Cape Town To Muscat
I am moving from Cape Town to Muscat in three weeks. I have been there to have a look and its great but havent been to Dubai yet. I will come and visit your Bokke Bar soon I hope. I agree with everything you say in your correspondence with 7 days - things here are getting really bad and I am so afraid for my family staying behind. Dont give up.
Regards
Leigh
**** Mugabe
listen bru, I'm fully with you on most of your points, although the U.A.E. being safe? Anyway your point about Mbeki lending that D**S Mugabe money is a crying shame. Re-investing/investing it in RSA would be the right thing to do, but who knows how these stupid politicians minds work. I'm not too sure what business you're in, but on a recent trip back, I was surprised to find out that my skill and experience in the design industry could earn me more back home - even as a 'whitey'. I could be one of the fortunate ones?
In my letters to seven days I have tried (as you have in some of your topics) to inform the 'apathetic' bunch out here (not just Safricans) that SA is a brilliant place. What kills me is that the world mustered up such anti-South Afrcan support from all quarters back then, but now the sh*t and 'human rights' violations are WORSE in some countries than SA ever was!? Go figure? I think there is no accountability or common basic decency and respect left... and it's getting worse (hell I could go on forever about this - I was brought up in a very good conservative English-speaking SA home where we knew our place and had respect for our elders).
Corruption is rife everywhere in the world - and as we know a daily ritual in Africa. I have had a couple of personal cases in SA 'disappear' due to corrupt cops and have been left with no justice (not murder though, I had filed assault and reckless driving cases where files vanished); so I urge you to keep focus on your quest for justice. I have always found from personal experience that just as you are about to give up or throw in the towel, you find what you are looking for or get what you wanted. I would love SA to return to normality, although it will never be truly like it was, but read this below to get a bit of inspiration or bring back a few good memories.
Cheers
John
Bigger tribe
Dear Sir, May your tribe increase. I will pray for your son and to your crusade. With warm regards.
Joy
Remebring 25 August
Could not have said it better myself, Jack! Keep going. Ignore the people that want to verbally abuse you. They have no right, until they have stood in your shoes. Will be thinking of you and your family on 25th. Take care, and may a thousand angels guide your path to understanding.
Sally A
Thanks
Just wanted to say that the letter you sent out was great. And thanks for creating a place for South Africas to join together once a week to have loads of fun! It's so funny; I went to the Al Muntazah club a few times before and I always said that that would be the ideal place to have a Bok bar! So glad that it's happened!
Paula
Sterkte.
It is not a hidden agenda and you should not feel the need to apologize for wanting an answer and above all justice and some positive action and feedback on Jay’s case. Sterkte
Mark Fourie
Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!
Thank you 7DAYS. You have helped me to put the story straight to the uninformed on what I am trying to achieve for my beloved South Africa and our people.I am not a Nelson Mandela, or as we lovingly call him, “Madiba”, - the father of the nation. I am simply a loyal patriotic Safrican living in Dubai who has suffered the loss of a child to a senseless, unsolved murder in South Africa and do not want others to have to go through what I have been through, and am still going through. The world needs to know what is happening in South Africa.
Although I have received some abuse on the radio and in your letters column, a few hate mails to my Tokoloshe email address, and the odd bit of verbal abuse, I have also had hundreds of calls and e-mails of positive support that has given me and a friend, Steve, the strength to continue to bring “Safricans” together in the new “Saturday Bokke Bar” to support our Springbok rugby team in Jebel Ali, Dubai.
One thing that is clear, is that like me, most, if not all the South Africans in the UAE have a strong desire to “go back home” one day. But let’s face it, none of us want to go back to living in our own prisons. We have, or will have become accustomed to the security of living in the UAE.
The only way that we can contribute to bringing back law and order in South Africa is to make our voices heard. The world put an end to apartheid because the world knew about it from people who made it known world-wide, and they helped to bring about sanctions against South Africa. We, the Safricans in the Middle East can learn from that and also make our voices heard and tell the world what is happening. But that can only happen if we all stand together. “Eendracht maakt mag” – Unity is strength! We need to speak out and make our voices heard and not be “draadsitters” – sitting on the fence – waiting for others to do something. That is what I meant by the apathy of people in my previous letters.
Crime is crippling South Africa. This is a fact. If the world’s media could bring down apartheid, then they can help to make our government take stock of, and do something about improving the quality and resources of our police force and judicial system.
And it’s not only the crime. Lack of employment for many South Africans is driving many of our skilled people away. Instead of “lending” all that money (that will naturally never be repaid) to Mug Ape (Mugabe), our government should plough that money into our police force. Buy the police cars and equipment. Give them increases to attract more staff and improve their training, logistics, resources etc. South Africa should come first for our government, not other self-destructive countries.
And yes, I do need to admit that I have a hidden agenda, and that is to get someone, somewhere, somehow to help my family to get the South African police to do a proper job in solving the murder of my son, Jay. We do need closure.
If some people are against what I am standing for, then I will state, as Rhett Butler said to Scarlett in the 1939 movie, Gone with the wind, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn! ”
SA has a long way to go.
I had read the article yesterday morning, and was really sorry to hear what happened to your son as well as your friends daughter. I agreed with your comments with regards to loving SA, i love my country as well, but when you hear about things or if these type of things happen personelly to a person like it did to you, i can imagine what your feelings are. It is a shame the way things are going in SA, currently as well as past with all the crimes etc. It is actually a luxury staying in Dubai where you dont have to hear or experience such things as back home. SA has a long way to go to get things right and the government( Which seems to be corrupt) needs to fix it.
Regards
Gareth
100????
Thank you for being the voice of South African's in Dubai. It's amazing how many people only say things if they feel that their personal little view is different to yours, yet only respond to things and are not pro active like you. I really admire you for your stance on the issues that you believe in. Keep up the good work, and maybe we will have the "100" sometime.
Bravo..
Mark Filbby
9mm slug nearly killed me.
How are you, I back you 100% and we have certain SA's who think they are better, but on investiagtion of why they are in Dubai, it is for the money and educate their children away from crime. Crime in SA is a fact I was driving between Centurion Golf course and the Mint on Melmapius road when a 9mm slug went through my rear window, missed my head by inches and lodged in the upright of the front screen. NO CRIME HA HA. More SA's are killed by acts od terrorism on their farms in 6 months than died in the New York 7/11 and yet there are no memorials or thanks to these farmers who provide SA with their food. To all SA's who rebut you and the fact that there is no crime in SA and that we are selling our country short, wake up, maybe it is because they have not been affected by the loss of a loved one. SHORT SIGHTED WITH BLINKERS. Keep going.
Regards
Chris Ball
The death penalty.
I read the story about your son and offer my sincerest sympathies. I cannot imagine what it is like to live with this mystery, and such will also remain the mystery about whether there was an accomplice to Leigh's murder or not; the timeframe between the 9th and 21st when she was found. The very two issues which everybody has to contend with as Moodley's "right to remain silent".
So when you lament about the old South Africa, politically incorrect or not, at least there were ways and means of making people talk, and there was the death penalty.
For me as a South African not priviledged enough to leave this country, I will continue to look over my shoulder and wonder every night when I go to bed, whether tonight or tomorrow I will also become one of the statistics we read about in the papers. Some don't even make the papers.
In the last three days, the horror stories in South Africa continue to grow:- the murders of Leigh Matthews, Tanya Flowerday, Marike de Klerk, Shanae Muir, a family in Benoni, a cannibal eating his niece.
None of them can relieve your own anguish, all it does is highlight the enefficiency of the current government to prevent crime and that your decision to leave, was probably the best you ever made.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Lizette McIntosh
Pretoria
LAAT HUL GERUS DIE SKOEN AANTREK INDIEN HY PAS
MOOI SO JACK!!!
MEER VAN ONS MOET DIE MOED VAN ONS OORTUIGING Hê OM TE Sê WAT ONS OP DIE HART HET!
EK WENS JOU ALLE VOORSPOED TOE IN JOU SOEKE NA ANTWOORDE OP JOU KIND SE RAAISELAGTIGE DOOD.
DIT IS N BASIESE REG OP MENSWEES WAARNA JY VRA !
ELKE REGDENKENDE MENS (ONGE-AG RAS OF NASIONALITEIT ) IS BESLIS ERG GEKANT TEEN DIE SKENKING AAN DIE GROOTSTE DUIWEL VAN ALLE TYE!!!! HOE ONS REGERING ENIGSINS BY SO IETS BETROKKE KAN RAAK SPREEK BOEKDELE !????
AAN DIE WAT RAAS EN BLAAS - LAAT HUL GERUS DIE SKOEN AANTREK INDIEN HY PAS!!!!
GROETE
BELINDA VAN DER LINDE
STANDERTON - SUID AFRIKA
We are not known as wishy washy types
I am very happy to see that your SKOP page has been resumed. Well done for persevering despite criticism from a few.I think you should welcome some opposite views to your own. It means that you have made progress. We South Africans do seem to have opinions that test the extremes on most subjects and we are not known as wishy washy types without opinions. I actually enjoy seeing the way other people see things. Luckily we are all different.See you at the rugby and sincere support to you and your family on the 25th.
Dermot de Gersigny
R1 Million to change a name
You must send this to SKOP....
On a more serious note though, the renaming of cities in SA and the cost involved is diabolical. I don't even know my own country anymore. When I was there now it struck me again how immature these people are! Most of the renamings in the Eastern Cape for example are simply spelling related, e.g. Umtata has now changed to Umthatha because that is the correct Xhosa spelling. The daily Dispatch in East London reported that each of such a name change costs in the vicinity of about a R1 mil each, because of stationary, road side etc. changes. In the week that I was there now, 27 examples of this happened when I was there. Then there is University name changes, road name changes and so the abortion just continues!
Craig Coezee
Louis Trichardt where I grew up
Hi Jack:
We don't know each other but I got on this mailing through Iep Kruger, my favorite cousin. I've lived in the US for 31 years so I'm, now, a US citizen. Being born in Lusaka, Zambia, I was a naturalized SA citizen prior to my emigration and SA pulled my citizenship so I had little choice but to become a US citizen. No regrets. I am very proud to be a citizen of the most powerful country in the world. I get very angry by the negativity aimed at the US especially when my tax dollars pay to bail out the rest of the world from their predicaments. It seems the more that we give, the more antagonism is directed at us. And, I resent it.
But, with the passing of years, I miss my family and friends in SA and really want to be closer to them but struggle with the idea of trying to weigh the prospects of going back to be closer to them and back to the continent of my birth. This is a personal decision that I need to make.
I am sorry to hear about the untimely and tragic death of your son and I do hope that you find satisfactory closure. I read the SA papers, on-line, daily and so keep current with the state of matters going on. I, even, read the local paper from Louis Trichardt where I grew up and, as I describe it to my friends here, it is replete with corruption, mishandling, murder and mayhem. And, the prospect of moving to a gated community with electronic fences and bars on the windows and doors and guard dogs is most unsettling.
I've, already, gone on too long. I do hope that your efforts will prove fruitful.
Working in law enforment in RSA
I would like to applaud you for what you are doing. I am SO VERY SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS.....I pray that God will take away your pain and suffering.... I trust that your son is VERY happy where he is right now...and the truth is....(this is what I tell myself to feel better)..."it's a matter of time till we meet our loved ones again".
I work in Law enforcement in South Africa....and I am very frustrated where I am.... I am also a loyel SA cit. I LOVE my country.... but I can see that we are trouble....Our Dep.Pres says that we RSA can learn lots from Zimbabwe's SPEEDY LAND REFORM..... (you must've seen it in the news)...people are scared....everywhere.
I pray for you, your family... and the RSA. Good luck and kind regards.
SK South Africa
10 000 VS 3,000
Apropos the last line – a friend of ours was murdered on Tuesday morning in her townhouse in Weltevreden Park, and last week The Star ran a story on how there are up to 10 000 unsolved murders every year in SA!!!!!! Vs about 3 000 that are solved.
Carolyn N.
