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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Missionaries targetted in southern Africa
21:35 | 
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A Stuijt |
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Missionaries targetted in southern Africa
‘One gets used to this evil, I am used to living with death’, said the elderly priest after he had just witnessed a colleague shot dead at Diepsloot squatter camp on December 8 2009. Many missionaries are attacked and murdered throughout southern Africa - again. We provide a brief summary – and also a historical reminder that in 1978, the US emissary to Africa still described now-Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe as a non-violent man. He said this only a month before the horrendous massacre of nine missionaries and four of their children at the Elim Pentecostal Church in Vumba by Mugabe’s ‘freedom fighters’’…------------------------------
December 12 2009 Nairobi, Kenya - Irish Catholic priest father Jeremiah Roche, left, of the Kiltegan Fathers, was murdered in Kenya at his home in Kericho, 200km west of the capital Nairobi. "He was murdered last night when thugs broke into his house... they used blunt objects and metal rods during the raid," said Francis Munyambu, regional police chief.
He did not say whether anything had been robbed, adding that no one had been arrested so far. Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said they were in contact with Kenyan authorities "to ensure that a full investigation is carried out and that every effort is made to apprehend Fr. Roche's attackers." Roche had worked as a missionary in Kenya since 1968. -
Sapa-AFP http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20091211171826523C853822&newslett=1 KENYA- Human rights body calls for protection of refugees
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‘One gets used to this evil…I am used to living with death’
December 8 2009 Diepsloot squatter camp, South Africa. Father Louis Blondel, 70, a French Catholic priest of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the poor Diepsloot township, was shot dead at 2am in his bedroom after ‘teenaged robbers’ broke into the rectory. This is the fourth Catholic priest who was murdered in South Africa this year, reports Beeld journalist Virginia Keppler.The black gunman who fired the deadly bullet through the priest’s left-shoulder was described as a ‘tall man’ however – who had apparently used the children to break in and who then unlocked the rectory door for him.
The late Father Blondel was a member of the Missionaries of Africa, had lived in SA since 1987 – and in Diepsloot since August last year. Very little was ‘robbed’ from the rectory: only a R50-note (about $5) and a cellphone. Police describe it as an ‘armed robbery’. His previous assignments were in Soweto, Hammanskraal north of Pretoria and in Tanzania.
They were looking for a non-existent safe:
Picture: Canadian-born Father Guido Bourgeois (70) left, who saw his friend and colleague gunned down in front of his eyes, said three teens first climbed through a window and forced him to open the front door to a man, described as tall, big and about 35 years of age. “They came into my bedroom and woke me up, and I started screaming. They told me to ‘shut up’, and one pointed something towards me but in the dark I could not ascertain whether it was a firearm or not,’ he told Beeld. The children demanded cash and he gave them a R50 ($5) note from his wallet. They raided the room, pulling a painting from the wall and opening closets to try and find a safe which they apparently believed to be on the premises. The priest was then ordered to take the front door key and was forcibly-walked to the front door and ordered to unlock it. “When I opened the door, a tall, large man of about 35 years stood in front of me.’ Bourgeous said he was asked the number of people inside the rectory – three – the other occupant was a homeless man.
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The gang then took Bourgeos to Father Blondel’s room – who was startled, opened his door, shouted ‘what is going on?” and then he was shot. Father Bourgeois took the opportunity to run to the kitchen, pushed the large fridge against the door and started shouting loudly for help from the windows. Within two minutes, some 30 to 40 local residents rushed to the scene, he said. The gang also fired shots at the crowd and made their escape.
Father Bourgeois is no stranger to such violence. He was hijacked five times in the Orange Farm squatter camp. “One gets used to this kind of evil, ‘ he said – adding that he would never leave South Africa. “I have learned to live with death, ‘ said the Canadian-born priest who has been in SA since 1980. “What must happen, will happen. The Lord has only done good deeds, yet He was also murdered,’ he said.
Father Blondell will be buried on Saturday 11am from the Diepsloot Catholic Church. He leaves a brother and two sisters in France.
Priests murdered in SA this year:
- 7 Dec 2009 – Father Louis Blondel, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, shot dead. Stolen: $5 and a cellphone.
- June 2009 – Father Ernst Plöchl (78) of Mariazel in the Eastern Cape was murdered during an ‘armed robbery’. The details of this murder remain exceedingly vague. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/473aa52ea9bf42b9b54be91d38255d17/08-12-2009-01-03/‘Mens_raak_hierdie_boosheid_gewoond’
- 7 March 2009 – Father Lionel Sham (66), attacked in home in Mohlakeng township, Randfontein, He was murdered and his body was then dumped in the large Orange Farm squatter camp. One of his attackers died in Deneysville in the Free State in a car-accident in Father Sham’s motor car.
- 27 February 2009 – Father Daniel Mahula (34), Jouberton, of Klerksdorp in NorthWest province: his body was found buried in a shallow grave outside the Bloemhof township with at least twelve stab-wounds, indicating that he was extensively tortured before he was allowed to die. Apparently, he was murdered for his car by four young black men he had picked up as hitchhikers although due to these extensive injuries, he may also have been killed as a form of muti-killing to harvest body-parts for the manufacture of ‘traditional good-luck medicine’.
June 1 2009. Kokstad. A venerated Cistercian missionary from Upper Austria who dedicated the last forty years of his life to the Maria Zell rural mission in the Griqualand region of South Africa near Kokstad, was found murdered there Sunday. Authorities said Father Ernst Plöchl, 78, born in Neumarkt im Mühlkreis in the Austrian district of Freistadt, was killed under circumstances which remain murky. He was either shot to death or strangled, and it’s also not known if anything was stolen or what the actual motive may have been. The priest was widely admired in his hometown for his dedication to try and uplift the poor. (Picture of father Ernst Plöchl by Marianhill Religious Order.)
Information initially given by the South African authorities was confusing: it was at first announced that he had been shot, while the word later was that he had been strangled. His religious order announced he would be brought back to Austria and buried in his native country. Father Plöchl was found dead at his lonely rural outpost of Maria Zell mission, said Father Andreas Rohring, a spokesman for the Mariannhill order. He spoke to Austria's APA news agency. The elderly priest’s murder sent immediate shockwaves throughout Austria, as the ‘socially very engaged’ priest was a much-loved figure in his home country. A memorial mass was held for him at Neumarkt-im-Mühlkreis, his home town, where he is much loved for his dedication to help the poor in South Africa. The Marianhill missions were founded in South Africa n 1882 by the Rev. Francis Pfanner, then prior of the Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) Monastery of Maria-stern (Bosnia). He landed at Port Elizabeth with thirty-one companions in July, 1880, and settled in a place he called Dunbrody, after an old Irish monastery. This he had to abandon in 1882; and at the solicitation of the late Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I., transferred his community to Mariannhil. http://www.rundschau.co.at/rsooe/home/story.csp?cid=8846560&sid=75&fid=55 http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Congregation_of_the_Missionaries_of_Mariannhill http://www.griquas.com/2007/14/090.jpg
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20090430 Senior leaders of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints attacked, Mozambique
May 30 2009 Maputo, Mozambique. The Deseret News reported that Dr. Russell M. Nelson. 84, and his wife Wendy Nelson, picture, and also other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, were attacked by an armed gang in Mozambique. Dr Nelson, a senior elder on the church’s Quorum of the Twelve and his wife Wendy, a leading author, were among other church leaders when militants invaded the church’s Maputo Mission home. (contact for journalists: Florencia Paulo Mondlane Phone Mozambique 258 82 758 9610 Mondlaneflo@gmail.com )On a church assignment in Mozambique, Mr and Mrs Nelson were having dinner with elder William W. Parmley of the Quorums of the Seventy and the church’s Africa Southeast Presidency and his wife, Shanna Lee, and with mission president Blair J. Packard and his wife, Precinda, said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter. “We understand Sister Packard’s arm was broken,” said Trotter. “In addition, she and others suffered some superficial injuries, mainly cuts and bruises.” The LDS Church was legally recognized in Mozambique in 1996, with the first branch created in the capital city of Maputo. Missionaries arrived in 1999.The Mozambique Maputo Mission was created on Jan. 1, 2005, the church’s 339th worldwide mission.
The Salt Lake Tribune provided more detail, writing that a group of armed men attacked LDS Church Apostle Russell M. Nelson, his wife and four other people during a dinner. The entire group of church members was assaulted. And again, there’s no report whether anything was even robbed – but it was described as a robbery by police. Nelson is an accomplished surgeon and medical researcher. Nelson’s wife, Wendy Watson, was a professor of’marriage and family therapy’ at Brigham Young University before she retired in 2006. She has authored several books. http://www.lds.org/. The couple married in 2006. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705307540/Elder-Russell-M-Nelson-wife-robbed-in-Mozambique.html
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20090102 Rev Philip Bergh, 63, Dutch Reformed Church minister, shot in the neck, Quaggapoort, Pretoria
January 2 2009 - Beeld journalist Hilda Fourie writes that just before Rev. Philip Bergh of the Quaggapoort Dutch Reformed church was shot in the neck, he still courteously greeted the two men who gunned him down a minute later.And they greeted back - just before he was shot. It was the third time over the past two years that he has been robbed at gunpoint: last time they just stole a cellphone, and broke into the house. And two of the previous microbuses for transporting congregation members also were hijacked. He has been the dominee of this congregation for the past 30 years. New Year's eve, he was planting new plants in his garden at 6am when two men strolled past casualty. He greeted them cheerfully and went back to his work. Then he walked over to his old Volkswagen microbus in his garage to go and check up on the oil before taking a planned trip to Middelburg. As he climbed halfway into the combi to adjust the seats, he heard men talking - and the same men who had greeted him earlier pointed guns at him. He said a 'heavenly peace came over me. I asked them what they wanted and grabbed the one with the gun. I had the gun in my grip when he shot me in the neck. The bullet missed the artery and bones."I can praise the Lord that I am still alive. My gratitude for being alive, exceeds my wish for revenge over the shooting,' he said. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2448044,00.html Afrikaners besieged throughout South Africa: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/09/afrikaners-besieged-throughout-south.html----------------------------------------------------
20081011 Missionary Rianne Henning executed trying to escape with her children, Honeydew smallholding
Mrs Rianna Henning, 31, LEFT of the Fisherman’s Village Christian Centre at Honeydew in the West Rand, was shot dead on 11 October 2008 by a gang which ambushed her at the entrance of the mission station as she tried to drive into its guarded gate with her two small children in the car. She became frightened when she realised the danger to her children, and in her fear reversed into a tree while trying to flee when she saw that armed robbers were inside the compound. She was shot dead execution-style by the armed gang. Henning and her husband Abri, 35, had only joined the mission station as managers six weeks earlier. The station is run by pastor Linda Patterson, who founded it as a refuge for the poor on a smallholding. Mrs Patterson’s eldest daughter Heather Costaras (35), said she suspected that the armed gang was hiding in the reeds next to the veldt. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2408027,00.html
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20080819 SKorean missionaries robbed, Timrand, Wierdabrug Pretoria smallholding -
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2378282,00.html
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March 3 2007 - Pretoria: Irish priest Kieran Creagh gunned down at Leratong AIDS-hospice
The family of father Kieran Creagh, 49, the Belfast missionary priest who shot in South Africa say his condition has improved. Creagh was attacked and shot twice by armed black men at the hospice he founded to help Aids sufferers in Johannesburg. Following surgery to remove a bullet from his lung his family, who are at his bedside, said yesterday that he had a comfortable night. Sunday Life (Belfast, Northern Ireland), March 4, 2007
It took him more than a year to recover from his wounds. On 23 July 2008 his two attackers were convicted and jailed. And the Belfast priest then told the Belfast Telegraph of his relief after two men were convicted of his attempted murder.
He was left for dead at the AIDS hospice he helped build in the poverty-stricken township in Pretoria by the armed gang. Fr Creagh, who is originally from north Belfast, spent a lengthy period in hospital recovering from his injuries. The shooting sparked a massive outpouring of support for Fr Creagh and condemnation towards his attackers. He said he had ‘no feeling of revenge.” However he also felt relieved… “ because at one stage I thought these guys are not going to be convicted and what do I do then? At the same time it wasn’t a happy feeling of relief because there are two guys going into prison now. I would intend to meet them at some stage, when possible, just to chat to them. I do forgive them, I did that last year. When I woke up in intensive care I said I forgave them. I have never harboured any resentment towards them at all. I couldn’t keep that in my heart. I had so many other things to think about, such as getting strong and getting off the machines in intensive care. I’m hoping that I can now draw a line under it and move on.” Fr Creagh said that he had made a good physical improvement from his injuries, but still suffered some pain. “My energy levels aren't as good as they used to be, I get tired easily,” he said.
Fr Creagh is now concentrating on putting the finishing touches to the £700,000 hospice and clinic he has spent years building. “People back home in Ireland have been exceptionally generous, I think the shooting helped a little bit with the fundraising,” he said.
“I’m going to stay in South Africa for the foreseeable future, I’d like to see this project through. The building will be finished in mid-October and hopefully by the end of the year it will be up and running. I think I’ll still be here for the World Cup in 2010.” http://www.leratong.co.za http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/fr-kieran-creaghs-relief-at-murder-bid-verdicts-13918704.html#ixzz0ZX9SyYCx
US medical missionaries' supplies robbed:
Steve Kingsley of the Greater Good South Africa Trust said the loss of their medical equipment is terrible. The three missionaries - a doctor and two dentists - will not be able to treat their patients.' http://www.myggsa.co.za/connect/stories/927/ http://www.myggsa.co.za/connect/requests/1323/ http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2374043,00.html
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FLASHBACK -- WHEN THE US AMBASSADOR PRAISED MUGABE’ as A MAN OF PEACE…
Although items are looted, the attacks against missionaries in Southern Africa are primarily motivated by political motives. In fact there is little difference in the ferocity with which the current ‘farm murders’ and militia-style attacks against suburban Afrikaner families are carried out, the ongoing attacks against Western missionaries in southern Africa -- and the atrocities which were carried out by Nelson Mandela’s and Robert Mugabe’s ‘freedom-fighting cadres’ under the guise of their so-called “freedom struggle.” The modus-operandus is identical – and once again, the current US ambassador at the United Nations, has yet to speak one word against these latest atrocities. This is nothing new: the ‘humanitarian’ US policies have not changed in this regard: as was highlighted when Pastor Andrew Young, (1932) the US ambassador to the UN, and a former pastor from Georgia, who was placed on public record as President Jimmy Carter’s emissary to Africa as openly supporting now-Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe and praising him. Times Interview, May 22 1978, with Andrew Young- sources: Andrew Young, Foreign Affairs' special report,"America and the World, 1980." As President Jimmy Carter's emissary to Africa, Young played a pivotal role--along with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and other Carter administration officials-- in enthroning Mugabe. Two years earlier, in 1978, Ambassador Andrew Young described Robert Mugabe in an interview with the Times of London on May 22 1978: "Does Mr. Mugabe strike you as a violent man?" the Times reporter asked. "Not at all, he's a very gentle man," Young replied. "In fact, one of the ironies of the whole struggle is that I can't imagine Joshua Nkomo, or Robert Mugabe, ever pulling the trigger on a gun to kill anyone. I doubt that they ever have." … “I find that I am fascinated by his intelligence, by his dedication. The only thing that frustrates me about Robert Mugabe is that he is so damned incorruptible."
- http://www.foreignaffairs.com/issues/1980/59/3
- Moving towards bilateral independence in Rhodesia
- Times Interview, May 22 1978, with Andrew Young find more articles on:
- http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JZS/is_17_23/ai_n25010892/
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The Elim Mission massacre
June 24 1978 – From the Sunday Mail, Salisbury, Rhodesia – Terry Blocksidge reports: On the night of June 23, 1978, Elim Mission in the then-Rhodesian Eastern Highlands – unarmed men, women and children -- was subjected to the worst massacre of missionaries yet experienced. 
Eight British missionaries and four young children - including a three-week-old baby - were bayoneted to death by terrorists on Rhodesia’s Eastern border on Friday night in the worst massacre of whites since the six-year-old war began. Three of the missionaries were men and the others women. (most of the women were also raped, and one was mutilated.)
A sixth woman was stabbed and beaten and left for dead. She staggered 300 m into the freezing Vumba bush to spend the night before being found semi-conscious by security forces yesterday. Despite intensive care in a Salisbury hospital she subsequently died. The gruesome murders, by a group of eight to 10 terrorists, happened at Emmanuel Mission School - 15 km south-east of Umtali and 8 km from the Mozambique border - once used as the Eagle boarding school.
The dead, who belonged to the Elim Pentecostal Church, were:
Mr. Peter McCann (30), his wife, Sandra (also 30), son Phillip (6) and daughter Joy (5).
The Rev. Phillip Evans (29), his wife, Suzan (35), and their daughter Rebecca (4).
Mr. Roy Lynn (37), his wife, Joyce (36), and their daughter Pamela Grace. She would have been three weeks old yesterday.
Catherine Picken (55) and Elizabeth Wendy Hamilton- White (37).
Miss Mary Fisher (28).
Picture: left the youngest massacre-victim was Pamela Grace Lynn, 3 weeks old, daughter of Roy and Joyce Lynn.
One child had her tiny thumbs clenched in her palms. Even hardened security men were stunned by the bloody scene and stood around silently. “The quiet is uncanny”, said one.
Mr. Brian Chapman, director of the Church in Rhodesia and South Africa, visited the scene yesterday. He said: “We saw no humanity here.”
The massacre began shortly before 8.30 p.m. when the white families were forced by the terrorists from their homes and classrooms, and marched to a playing field. Near the sports pavilion, about 400 m from the main school, they were split into groups, then beaten with lengths of wood and logs, and stabbed.
When security forces reached the scene yesterday, the full horror on the cold, mist-and-rain shrouded Vumba mountainside confronted them:
A mother, beaten to death, lay with her young baby. The baby had also been savagely beaten. Their arms stretched out to each other, their hands resting an inch apart. The child’s hand was clenched. The mother had a hand squeezed tightly around her engagement ring, turned into her palm, as she reached for her baby in her dying moments. Nearby, another woman had died from an axe-wound - the weapon still protruded from her shoulder and two men, one with his hands tied behind his back, lay beaten and slashed to death.
A blood-soaked chunk of wood had been dropped near to them. Three children lay in a pitiful huddle, with two women’s bodies next to them. Some had raised their arms to defend themselves from the brutal blows. The reactions of the media in general were predictable, with many newspapers being singularly outspoken.
However, this is what was said by the then-US Ambassador to UN , Pastor Andrew Young: “The Patriotic Front (of Robert Mugabe) move around the villages, conduct political seminars and sing songs…’
In the worst atrocity committed against white civilians in the history of Rhodesia’s six-year war, terrorists of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe National Liberation Army hacked and battered to death almost the entire white staff and their families at the Elim Pentacostal Mission in the Eastern border mountains.
Mr. Young was asked a month earlier by the London Times: “Does Mr. Mugabe strike you as a violent man?”
He replied: “Not at all, he’s a very gentle man. In fact, one of the ironies of the whole struggle is that I can’t imagine Joshua Nkomo, or Robert Mugabe, ever pulling the trigger on a gun to kill anyone. I doubt that they ever have…. The violent people are Smith’s people and hopefully they won’t be around for the new Zimbabwe.”
Mr. Young was asked a month earlier by The Times of London how he got on with Mr. Mugabe:
He replied: “I find that I am fascinated by his intelligence, by his dedication. The only thing that frustrates me about Robert Mugabe is that he is so damned incorruptible…. The problem is he was educated by the Jesuits, and when you get the combination of a Jesuit and a Marxist kind of philosophy merging in one person, you’ve got a hell of a guy to deal with.”
At the scene of the massacre, correspondents reported that the “victims were beyond help, with axe wounds scarring their bodies, bayonet thrusts deep in their backs, and skulls crushed by knobkerries or lengths of thick wood. Shocked and angry troops viewed the carnage and quietly cursed the terrorists. One man had tears in his eyes as he muttered: ‘The bastards. They are nothing better than animals. How could they do this? ‘
The tragedy of Africa is not just that such savagery still persists. It is that terrorism has been given respectability. That the men with the guns are regarded as freedom fighters, as liberators, when they are no more than thugs and animals. "
ALSO VIEW:
Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela’s bombs
http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/08/nobel-peace-laureate-nelson-mandelas.html
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Will the real SA man please stand up
‘The most frightening thing in SA today is being a woman…’
The actor John Kani asks: ‘Have we forgotten the lessons we were taught by our fathers? “ The actor, director and an Ambassador for Brothers for Life, wants to mobilise men to speak out and take action around the true values that define being a man. Copied from the article in the Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
“I was born into a very big family: my grandfather, Jacob, had three wives, which meant I had a thousand uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, brothers and sisters.
My grandfather ran the family like the head of the Mafia. There were strict rules about behaviour and responsibility. He truly believed that it was the responsibility of the stronger ones in the family to protect and defend the weaker, often the womenfolk.
I remember when I was young, I came home and reported that my brother was fighting with another young man in our township. My father asked, "What did you do?" I was so embarrassed that the only word that would come out of my mouth was "Nothing."
This question has stayed with me the rest of my life - the fear of doing nothing when something wrong was happening. We were always taught to love, protect and defend our sisters, to respect and honour our mothers, aunts and grandmothers. This seemed to be the natural way of how a young man should or must behave.
Later in my life came the time for initiation to become a man. As young Xhosa tribesmen, we would spend six to 12 weeks in the woods near the mountains, after being circumcised, to become men.
- Our carers, amakhankatha, taught us all the lessons of life- of being a man, of being a father, of being a member of the community and of ultimately being a leader. We were told that a woman was a mother of the nation, irrespective of how young or old she was. We were taught that it was our responsibility to defend and protect our families and our communities.
We could not raise our hands to a woman…
I became a man, returned to the community, married and had children - four sons and three daughters. Having observed how my own father instilled in us the value of the family as the basis of any community, I knew that a strong family was a strong community.
- One of the things that we knew, as men, we could not do, irrespective of the circumstances, was raise our hand to a woman. I remember what my father once said to me: "Induku yomfazi ngumnqwazi." This simply means, "The stick you want to use to beat your wife is actually your hat" - meaning that whenever a conflict arises between a man and his wife, the man must take his hat and go for a walk.
This stayed with me all my life. I have passed it on to my sons, my friends and anyone I come into contact with. Some men often say to me, "But you know that women are always causing trouble, challenging your manhood," and I always say that being a man is never challenged by anything that anyone can say to you. You are a man.
South Africa before democracy had rules, structures and modes of conduct that could never be flouted by any man who was in the struggle for liberation. As we committed ourselves and our lives to the liberation of our country, we stood in those trenches and on the front lines of the liberation war with our women.
- It amazes me post-1994 that suddenly the women who were our comrades and compatriots are now suddenly the victims of the same men who fought with them for liberation.
These days I am afraid to pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch TV to hear how many women and children have been abused. I can't understand how the lessons we learnt as young men could suddenly have no meaning or impact in the manner in which we treat women and children.
The most frightening thing today in SA is being a woman…
Someone said over the radio, "The most frightening thing today in South Africa is being a woman."
- Wow! Where are the men when women make such a call?
To me, this is the same call our leaders made to mobilise us as young men to fight for freedom. This is the same call religious leaders make every Sunday to our communities to strive for peaceful co-existence. This is the same call our teachers make to us in the fight against ignorance. What is it going to take for us men to heed this call?
I was in a taxi in Toronto, Canada. The taxi driver asked whether I was from Africa. I was nervous to say South Africa because I knew exactly what the next question was going to be:
- "Is it true that African men believe that when they rape a child, they can pass on the HIV virus to the child to cleanse themselves and be cured of the disease?"
Why are there so many men in SA who rape women?
Why are there so many men in South Africa who rape women? These are questions that torture my soul. If we can call an indaba of all the learned men of our country to deal with the impact of the recession on our economy, when will we call a similar indaba to deal with this scourge?
So will the real South African man stand up? We need to stand up and be counted so that it can be clear to ourselves, our communities and the whole world that there are more of us, the good men, the good South African men, than the few who give us a bad name.
Today the worth of the average South African man is being eclipsed by the men who are not worthy of being called "men".
The real South African man is a man of honour, decency and self-respect. He respects himself and he respects women - the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of this great nation. He respects the nurturing they do, and what they have done and continue to do to build this nation. A true South African man would never lift a hand to a woman, would never hurt or maim a woman, let alone a girl child. This would go against the essential grain of his being; this would demean him as a man.
Therefore, a great injustice is being perpetrated against the real South African man by those "men" who abuse women and children.
Sadly, as a result of the huge increase in domestic and gender violence in South Africa today, all South African men are being tarred by the same brush, by the perception that African men feel it is their right to abuse and maim.
The cry of all real men is: "Why?" Why do some "men" - a very small proportion of our male society - feel that they can take their anger, their lack of self-esteem, their lack of self-respect out on women and children?
So, in defence of our manhood, in defence of our culture, in defence of all self-respecting and honourable men in this great country of ours, will the real South African man please stand up? http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article230504.ece
also read:
- Rape-statistics are badly understated in SA http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/10/sexual-offences-statistics-questioned.html
- 11% of 40,000 rape-cases ever end up in court: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/10/only-11-percent-of-40000-rape-cases.html
- John Kani: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kani
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