The reality of violence in SA

Our domestic, Mavis, is a truly fine woman. She makes her way from Olievenhoutbosch to Linbro Park six days a week. Once a week, or so, her cousin brings her here as he has business in the area. He was beaten to a pulp in Olievenhoutbosch in a failed hijacking yesterday. His life is wrecked, for an old Honda which the robbers did not get. Apparently, the criminals beat him around the head with rocks to try and get his car. We think we have it rough in Linbro, but the fact is that the black-on-black violence is far worse, as attested by life expectancy for white people of around 75-80, and 40 for black people.

UPDATE: Mavis has worked for us for three years. In this time she has buried her teenage daughter, who died from a non-HIV-related auto-immune deficiency illness; one cousin killed in a Free State car crash; and another who died of an obesity-related stroke. Now her cousin was beaten so badly, and she says the police show no interest in following up. We have had two office workers die prematurely (around 40) due to HIV-related issues. Our office lady has buried her husband (in his 60s), and two children, one of whom was murdered. The police have never pursued the case to anything like conclusion. Her surviving son was beaten to a pulp a fortnight ago. When we have attended these funerals, we have been struck by the sheer scale of the new graves. The older graves have names like Jones and Lipschitz. The fresh graves are often not even honoured with a tombstone, and they stretch as far as the eye can see.