Today I read about a Canadian couple that was attacked near Hermanus. This attack could be significant. Canada will soon pronounce on an landmark asylum case of a white South African that claimed asylum on the basis that whites are not safe in South Africa.
The truth is of course that all South Africans are not very safe. Especially those perceived as having things of value and easy pickings. Like African migrants and now priests. (A recent study found that black South Africans, are actually three times more likely to be the victim of homicide than whites.)
I surfed the web to find out more about the Hermanus case and discovered that four catholic priests had been murdered this year in South Africa. The 70-year-old Father Louis Blondel of France was shot. Before him Fr Lionel Sham, 66, was abducted from his home and found a couple of days later, murdered.
The first priest to be killed this year was Fr Daniel Matsela Mahula, in the Diocese of Klerksdorp, killed on 27 February while driving his car, by four highwaymen near Bloemhof. He was stabbed, bundled in the boot of his car and then buried in a shallow grave.
And in May Ernst Plochl, 78, was bound and strangled to death.
But then I found a fifth. Clive Newman wasn’t a catholic priest like all the others. He was Anglican. And he had cheated death when he survived a brutal and bizarre attack in 1991, only to be murdered now.
The Eastern province Herald put up this link to clippings of the original attack. Poor man.
South Africa is so depressing sometimes that I sometimes seriously consider giving up on blogging about it.
UPDATE:
Weddings and other religious ceremonies have also been targeted.
Related deployments:
2 responses so far ↓
1 J // Jan 3, 2010 at 12:38 pm
“South Africa is so depressing sometimes that I sometimes seriously consider giving up on blogging about it.” – Mhambi
We often moan about our circumstances here, but what will we do once it is gone? (however unlikely that may be)
It may be a little crazy to think this way, but I can only imagine how…well, how boring South Africa could be. At the moment it feels like we are on the brink of total chaos. We just need some idiot to press the “Do not touch” button, but like most things in South Africa, the button is also out of order.
Look on the bright side: we don’t have terrorists, oil, nuclear weapons or anything else of significant value that would make America “save us” like they have the middle east.
Unless of coarse they invent a car that runs on gold…
2 margie // Apr 12, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Thank you, I enjoyed reading the articles, some with humour! I hope that the hatered would stop. I have friends from various ethnic backrounds and colours, but we have the same values and that is why we are friends, not the colour of our skin. I tried to find the words to “that song” to see whether it is not quoted out of context. There is always two sides to every story and pain and being treated unfairly takes a long time to heal. My great grandmother lost 13 children in the boer war… and my mother married an Englishman in 1975…she was in trouble.. Understanding each others’ pain, then forgiveness is key.
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