I watched the documentary South Africa, Murder Most Foul, by John Blair and presented by Sir Antony Sher, on television this week. A bit late I know but still. It is a shocking tale even for South Africans who are inured to crime. I found myself going through the knee jerk reaction almost automatically “Aw come on” I vented at the television, “it is not that bad” But the truth is, it is. The longer the documentary went on the more I related and the statistics are shocking. It is no wonder the powers that be would like our statistics to be lost in bureaucracy. Over nineteen thousand murders per annum.
That excludes violent crimes like rape, assaults, hi-jackings and non violent crimes but violating crimes such as housebreaking, robbery and drugs.
Can you live with that number?
John Blaire in an interview with Carte Blanche stated that he had received widespread criticism for portraying this violent aspect of South Africa. I can relate to his critics. This is not how I want to see my country portrayed to the rest of the world. In the tourism industry this hard look at post apartheid South Africa post does not bode well for our future overseas visitor numbers. It does not bode well for me, my family and my friends.
The truth though is, he is right.
We hear our ministers say crime levels are unacceptable, we hear our Safety and security minister claiming that we are whinging but if we don’t like it we can leave. Neither stance is solving the problem. I am one of those whinging; I am one of those claiming that the crime rate is unacceptable. In reality we are all in denial. We have become inured. A four year old raped and murdered no longer shocks and enrages us, instead we seem to hang on in quiet desperation. A murmur and on with our lives we go.
We need to get angry, we need to be enraged. We need to hold our government officials responsible.
No!
That’s not right either. I need to be enraged, I need to get angry, I need to hold my local ministers responsible.

Reading the local newspaper’s letters column over the December period has left me wondering whether some local Georgians plainly have their heads up their proverbial  collective asses.
To illustrate
Every year our local NG Moederkerk has a market. This year a lady selling fairies, pewter products and dragons, was told by the minister of the NG church, to remove her products as they could not be sold at the church market.  To date, the minister has remained silent on the issue despite a hot debate in the local paper, the organiser of the market has stressed the fact that they reserved the right to approve product and exercised this right.
Now, I have no problem with a church exercising its rights, however should such approval not be exercised prior to a stallholder going to the time and expense of erecting and displaying their wares just to be told:  “Pack it up.” Secondly I am truly baffled as to why selling such items would contradict any of the edits of the Christian belief. It seems as if even the minister in question, is also having a hard time explaining his behaviour, hence his silence. The old adage, “rather remain silent and appear a fool, than open your mouth and prove it beyond doubt” applies.
I work closely with local tourism bodies, who over the last few years have tried to create the image of George as a happening and vibrant place to visit, but this type of ultra conservative religious fervour does our tourism image no good and strongly reinforces our conservative retirement village image.
Another contributor to the letters column questioned the local municipality’s decision to remove the driftwood littering the beaches, after the recent floods, just prior to the holiday season starting. He claimed nature would have taken care of the driftwood in due course and at no cost to the ratepayer. Now what do you say to someone who does not care if thousands of holidaymakers arrive, expecting pristine beaches as displayed in the marketing materials to find instead a beach literally covered in driftwood and a sea unsafe to swim in because of drift material in the water. What would you say to someone who would rather see thousands of holiday makers in future select other destinations as they would rather avoid the risk of repeating the mistake, costing our tourism dependant economy millions, to save the proportionately miniscule cost of cleaning the beaches prior to the first holidaymakers arriving.
Perhaps said person just does not understand how competitive the tourism industry is, we vie with so many destinations that are closer, cheaper, warmer and drier. With so much negative publicity generated by the floods it is essential to ensure that visitors who choose the Garden Route, become evangelists for the Garden Route and hopefully, visit repeatedly in times to come. I assure them the average Georgian welcomes and appreciates them.