The popular TV presenter and naturalist, Dave Pepler, was attacked on March 18 when he went on a walk with a student on the hiking trail to Botmaskop outside Stellenbosch. It is a popular hiking trail for students and residents of the town, but over the years, it has become a gamble to go for a walk there.
For nowhere are you left in peace?
When you drive to town, there is the chance that you might be hijacked. If that does not happen then if you go to an ATM, there is the possibility that your card might be cloned and you are robbed.
If you go into a store with your child, you must watch all the time so he is not kidnapped. Then when you leave the store, you have 300 self-appointed car guards and street children rushing toward you for money and you must be careful not to upset them.
You are grateful when you get to the car and that it has not been stolen or that the windscreen is not smashed and your radio is stolen.
Now as you drive home. You thank God nobody was injured, and you look around carefully before you get out of the car, in the case of a potential attacker or rapist who hides behind some bushes or trees.
Then as you open the door, you turn off the alarm, including the security features and start to unpack your merchandise… R2000’s shopping that you hold in two hands. In addition, you wonder how the majority of people survive who are too white, too old, and too male to find a job and survive with less than that R2000-00 per month.
Then there are people who say: We have a good story to tell. It’s much better to SA than ever before.
Well, no … it’s not much better because damn it there is no more peace.
From Dave Pepler Facebook profile
Look at this map: 8 March 2017 at 11.30 against Botmaskop three criminal attacked me and Handré Basson, we were hit with wooden poles, and stones – both our phones have been destroyed.
I have walked this way for 40 years without problems, but inquiries at the hospital and the police show that this road has become life threatening. I am angry, that, innocent people are attacked and that criminals inhibit our freedom and space.
Please warn all those who walk here and, yes, I’m going to do something about this.
Read the original article by Daniel Lötter in Afrikaans on Front Nasionaal SA – blad
South Africa Today – South Africa News
