On Monday, a friend told me of something that happened at the local township at the weekend.
There's a nice man living across the street from my friend. He's quite well off, owns a BMW. His wife has died, and he lives with his teenage daughter.
The daughter has been withdrawn and quiet at school. More so lately.
On Friday she the daughter told a friend that her father had been abusing her for the past eight years, since she was 5. He'd threthened to kill her, and so she's kept the secret for all these years.
The local people reacted strongly. Much stronger than the white community would react.
The neighbors called the social workers and the police. A big crowd of friends and neighbors then gathered at the man's house and beat him up badly. The police were standing there, but didn't interfere. They, too, were disgusted by the beast's actions.
The daughter was taken away by the social workers. The angry crowd then burned the man's house down "TV and all". They could have stolen his belongings. One of the poorer people could have moved into his house. Instead, they destroyed everything so there would be absolutely nothing left of the disgusting man in their township.
The man was taken away by the police, and was due to appear before a court on Monday. His friends and neighbors went to rally in front of the court house to try and make sure the man wouldn't be freed on bail. They want him to rot in jail for the rest of his life.
The reaction of the community was completely different to how people in the developed countries might react. Some time ago, a little girl was snatched from her bathroom in the UK, taken away, raped a couple of times, and left naked in the cold backstreet. A friend of the accused man has now said that he'd known the man was twisted. He'd heard the accused commenting on what he'd like to do to little kids. He just didn't bother doing anything about it.
I don't think violence is a solution to anything. But I'm happy to see how much the Mandela park community care about children.
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2 comments:
A relevant question though is "was she telling the truth?" About the time I was finishing elementary school (age 10 or 11) there was a girl there who claimed she was kidnapped just outside the school but managed to escape. Turns out she made it up.
I do believe more children are abused than fake an incident like this. Perhaps the following is more relevant.
Consider another 13yr old girl in the township who is being abused. Would she report it knowing that her house and family possessions would be destroyed and possibly the rest of her family split apart?
Valid points, Andrew. In this case, the father confessed and the child was telling the truth.
I don't think many kids in Mandela park will now tell if their father is abusing them. Then again, I'd think less men will dare do it from now on.
Many children, even babies, are raped by HIV positive men who think that you get rid of Aids if you dilute it by giving it to others. The reaction of the Mandela park community showed me there's less of this happening around here than I thought.
Minna
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