Don't Call It A Comeback

Now where was I? As I was saying; before I was rudely interrupted by life, joy, pain, the rise of #Twitter, Summer love, unemployment, heartbreak, ANC’s victory, the death of music’s greatest entertainer, the bloody agent send-off, the coldest winter, the story of the lethal Mini Coopers, quitting addictions, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, more heartbreak, the fall of Facebook, alcohol highs and lows, T.I going back to jail, Agliotti walking free, etc. People (all three of them lol) would come up to me and ask ‘What happened to the blogs?’. While standing there trying to come up with a valid reason as to why I’d stopped posting my weekly notes, there’d always be one truth that crossed my mind: ‘I got too lazy to blog’. That long-ass sentence at the beginning of this paragraph should let you know for sure that I wasn’t short of material to write about. I just, well, got lazy.

Well it’s back to business, enough about my abundance. I was reading my previous posts from last year and one thing I realized was that my content heavily relied on our country’s current affairs (with some general social issues here and there). So I’ll continue in that vein by tackling the story of a tragedy that happened in our country’s shores, and yet has the UK, as well as a number of surrounding countries, up in arms. I’m pretty sure that most of you have heard/read about the killing of 28 year old Anni Dewani who was here (in Cape Town, specifically) with her newlywed husband for their honeymoon. This apparently happened while the couple was being chauffeured by a resident driver through a number of tourist spots in Khayelitsha. From what I understand, the three were victims of a hi-jacking that eventually left Anni fatally shot in the neck, and Shrien (her husband) only traumatized, with no scar or physical harm to his body. Being that the Dewanis were tourists from the UK, you can imagine how much of a field-day the British tabloids were/are having. British tabloids are always quick to slander African countries (remember the World Cup crime scares? You would’ve thought S.A. was Afghanistan). Back home, authorities and representatives are working at a dizzying pace trying to save our country’s reputation. We’ve fought so hard to remove the ‘You-will-be-robbed-or-shot-as-soon-as-you-enter-South-Africa’ label that sensationalists have given our country over the years. Plus I don’t remember reading about a tourist dying during the World Cup; but the truth is, we can only cover up so much. I mean think about it, how many regular people die every day unnoticed (or ignored) by the media? Do we have that many South African lower-class people dying that it’s not news anymore? Or is it because Anni was British, and married to a millionaire? (Oh yeah I forgot to mention that husband Shrien is balllliiiinnn’). My issue is not necessarily with the media coverage of the story. What intrigues me is the hoopla surrounding the actual events that took place on the fateful night of November 13th.

When I first saw the story on the news, a friend of mine who I was with at the time immediately called foul play on widower Shrien. He wasn’t the only one to assume that the prominent businessman killed his wifey (maybe he found out she couldn’t cook? IM JOKING). Depending on who you are, this story might have sounded fishy to you from the onset too. Even though the thought did cross my mind, I personally don’t believe he did it. I don’t know, call it sincere intuition, but I doubt this guy did it (he looks a bit nerdy lol). Think about it. He’s a millionaire businessman from the UK. How the fuck did he get connected with random Khayelitsha thugs to set up a hit on his wife? I know some of y’all might say ‘maybe he’s powerful like that’, but come on. This is real life. We’re not watching a Martin Scorsese film here. Maybe it was purely Grand Theft Auto IV type shit. Besides, the police reports (including statements from the driver’s attorney) state that Anni Dewani insisted that they drive through some Gugulethu hot spots (shebeens, taverns, etc). The allegations became so bad that Shrien himself made a statement to the press (for the first time) claiming his innocence. At the end of the day, it’s all about what/who you choose to believe. I just read today that Shrien’s friends are also defending him. They claim that the South African authorities are the ones fuelling beliefs that their friend instigated the entire murder, in order to shift the blame away from our country’s homicide-free-World-Cup reputation (i.e., Police Commissioner Bheki ‘If I Aint Good-Looking You Bet My Bitch Is’ Cele paying local newspapers to point Shrien as the one). Wow.

What do you guys think? Did he do it? Or is our country THAT violent? Just the other day I was telling my friend how I’ve grown up hearing/reading stories of how crime-infested our country is and what-not; and yet I’m still not convinced it’s that bad. Some of you might argue that maybe I grew in relatively ‘safe’ areas, but that’s debatable (Montshiwa wadup!). Or maybe growing up here teaches you how to avoid/ignore the ills and occurrences of crime in this country. But then again, Southern Africa is STILL number one in the list of sub-continents with the highest homicide rate (Google it, baby). So I don’t know. For the first time (in all of my blogs) I’m closing on a confused note.

Happy Friday you Yentas!
P.S.: Did I mention that the driver of the couple’s rented car was also arrested? Ugh, this is too much.