Journalist killed in South Africa urges children to leave 'collapsing' country

Journalist and writer Jeremy Gordin was killed at his home in Parkview, Johannesburg last week Photo: Sunday Scans

Police at work & # 34;intense" find those responsible for the murder of a prominent South African journalist killed in a burglary at his home in Johannesburg.

Jeremy Gordin's death has highlighted the country's growing security concerns and comes just months after the writer published an emotional letter warning his two adult children to emigrate because things are the way they are " falling apart&#34.

Police said part of the house was spattered with the journalist's blood and his body was covered. They have not yet revealed the cause of death, but have hinted that Gordin was stabbed.

Gordin's Mercedes-Benz and television were also stolen from his possessions.

He was alone when he was killed last week, while his wife Deborah, also a journalist, and their two adult children were in Cape Town on holiday.

Unlike other houses in the leafy Johannesburg suburb of Parkview, many of which have electric fences and high walls, there was little security in the Gordin family home.

The writer's sister. traveled from London to join a large number of mourners at his funeral at the Jewish Cemetery in West Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Last year, after a burglary at his home, Gordin wrote a column for Politicsweb urging his two children, in their 20s, to leave South Africa.

He accused the ruling African National Congress of mismanagement and expressed his concern about the ongoing power cuts that sometimes affect the water supply.

“There comes a time when things are clearly falling apart, and there comes a time when general imbecility, greed and carelessness becomes very annoying, ”Gordin wrote in an article entitled “Letter to my children.”

< p>“And you, who have your whole life ahead of you (as they say), you need to seriously think about moving to live in another place. After all, we've been doing this for centuries.”

The killing suburb 'very safe'

It comes as real estate agents report a boom in property sales in South Africa's wealthier suburbs. , especially among white residents.

«One of the reasons they are leaving is crime,» said an agent based in northern Johannesburg, who asked not to be named. “Prices are falling, which is hard for the seller and for us,” she added.

However, according to Gareth Newham, head of justice and violence prevention, white people are being killed in South Africa in an unusual way. at the Institute for Security Studies.

“If you are a white male, you are three times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed by a stranger,” he said.

Crime statistics show that Parkview, where Mr. Gordin was killed, is «a very safe suburb … when murders do occur, it is most likely domestic,» added Mr. Newham .

“Alcohol is a big contributor to our violent crime rate,” he said.

South Africans endured extreme restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the sale of alcohol was banned for more than 18 months, resulting in a sharp drop in crime rates.

For almost two decades after the country's first democratic elections in 1994, crime fell sharply, but three years after disgraced former President Jacob Zuma came to power in 2009, it began to rise. .

Mr. Gordon wrote a book about Mr. Zoom a year before he was sworn in, but there was no suggestion that his murder was in any way related to the work.

The latest statistics released earlier this year by the South African Police Service for the period October to December 2022 show that 74 people are killed every day, up 10% from last year.

Almost half of those killed were killed with firearms.