, people including taxi bosses, gang “bosses” and a lawyer were gunned down at petrol stations across the country.
First, a little levity:
Every day, thousands of YouTube viewers eagerly await a uniquely compelling feature of the 2020 election cycle: ads from The Lincoln Project.
Here, Trump endorses:
Steve Daines (1:33 mins)
Dan Sullivan (2:16 mins)
Susan Collins (2:15 mins)
Assorted musical interludes
"Vote Him Away #2 (The Liar Tweets Tonight)" (2:40 mins)
Don Caron parodies:
Spreadin through the air (with David Cohen) (2:40 mins)
Battle Hymn of the Republic - Modified for Relevance (4:44 mins)
But it’s not all song and dance. The Lincoln Project and other groups (Meidas Touch, Sarah Cooper, Now This, Randy Rainbow, et al) engage serious topics to educate Americans about the perils of another four-Donald-Trump-laced years.
Lincoln Project co-founder and conservative lawyer George Conway – aka “the man married to White House counsel Kellyanne Conway” – recently wrote:
Trump must face retribution after he’s voted out of office… For the sake of our constitutional republic, he must lose, and lose badly. Yet that should be just a start: We should only honor former presidents who uphold and sustain our nation’s enduring democratic values. There should be no schools, bridges or statues devoted to Trump. His name should live in infamy, and he should be remembered, if at all, for precisely what he was — not a president, but a blundering cheat.”Hear, hear, George Conway!
Still need convincing? The following exclusive interview could be a parody, but, alas, this is the real, live, actual president of the United States with AXIOS’s Jonathan Swan. It’s 37-well-worth-watching minutes of eye-opening Trump (il)logic, off topic ramblings sprinkled with power-of-positive-thinking-ism, and, yes, plain, old-fashioned lying.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Yesterday afternoon I fetched my mother from her overnight ordeal in the hospital. (Backstory ) She was discharged early due to her age – 87 – in face of Covid-19.Her severe nosebleed has been staunched and medical hardware inserted into her nostril. She’s weak, exhausted, and her face is swollen from hardware, but she’s happy to be home. Her many dogs are just as happy to have her home.
***
Today’s law and order/crime watch theme was stimulated by my day in court. (Backstory 1 and Backstory 2)
Thinking (erroneously) that arriving early to the local Magistrates Office would get me in and out within a “reasonable time”, I arrived 20 minutes before doors opened. One and a half hours later I was still waiting – outside (a pandemic precaution), masked, and shivering with cold.
Half an hour later, the man threatening me arrive and we were signed in and allowed to proceed to the initial holding area.
I had not expected the defendant to show up. Since he had, I figured he must have an effective rebuttal….
Faced with the magistrate’s first administrator, the defendant claimed he “did not understand the charges," nor the documents, nor did he speak English.
Problem is, after we'd laid a trap to counter the efforts of his mother, my mother's domestic worker, who had been hiding him, the security team had escorted hin to the police station where they'd explained the charges - in English, with his agreeement.
Thinking (erroneously) that arriving early to the local Magistrates Office would get me in and out within a “reasonable time”, I arrived 20 minutes before doors opened. One and a half hours later I was still waiting – outside (a pandemic precaution), masked, and shivering with cold.
Half an hour later, the man threatening me arrive and we were signed in and allowed to proceed to the initial holding area.
I had not expected the defendant to show up. Since he had, I figured he must have an effective rebuttal….
Faced with the magistrate’s first administrator, the defendant claimed he “did not understand the charges," nor the documents, nor did he speak English.
Problem is, after we'd laid a trap to counter the efforts of his mother, my mother's domestic worker, who had been hiding him, the security team had escorted hin to the police station where they'd explained the charges - in English, with his agreeement.
I texted them to confirm: Had he not signed documents declaring he understood English and understood the documents?
Indeed, he had. “It’s a delaying tactic,” they texted me back, along with the name of the Detective Warrant Officer who'd processed the defendant.
Additionally, they texted me that two members of the security team would join me at the magistrate’s office, in case their evidence was needed.
By the time they arrived, I’d already been waiting four hours. Together, we waited another hour and a half.
Indeed, he had. “It’s a delaying tactic,” they texted me back, along with the name of the Detective Warrant Officer who'd processed the defendant.
Additionally, they texted me that two members of the security team would join me at the magistrate’s office, in case their evidence was needed.
By the time they arrived, I’d already been waiting four hours. Together, we waited another hour and a half.
After being introduced to the magistrate, she explained the process; an interpreter translated into Zulu for the defendant.
Forty-five minutes later I had papers in hand confirming the defendant must stay away from me and from my mother’s property, refrain from talking, harassing, threatening, and approaching me - for the next five years. Failing that, he spend three years in prison.
I’m tempted to write, “finished and klaar” but nothing really is, is it?
I’m tempted to write, “finished and klaar” but nothing really is, is it?
Yet, I got on the official record that my mother’s longtime domestic worker may no longer sneak her son through the armed security system onto my mother’s property. (She’d ignored the previous written warning from my mother’s lawyer and perfected this habit, particularly, but not only when I was absent.)
A shout-out to Specialized Security Systems – “Triple S” – for outstanding service and support and for going several extra miles in assisting me in this ordeal. I’ve never been supported by any company on anything in the way Triple S has supported me in this.
Special shout-out to Cheyne and Dennis. Can’t thank you enough for your help!
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