[It looks as if this article was written by a non-white. So that’s quite an admission. Look at what that woman, who had lived in Zambia and Zimbabwe told him – up front! And it came true. We whites were RIGHT all along! Jan]

Were those who quit SA right to go?
By Shaz

Witness to a decade of crime and decay

I was reading today™s newspaper and I felt so disheartened. I hate the crime and the general downfall of basic things. I hate it that we, as South Africans, have to accept things because (152)˜this is Africa™. Because that is not a good enough reason for me.

It brought back a conversation I had about ten years ago with a woman who was (152)˜packing for Perth™.

She was South African-born and had lived in Zambia and Zimbabwe. I was sad she was leaving; she had been a good friend to me. So she sat with me over a coffee, we talked about the future, and she had this to say:

“Shaz, Let me give you a look into the future. You will see things change over the next few years here in South Africa. First, the roads will not be upgraded and you will have to avoid potholes on all of the roads. Don™t even expect new roads to be built because they won™t be and traffic and hold ups will become the norm.

“There will be power cuts and it will happen more and more. Then grass won™t be cut on the roadsides and parks will go to waste, while litter blows through the streets like tumbleweed.

“Streetlights will break and never be repaired. Buildings will be allowed to go to ruin and no one will care. There will be (152)˜no-go™ areas and places that aren™t safe for black or white people.

“The health system will start to fail the people and good doctors and nursing staff will leave for greener pastures.”

She said fraud and corruption would start to eat away at the police and traffic departments. Crime will become just too terrible and lives will be lost. Innocent people will die.

“You will build up your barriers slowly over time, higher and higher and you will accept all of these things. You listen to me now and in 10 years time, Shaz, I want you to contact me and tell me how things are for you in Johannesburg. I have lived through the same thing twice and I refuse to have my heart broken again by a country™s gradual downfall.”

I was a little angry with her at that time, as I had hope for this beautiful country. I wanted to prove her wrong. I was not going to leave a place I loved so much it was running through my blood.

Then I drove through town this morning, it was full of rubbish, and I started to feel so sad. I came home to a power cut for a few hours. Then I sit and read the newspapers on the filth and crime that is going on in our country.

And you know what?

I still see that Johannesburg skyline everyday and I have hope that it will change.

However, when 60 children a day are raped, that becomes 21,900 in one year that are walking around with evil on their mind. I haven™t included the women that are raped, beaten, and abused. I don™t need to include the murder and armed robbery and housebreaking, hijacking and cash in transit heists.

How many thousands of South Africans have actually lost the plot? What are they thinking when they get up in the morning: “Oh today I am going to rape and shoot someone, maybe I will kill them maybe I will let them live.”

It™s not about poverty anymore and it™s not about lack of education, so please someone tell me what exactly, is it all about?

What has happened to decent people with morals and values and most of all, heart? When the criminal looks in someone™s pleading face and they are begging, ™Don™t shoot me, rape me: take my money, take everything, but please don™t kill me™. Are they laughing, are they having fun? What is wrong with them?

How many are there walking around amongst us, that have evil on their mind. I am beginning to wonder if my hope is only false hope. I don™t want to make that call to her but I think she is right. The country that is running through my blood is now spilling it all over onto the filthy, rotten, putrid, evil smelling, crime ridden, corrupt streets.

Source: Reporter.co.za
URL: http://www.reporter.co.za/br>[Posted by: VERENA]