I heard some disturbing accounts of ultra-violent attacks on family and friends in Johannesburg. The most horrific involved some men who heated up a clothes iron and proceeded to burn triangular patches of the black domestic workers breasts and inner thighs aswell as a white grandmother. They did this evidently to terrorise a young white boy. He was so distressed he begged them to take the money out of his piggy bank.
Once again the sheer violence of crime in this city is shocking. One imagines the criminals think they have free reign since the worst that can happen to them is time in jail (a roof over their heads and three square meals).
I also received a phone call recently - May 1 in fact - from the wife of the Zimbabwean gardener who we believe informed three others of how to access a property and where to find valuables. They then robbed the landlady in Orchards, beat her up in the face and stole her jewellery. She - the domestic worker - wanted to know where I was staying, since she was looking for a job. I asked her if she had had any problems with the landlady and at first she diplomatically though cautiously said that she had had no problems. When I volunteered how unpleasant my experience over the last 2 months with her had been she said, "That woman in horrible.:
The place where I have moved to had a recent break-in - a car. I think this was in the last week of April. Fortunately the street has since been fortified with a strong gate.
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