Foreign media seeks to vilify SA

The British media have once again attempted to portray South Africa as a crime hub that affects sportsmen and women

I read with utter disgust and disappointment an article by one David Ornstein; a BBC Sport journalist who is on a mission to defame South Africa in the sporting context.

Much like in the pre-2010 FIFA World Cup when the British media to project our country as a hostile savage inhabited environment that was not conducive for a sports event as big as the global football centrepiece. Potential tourists and football fans were cautioned about their safety and general wellbeing, should they do set foot in our country at the time.

Ornstein, as another extensive arm of the British media’s gripe with South Africa, has jumped onto the bandwagon which seeks to portray our country as a hub of danger where sportsmen like Oscar Pistorius are targets of crime, basically in relation to the athlete’s recent tragedy.

To justify Pistorius’ actions, Ornstein further furnished his impish article with the pertinent South African crime statistics; and comparing them with the statistics in the United Kingdom (UK).
For corroboration, Ornstein roped in former Proteas player Andrew Hall into the picture. Hall, who is now a ‘chicken runner’ that has now relocated to Ornstein’s native land, claims to have been a hapless victim of crime in his own country.

Ornstein’s objectives with his article somehow hit a snag as his sources failed to malign their country of origin, contrary to Hall’s treacherous standpoint.

He attempted to channel former Springbok skipper, John Smit; Shaun Bartlett and New Zealander, John Mitchell, to believe that South Africa is indeed as unsafe as he purports; also with a clear intention to justify Pistorius’ tragic killing of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

“For me, it’s surprising to sleep with a gun by your bed. I sleep with the door open to hear the sea. You have to read your area. Maybe I’m lucky in Durban. I’ve never felt targeted,” said Smit in one of the quoted responses to Ornstein in the article.

To supplement the latter, the patriotic Smit, who plays for English outfit Saracens, said he is undoubtedly returning to his homeland he one day leaves the English franchise, to go continue with his normal life. Smit, like all of us, conceded that crime is a problem in South Africa but noted the advances that the country has made since apartheid.

Bartlett on the other hand was also stern in his responses to Ornstein. He told Ornstein that the only time he had personally experienced crime was indeed in Ornstein’s native land, the UK, where he enjoyed a successful football career.

Mitchell has also been a crime victim in our country. He however said staying in South Africa after the incident was the best thing he had ever done, because it helped him deal with the situation.
He said the situation would have affected him more had he left and that is why opted to stay and face the crime reality.

“People here are underprivileged and have to earn a living to keep alive.

“This is part of our country; part of the life we live in,” he added.

Mitchell’s point validates that the prevalence of crime in our country can largely be attributed to poverty; extensive illiteracy, which later contributes to high unemployment statistics. The areas that are mostly affected by crime are sadly the areas where the impoverished people reside.

There is simply no correlation between the wealthy Pistorius’ actions and the general crime statistics, apart from the fact that he himself has now contributed to those very statistics.