Not only have the xenophobic murders and violence in South Africa got the world’s attention focused on the country, but the brutal murders of whites over the past month has sent shock waves through the world. However locally it barely caused a ripple said Dr. Pieter Groenewald the FF Plus chief spokesperson over Police.
Especially the murder of an elderly nun Getrude Tiefenbacher (86) and Mr. Greg Poutsie (45) renowned in the international film industry, echoed worldwide.
In South Africa, the media barely took note.
Poutsie of Ramsgate in Natal, appeared as a daredevil in several movies such as Tarzan and the Lost City, Shark Attack and Warhead. He also played minor roles in other movies. He was a professional diver who regularly accompanied overseas divers and offered in his spare time first aid training to young people from the area.
He died on Thursday, April 16, 2015 after a burglary at his home. Poustie is believed to have been bound so tightly by his attacker(s) that he died while struggling to get free.
His body was found hooded and bound in his house. His car was stolen among other belongings.
Condolences over his death streamed in from all over the world to his relatives, however, in South Africa only a small article was published in a local newspaper, the South Coast Herald.
The death of Tiefenbacher of Ixopo in Natal on April 18, 2015 got exposure in several world languages on the internet. She was murdered in a brutal way and she was presumably raped and her throat cut. According to the reports, she came to South Africa sixty years ago as a young Austrian girl to do charity work among black communities.
In the local media almost nothing is detected on the death of Tiefenbacher and Poutsie. Not much has been said about the deaths of five of the fifteen white South Africans who were murdered this month.
“According to statistics from the TAU SA 19 people were murdered on farms and smallholdings this year already. The question can be asked why the ANC government does not report on slaughter of their own people and on farms with equal intent like the xenophobic violence where even the army was deployed” said Dr. Groenewald.
Source – Die Vryburger
Photo Credit – Dynamic First Aid
South Africa Today – South Africa News
