Cape Town A Murderous Place

Cape Town: Murder City or a City of Peace?
This is the city I know better than any other place, I have lived here longer, I have been more intensively engaged, I have made so many more acquaintances than anywhere else. It is my city. Therefore I have shied away from any label that could prove Cape Town to be a bad place to live. In the past week it has become obvious that people, here and abroad, have started to see this place as a murderous place, yes some even say that Cape Town indeed is the murder city.
The reason why this talk now is taking root is of course the heinous and almost unbelievable murder plot from last month that is unfolding: without any apparent reason a young Swedish girl on honeymoon with her British bridegroom, was murdered in the black township of Khayelitsha, having been high jacked in the adjacent township of Gugulethu. What seemed to be another of those senseless murders (more than 700 people have been murdered in Gugulethu since 2005, and not one of them has been a tourist but mere locals) now appears to come out as something much more and as something intriguing. The husband early on gave different accounts of what had in fact transpired, and then the driver, Mr Tongo, has now turned state witness and has in detailed explained how the husband planned to kill her wife and had paid the sum of R 15,000 for that.
Many clearly do not know what to think. The husband is going to defend himself, even in a South African court if necessary, and has declared he is innocent. What is clear however is that this is not just one of those murders, an armed robbery for the sake of cell phones, money, jewellery and even a vehicle (which had been abandoned on the Sunday morning of 14 November) turned sour, something which is so common in South Africa. There is more to it than that. The next few months will hopefully bring us nearer to the truth. Did the bridegroom, who just a couple of weeks before had been instrumental in putting on a very lavish party in Mumbai for more than 300 guests, in fact kill his wife, and if so why did he do it?
Two more things must be told. First of all, this murder has put Cape Town on the map as a strong candidate of being a murder city and this is regardless of who in fact was behind the actual murder. It may for some here be a relief if it was orchestrated from outside, the groom being the brain child. Then at least there was an outside force instigating this evil thing, not one from here. But the very fact that there were so many willing hands to effectuate such a murder still undoubtedly leaves all of us living in this city tarnished. It is a fact that it is quite easy to engage somebody with murder for not such a high amount. Life has become cheap, a mere R 15,000 per head. It leaves me with this very uneasy feeling: who are we and why can’t we change things for the better?
Secondly, due to circumstances I have personally come close to this case of murder and it happened in the following way. We were in Windhoek, Namibia on the Monday morning of 15 November. My cell phone rang as I was sitting with a cup of tea outside the house enjoying the warm weather. I saw that the phone call was from Sweden and my home area, 0511 is Skara – Götene in Western Sweden. It is very unusual that someone from there calls me on my cell. I started worrying, is perhaps my sister not well? The phone call was from a person whom I have met briefly through the church back home. Her message to me was this: a gruesome murder has taken place in Cape Town. The girl who was murdered was on honeymoon and she was from my home area (Mariestad), where she grew up. Could I as a priest perhaps make contact with the relatives that now were on their way to Cape Town? So without any forewarning I came very close to a person whom I had never met, Anni Dewani, just over 30 years of age, daughter of Vinod and Nilam Hindocha, but a girl from home. Sitting there in Windhoek this Monday morning this obvious truth cut into my heart and this cut remains there and I am not quite sure what to do about it. As I see things now it will take a lot before I am convinced that the husband of Anni is innocent. We will see. Truth will prevail. Be that as it may, this tragic event has brought to light a side to this city that we have to take into account. I can only say that with some self reflection I realise that I (we) have become a part of this city and of the movement working hard towards a transformed Cape Town and South Africa, in terms of race relations, in terms of the plight of the poor, unemployed, homeless and those living in overcrowded places (and Gugulethu and Khayelitsha indeed are such places). As we may now be labelled the murder city, what does it take to make it a city of peace? No doubt this is enough for a life time involvement.