Tourist killed story

I have to be honest, the whole "Tourist killed in Khayelisha / Gugulethu" incident bothers me.
A British-Indian couple, on honeymoon here, decided to visit a township late one evening. They were hijacked, the man and driver pushed from the car and the woman taken off with the hijackers. The story didn't say if the woman was raped (I kinda presume so) but at any rate, her body was found in the car the next day.

For those not familiar with South Africa, the above areas are townships in Cape Town. In the last few years, what with racial tensions getting more and more relaxed, whites have begun wandering into townships where they would previously never have set foot, for a chance to see 'how the other side lives', as it were.

It may come as a surprise for some foreign readers to still think of white and black areas, but this is still very much the case here. Yes, Apartheid has been dead for about 20 years and the largely-black ANC government in power since 1994, but race groups don't just get up and move next door to each other. For one thing, few 'non whites' can afford to live in so called 'white' suburbs. Obviously things are changing but largely, there are suburbs which are still, despite the fall of Apartheid, largely Indian, coloured, white or black areas.

I was brought up knowing that whites simply don't go into those township areas... "they're dangerous, there are gangs, whites wouldn't be safe there". Despite this, a few months ago, I made my way there with my wife, daughter and in laws to visit my mom-in-law's former maid, who lived just around the corner from a popular restaraunt "Mzoli's". Things have changed, I told myself. Blacks don't hate whites anymore. I'm not going to be attacked. And I wasn't

We ended up going to the restaraunt, an awesome spot where you select your raw meat, they take it through and braai (barbecue) it for you while you enjoy a few drinks outside, and taking take-aways as the little old lady (the former maid) was probably too frail to walk there and back.

It was an awesome day, despite the fact that this lady's next door neighbours asked us for money as we were leaving, and I vowed to return, probably with my guy friends at night, to enjoy a stuff our faces veening of meat and beer.

That was until this story hit the news. Mzoli's was the spot this couple had headed to on their fateful night. Granted we went at lunchtime and they went closer to 11pm.

It seems the talk on everyone's lips is "Those tourists should have known better than to go into that township at night." Or they blamed the taxi driver for taking them there that late. This seems to me a bit like the British, who like to blame the government for the fact that their children throw rocks at busses, terrorise people on the streets, vandalise property and can't be controlled. "We need more things for them to do and places for them to go," the parents moan.
No, what you need is discipline. Your child needs a good smack. Or they needed one when they were younger, now, it's probably too late. Your child is a thug. Their friends are thugs too.

It's like that in these townships. What we're basically saying here is that, we accept that we have no-go areas, "black" or "coloured" areas where there is no control, no law. We accept this. If you go in there, you're asking for trouble. That's quite a statement to make.

And it saddens me because I think it is a true statement.

I have explained to overseas friends before that there is 'white Cape Town' and 'other Cape Town'. My world is the safe one, largely. If you want to visit, you'll be fine, etc, etc.

And I've never seen the sadness of that statement. But today, I have never felt more distanced from my country. I still love it and am deeply patriotic, but it has brought home to me how split this land is. I live in another world.


Of course now, it seems that there has been a massive cover up and that the whole thing may have been a set-up for the oke to kill his own wife... ay ay ay.