Blog South Africa

Crime and murder has been rife in South Africa over the past decade or so, but it seems to me that murder is now reaching epidemic proportions. Other serious crime also seems to have escalted out of all proportion – take a look at the beating up of baby Marzaan Kruger.

These terrible things got so much worse when South Africa stopped using the death penalty.

Some Arguments for the Death Penalty

- Some argue that the death of a criminal gives closure to their victim’s (if they are still alive) and their families.

- The death penalty serves as a deterrent to criminals who may be considering committing a capital offence.

- One of the main principals of punishment and the judicial system is that the penalty fits the crime. If someone violently murders another individual or numerous people, then it makes sense for the punishment to be death.

- Some anti-death penalty campaigners describe examples of people on death row, or people have already been killed have then been proved innocent. Today, the accuracy of modern forensics and DNA testing makes it very unlikely for an innocent person to be put on death row. Furthering this point, it is argued that the number of innocent people that may be killed is equalised by the number of actual criminals that are set free.

- Putting people in prison, as opposed to executing them gives them a chance of parole (or the small chance of escape), meaning they can commit more crimes. Capital punishment means there is no chance of the criminal committing another crime.

Some Arguments Against the Death Penalty
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Tags: Crime by James
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Brittany Mitchell, the KwaZulu-Natal teenager who was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder after she tried to have the mother of her former boyfriend killed, will not face a trial, instead she will have to go to Anger Management classes, a life skills course and do 100 hours of community work.

Now it must be noted that the withdrawal, or diversion, of charges is used to prevent minors or adults with minor offences from going through court procedures and rather receive rehabilitative assistance.

So what exactly is classified as a “minor offence” these days if conspiracy to commit murder falls in that category?

This worrying court decision is quite rampant in the UK these days, where so many people have been pretty much “let off” without barely a slap on the wrist. The result of this in the UK has been a rise in crime, particularly amongst the youth. These young offenders have grown up knowing that nothing will be done to them, regardless of the crime committed.

We can already see this attitude amongst the youth of South Africa. Over the past ten years we have seen a massive rise in serious youth crime, including murder, rape and violence. It is court decisions such as this that can only fuel this “untouchable” belief amongst the youth and further fuel this out-of-control behaviour.

My personal feeling is that we need to bring back firm discipline to the schools and homes, as well as firm action by the courts. Kids need to know that there are boundaries and that when they cross them, there are severe consequences!

Tags: Crime, Society & Culture by James
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There has still been absolutely no word by the police on the Anika Smit murder case. One has to wonder if any progress has been made?

What does this silence mean?

Well it could be that the police are still waiting for the crime labs to process all the evidence. It is well known that these labs are notoriously slow in getting results, generally because they are so overworked and understaffed.

Another conclusion could be that the police are absolutely clueless about the identity of the killer. This doesn’t surprise me, as it seems as though the police only get speedy results if the killer hangs around waiting to get picked up (a la the E.T. killers).

What worries me is that the longer we go without answers, the greater chance there is that the police will just try to pin this on a suspect without much evidence to back it up.

It seems that the media is also strangely silent about this. Despite the later E.T. murder, one would think that they would at least mention this case in passing!

Tags: Anika Smit Murder by James
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Nicolaas Pieter Johannes “Siener” van Rensburg (August 30, 1862 – March 11, 1926) was a Boer from the South African Republic -also known as the Transvaal Republic- and later a citizen of South Africa who is seen by some as a prophet of the Boere (or Afrikaners). Therefore his nickname soon became Siener, which is Afrikaans for “seer” or “soothsayer”. His seemingly accurate predictions of future events were typically wrapped in religious patriotism.

Visions

The nature of his visions invariably concerned the welfare of the Boere and Germany and were experienced by him as visual imagery to be interpreted afterwards. When the image of the Sisal plant occurred in his visions, he for instance interpreted this as a portend of an important meeting, assembly or parliament. He is believed by some to have made many accurate predictions of local events, including foretelling the death of Koos de la Rey, a general in the Second Boer War, and the political transition of South Africa after his own death. At times his visions also concerned international events, among which the start of World War I and the rise of Communism. He was unable to interpret some of his own visions. These, written down, are still open to interpretation, and believed by some to pertain to future events.

Early years

He was born in the district of Potchefstroom. He only received 20 days of formal school training and spent much of his youth as a cattle herder. At age 16 he participated in a government expedition against the rebellious tribal leader Mapog. He settled near Wolmaranstad in the then western ZAR, and married Anna Sophia Kruger in 1884.

Participation in wars

Nicolaas van Rensburg participated in the second Anglo-Boer War under General du Toit. When time allowed, he then revealed the visions to those around him. He returned to his farm before the end of the war. When the Union of South Africa came out in support of the Allied Powers in World War I, Nicolaas van Rensburg joined the rebels. The rebellion received a fatal blow even before it started, when the influential general Koos de la Rey was accidentally killed on September 15, 1914. The rebellion petered out and most rebels, van Rensburg included, were eventually captured and imprisoned for two years.
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Tags: History by James
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Over the coming weeks, I am going to be posting some interesting audio from the past. Aside from the interesting story, it is an adventure to journey back into South Africa’s past and see how people have changed in their views of both society and race.

……………………………………….

Not much is known about the radio series Moon Over Africa. It is thought to be a South African radio show which aired around 1937 or 1938. There are 26 episodes lasting 15 minutes each. Since nothing is really known about the series we are not sure if there were episodes which aired before, or after, these 26 episodes.

The 26 episodes follow an expedition led by Professor Anton Edwards as they search for the missing city of Atlantis. They follow the directions of a shrunken head which speaks the ancient language of the people of Atlantis and run into many strange dangers in the African jungle.

If anyone has further info, please contact me.

Tags: Podcasts by James
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Hi all

As was mentioned, we lost the entire site when the ISP crashed during a backup.

We are busy trying to restore as much of the previous entries as possible, but as no backup exists, we need to rely on what we can scrape from the net. If anyone has any pages saved, please contact me via the comments.

One positive side is that we can start over again with new functionality and a sleeker look and feel!

Please note that you will have to re-register on the site too.

Thanks
James

Tags: Site News by James
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