Damn!
South Africa’s top businessmen have expressed outrage at spiralling crime, saying violent criminals have plunged the country into crisis.
Johann Rupert spoke of South Africans “being at war with ourselves”, and Saki Macozoma decried the country’s descent into “criminality” following the murder on Friday of world-renowned KwaZulu- Natal battlefields historian David Rattray at his home .
The 49-year-old Anglo-Zulu War expert was shot three times in the chest at his home in Fugitive’s Drift, apparently by would-be robbers, and died in front of his wife Nicky.
The historian had influential friends throughout the world, many of whom stayed at his 24-bed Fugitive’ s Drift Lodge and joined his battlefield tours.
Yesterday billionaire businessman and chairman of Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, Johann Rupert, who met Rattray a few years ago, described the murder as “senseless”.
“Is this the society that thousands of people fought and sacrificed their lives for? People who do not believe that our country is in crisis with violent crime must be in denial,” said Rupert.
“This is not the type of country I’d hoped my children would live in ... we must now realise that in this country we’re at war with ourselves.
“South Africa has definitely lost one of its great sons ... he gave his life to promoting Zulu culture,” he said .
Businessman, former activist and ANC National Executive Committee member Saki Macozoma, who said he knew Rattray well, described his death as “an example of the criminality that pervades our society”.
“Those who know his killers and are keeping quiet should know deep down in their hearts that they are party to the killing of innocent lives in South Africa.”
He said Rattray had been an amba**ador for South African culture and tourism, here and abroad.
Macozoma met Rattray in early 2000 when he, Macozoma, was chairman of the board of Satour and managing director of Transnet .
“It’s a great loss. He restored the dignity of the Zulu people and their history, and had people spellbound with his intimate knowledge of the Anglo-Zulu War.”
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele expressed outrage at the killing, saying “crimes like these eat away at the moral fibre of our society ... His senseless and callous murder will fill all peace-loving South Africans with disgust.”
The anti-crime outcry comes at a time when President Thabo Mbeki, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi and his deputy, Commissioner Andre Pruis, have all downplayed the country’s crime rate.
Asked to comment on the killing, Pruis said: “I have just arrived from London, but all I can say is that murder figures in South Africa are constantly decreasing and coming down remarkably.
“In 1994 we had more than 26000 murders, but now the figures have decreased to 18000.”
Rattray family friend Mark Read said yesterday that the killing did not appear to be a random burglary, and may have been an “arbitrary or extraordinary grudge”.
“It seems like it was a grudge thing. People with David’s kind of pa**ion, courage and accomplishments have enemies,” he said
“There is anger and jealousy and you can’t escape that. His death was an untimely and tragic event.”
Read, who drove from Johannesburg to the Rattray home on Friday night, dismissed a two-year-old land claim as a motive, saying Rattray had not been concerned about it.
A high-level police task team has been established to probe the killing.
Rattray was killed on the eve of publishing his first major book, the glowing foreword to which was penned by his close friend, Britain’s Prince Charles.
The royal, with whom the Rattrays holidayed in Scotland every year, first visited Fugitive’s Drift Lodge with his son, Prince Harry, soon after Princess Diana’s death.
A Clarence House spokesman said the prince, who was informed of the killing on Friday night while in the US, was “shocked and deeply saddened by the news”.
Rattray’s killer was one of six young men who first demanded money at the lodge’s reception before entering the family house behind the lodge building and confronting the couple.
The men fled the scene, taking nothing.
Read said family friend Cyril Ramaphosa, who once booked out the entire lodge, had described the death as “very depressing”.
Read, chairman of the Worldwide Fund for Nature in South Africa and owner of the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg, said the implications of Rattray’s death were “devastating for the area and the nation”.
“David had the ear of some of the most powerful people in the world, who loved this country, and he had the unique ability to sell South Africa,” he said.
Read said the more than 60 lodge staff had tears running down their cheeks and were “shell-shocked”.
The first copies of Rattray’s book, A Soldier-Artist in Zululand, will be delivered to the lodge on Tuesday for sale there.
The book followed Rattray’s discovery of a large set of unique watercolour paintings by a soldier who had served in the Anglo-Zulu War.
Local resident Mthembeni Zulu said his daughter Carol had witnessed the incident and had called him to ask that he send for an ambulance.
“She was very brave. The men pointed a gun at her and told her to cut the telephone line, but she refused,” said Zulu.
He described Rattray as a “famous man” who had no enemies.
“He had encouraged young people in the area to learn about their own history. I was often surprised at how much he knew,” said Zulu.
Arthur Konigkramer, chairman of Amafa, KwaZulu-Natal’s heritage body, which manages the province’s historic battlefields, said this was an “unspeakable crime”.
“This will do this country huge harm. It will have serious repercussions for the tourism industry,” he said.
Rattray’s childhood friend David Charles, the editor of a local magazine, said of him: “He loved people, he raged against the injustice and intolerance of petty officials that stood in the way of progress. He believed he could make this country better.”
Local resident Harriet Mkhize, 72, said the community was devastated.
“He was everything to us. If you had a problem you would go to him and he would sort it out.”
She said Rattray had helped the community with its garden project.
“He’s the one who would help us with water.
“He even helped our kids with employment at his lodge. The community has lost a hero,” Mkhize said.
The funeral will be held at the chapel at Michaelhouse school at 11.30am on Thursday.
