March 9, by Aernout Zevenbergen. Pink tops, sweaters, shirts and blouses. Denim jeans or skirts. Through their choice of clothes this morning, thousands of people in South Africa wanted to make a statement. A statement that they have had enough. Enough of violence against babies, girls, women and grannies.

Pink and denim was what Sheldean Human (7) wore on the day she was kidnapped, February 18. She was last seen with a man who has since confessed, and who directed the police to where her body was (in a lake). His trial started today, March 9, in Pretoria. Hundreds of protesters in pink and denim are demanding the re-introduction of the death penalty.

Their demands remind me of the words spoken in 2002 by the judge who convicted David Potse of the brutal rape of a nine month old baby in Upington, a city in the middle of the deserted Northern Cape. Nurses renamed the baby who was raped Tshepang: Have Hope. Before sentencing Potse to life in jail, judge Hennie lacock openly regretted the abolition of the death penalty.

Tshepang"s ordeal shook up large parts of South Africa to some of the harsh realities of life in their own country. The 'new" South Africa was analysed and diagnosed as 'sick" by then vice-president Jacob Zuma Especially amongst the "previously privileged" the rape came as a huge shock.

People protested against Tshepang"s rape, carrying nappies with blood stains. Newspapers pointed at old myths, rituals and beliefs to explain what had happened. 'Sex with a virgin will cure you from disease", is by now the most famous one. Even in Liberia, where this alleged belief never existed, the myth is put forward by 'experts" to explain the huge number of rapes taking place since the end of the bloody war.
"Nonsense", said a reverend in Tshepang"s township about the virgin myth. "African traditions and customs do not purposefully hurt the weakest in society. On the contrary: African traditions protect them."
Those who were most shocked by the rape of baby Tshepang ignored the fact that baby rape was not a new phenomenon – on the contrary. Violence against girls and grannies also happened during the darkest days of apartheid; but neither press nor police were interested in it. They had different agenda"s.

A bush fire was allowed to continue and spread, because those in power chose not to act but instead to ignore. The rape of girls, as far as the ruling theocratic elite of the apartheid regime was concerned, did not happen in the land of God-fearing men. So nothing needed to be done.

Six years after Tshepang the crimes of rape, kidnap and murder are still some of the modern day plagues of South Africa. Thabo Mbeki promised, in his most recent State of the Nation, to employ another 158 thousand police officers to fight the serious crime levels in his country. The death penalty, as demanded by the protesters in pink, will not likely be on the agenda soon – South Africa honours and respects its liberal constitution.

A tough approach is what citizens of South Africa want, because they feel more insecure and fearful than ever before. It does not matter that most crime statistics, even those of independent institutions, show gradual declines. Crime is not first and foremost a matter of the brain; it is a matter of the heart. For both perpetrators as well as victims and their relatives.
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