Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/07/30/safr.underground.rapist/index.html

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- A man who terrified a small rural community for months was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for committing a series of rapes and imprisoning a teenage girl and his own young daughter for 15 months in an underground pit.
Johannes Mowers listens to his sentencing in a courtroom in Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday.

Johannes Mowers, 33, committed his crimes in the bucolic Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Cape Town, a valley known for its fine wines and fruit -- and its crushing poverty, illiteracy and alcohol abuse among farm workers.

He had grown up in the area and police said his knowledge of it helped him elude capture despite manhunts by trackers, dogs and helicopters. He survived by stealing food during repeated burglaries, police said.

Some residents, terrorized by his nighttime raids, left the area. A few locals believed he had supernatural powers that enabled him to escape detection.

Among the relatives at Wednesday's sentencing was the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was abducted from the family's cottage in 2005, when she was 13. Mowers kept her and his own daughter, then aged two, in a tiny pit he had dug into a hillside.

He was convicted of repeatedly raping the teenager. The two children -- inseparable when they were found -- have since been in the care of social workers. Even now, they speak only in whispers, because Mowers forbade them to talk, said prosecutor Nicoletta Bell.

Supporters have set up the Whisper Fund to raise money for the girls' rehabilitation and education.

"My daughter will never be able to work through the trauma she experienced," said the mother of the 15-year-old.

The whereabouts of the toddler's mother -- Mowers' former partner -- is unknown.

Mowers stood impassively as the judge at Cape Town's High Court read a long list of sentences for crimes including rape, indecent assault, abduction and burglary. Relatives and friends of Mowers' victims hugged on the steps outside the court after hearing the judgment.

"The damage he inflicted is incalculable," said a woman whose 22 year-old daughter was raped in 2006 by Mowers, who then used the victim's cell phone to taunt police.

Mowers pleaded guilty to 28 charges, including abduction and rape of a minor, four additional rapes, kidnapping, assault and housebreaking. The prosecution dropped other charges under an agreement that effectively gave Mowers one life sentence rather than many -- making him eligible for parole after about 25 years.

The case was shocking even by the standards of South Africa, where about 1,000 people are raped every day and police and courts are too overwhelmed to cope. Underlining the violence in a society still brutalized by apartheid, a former sailor was on trial in an adjacent courtroom Wednesday, accused of 40 counts of rape and 30 of indecent assault.

The mother of the 22-year-old victim said Mowers attacked and raped her daughter as the family was enjoying a New Year's break at their vacation home in the valley.

"He was intelligent and incredibly manipulative," the mother told The Associated Press. "It became a game to him."

Annette Theron, a farmer's wife, said Mowers broke into her house three times. On one occasion, her young daughter was alerted to the intruder's presence by the "smell of something like a wild animal."

Theron managed to flee with her daughters. Mowers assaulted her husband, then escaped.

Mowers' 2�-year reign of terror, which began before the two girls were imprisoned in the pit, ended in March 2007 when he was arrested after breaking into the cottage of one of Theron's farm workers.

Realizing he was drunk, the worker gave him more alcohol until he passed out, then sounded the alert. Locals beat Mowers up before handing him over to police.

After the arrest, Mowers led police to the pit where the teenager and the toddler had been kept for 15 months.

Theron said she was stunned to discover that Mowers' hideout was right opposite her farmhouse, concealed by bushes and trees.

"He was right under our noses all that time, and we didn't know it."

[shifty]

The figure of 1000 is such a rounded one that it smacks of a random arbitary guesstimate.

What is the thrust of the report?? How a massive manhunt was conducted using helicopters searching for a solitary rapist? Or does it lament the frequency of rape?

The one contradicts the other. One thousand rapes a day equals say 2 or 3 thousand helicopters. . The figure of 1000 is also inflammatory. Let's work with rather 999, then suddenly it seems entirely manageable.

In any case we need all the choppers to chase hijackers , heists, and innumerable other forms of crime.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Kind of unrelated, but I watched this the other night and couldn't help but feel shocked.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xISFxedkhl8

[shifty]

Frankly Mr Shankly I admire your mild-mannered and benevolent ways.
I hope you know that a pet hate of prostitutes is of clients asking why they do it.

Is there anything in that clip that doesn't happen elsewhere in the world??

[nautilus]

South Africa was always an incredibly violent society- much more so than even its neighbouring countries- but why?
The apartheid-focussed west can only focus on decades of repressive white rule as the answer, but thats not exactly the case. if anything, apartheid kept a lid on the violence. Even as the first europeans arrived, the country (which has an amazingly diverse array of ethnicities) was in a constant state of local tribal warfare. Zulus were among the most proud and warrior-like of all African tribes, raping and pillaging all their neighbours. Blood comes easy and life is cheap, particularly in the province of Natal.
Afrikaaner rule was far more repressive and the mentality far more oppressive than English colonisation...and they were in turn the first concentration camp guinea pigs for the English. the history is an extraordinarily violent and uncaring one.
In the 80's scenes of people being stoned to death in the streets or townships hit TV screens as different black factions sensed the end of white dominance and struggled for power. Most recently a nationwide flare ups kiled scores of immigrants accused of stealing the locals jobs and livelihoods, not helped by the peculiarly inept government of Thabo Mbeki.

1000 rapes a day seems quite possible, even probable to me, although its just a rough guess in a country of 50 million, 10% of who have AIDS, and with a significant portion living in poverty.

You could have picked a better article to discuss though- that particular one is basically a story of some sick white redneck way out in the sticks, and a highly untypical example of the sort of violence embracing the country.

Will South Africa ever find a peaceful society? I highly, highly doubt it. Its been 14 years since Apartheid ended and things are getting worse rather than better.

[blaseblasphemener]

Charlize Theron's family?

[shifty]

On pain of death I'd probably blurt out 3 to 5000 as my thumbsuck.
And what's this per day thing??. It's the weekend, babe!!

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

[pootle]

Once again, nautilus writes utter bollocks about something s/he knows nothing about. Have you ever even been to South Africa?!

[shifty]

What????

Nautilus is obviously a South African, whereas you and your "bollocks" are not.

Sounds like a previous run in between yourselves is now bearing its fruit. Pootle, you should have waited longer for a subject that you know something about, before taking a dig..

[pootle]

I wasn't born in South Africa but I did spend 15 years working with NGOs and health clinics in KwaZulu Natal and so I feel I have some knowledge of the issues. My initial response to this post was a gut reaction because I thought nautilus was talking out of his/her arse again, but I apologise if s/he is South African and has more insight that I originally gave him/her credit for.

I don't agree with his/her assertion that South Africa is any more tribalist or violent than its neighbouring countries. There are many examples of so-called tribal violence in many African countries and I don't think the Zulu population should be singled out as particularly prone to violence, especially sexual violence.

S/he is right in saying that the type of violence prevalent in SA is not only rape. However, the fact is that violence affects the majority black population more severely than the white population but whites are more likely to report crime and bring it to the attention of the police, the media and the global community. Sexual violence has indeed contributed to HIV infection rates but the 'reported rapes' highlighted by the OP's post are but the tip of the iceberg. I don't agree that crime in SA is "getting worse rather than better", it is simply distortion of the facts by the minority white population who are getting antsy about the threat to their previously easy existence .

If I have to meet one more South African in Korea who tells me that 'things were great in SA before 1994', I swear I will be committing some violence of my own. Maybe that is what is colouring my view of this thread and of white South Africans. I know stereotyping is bad, but it is my experience that the white South Africans here in Korea are of a particular ilk.

[shifty]

An ilk are they?? That word is used when a negative connotation is slyly insinuated. It stands to reason that many South Africans in K will be subcribers to this um ilk, b/c what are they but economic refugees?

Do you think new generations of South Africans teach E in Korea for travel or altruism??