Spreading The Word: Violent Crime In South Africa

[Darkhound]

I want to call upon all Dragonmounters to help the citizens of South Africa.

 

South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world. This fact is hidden quite well from the international community by means of what can only be called propaganda by the ruling political parties. Here is just a few statistics on the occurrence of violent crimes in South Africa:

 

- 20 000 people are murdered in South Africa each year. That’s more than 54 murders a day, or one murder every half an hour.

- Poverty is not to be blamed for all murders in South Africa. A large percentage of murdered victims were not even robbed either before or after such killings.

- South African farms currently experience a violent attack each 60 hours.

- Since the beginning of 2006 alone, South Africa lost 26 farmers who died during farm attacks.

- If you get stranded while traveling on any road in South Africa, you are at risk getting killed for the fun of it.

- While police crime statistics show that there were 21 683 murders in South Africa in the year 2000, the Medical Research Council puts the figure at 32 482. The MRC’s estimate is close to the figure from the Department of Home Affairs, which is 30 068. This is a third more murders than reported by the SAPS, a discrepancy of more than 10 000 murders.

 

The worst of this is the government’s total failure to act.

 

In a recent speech to parliament, the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula remarked on people complaining about crime in South Africa: “"There are two options. You can complain until you are blue in the face or leave the country…â€

 

Now, with the eyes of the international community on South Africa as the host of the 2010 Fifa Footbal World Cup, the citizens of South Africa have the chance to inform the world of our situation, forcing the government to act.

 

With this goal, one brave South African, Neil Watson, has created a website to inform the international community on the situation in South Africa.

 

The launch of the website was met by outrage by the powers that be. Some even describe it as traitorous. But since its launch only a few weeks ago, the site received so many emails of encouragement and praise that the servers hosting the website cannot handle the load.

 

I want to call upon all Dragonmounters to visit the site, and spread the word. This is not only to help the citizens of South Africa, but all tourist and persons hoping to attend the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

 

 

The URL is http://www.crimexposouthafrica.co.za/

Please note that some of the photographs on the website are extremely graphic, and not suitable for sensitive persons.

 

I will post more links on the crime situation in South Africa in the next few days.

[Darkhound]

I just became aware that a lot of links on the website isn't working. This is because they are busy upgrading the site. Everything should be sorted out in a few days.

[teehee]

its a good idea. the enthusiasm for this scheme will hopefully last long enough.

 

The key is awareness - The best help will come when you convince the world this isnt a distant problem which doesnt concern them, let alone the rest of the world. It's a crisis thats been going on for so long that people have managed to mute it to an almost incoherent buzz. This site's a start.

[Darkhound]

Thanks for your support teehee.

 

I'm planning to launch a newsletter to help promote the site, and create awareness of the problem globally.

 

If you are willing to help, let me know, either by PM or posting on this thread.

 

I'll post an URL where you can register for this newsletter as soon as I have the page up and running.

 

You can also view the crimexposouthafrica.co.za newsletter here: http://www.crimexposouthafrica.co.za/newsletter.htm