SOUTH AFRICA:The South African government has come under renewed fire for its handling of the country's crime problem following the murder of a prominent historian in KwaZulu-Natal.
David Rattray (48), a world expert on the Anglo-Zulu War who promoted tourism to South Africa's historic battlefields, was attacked and killed at his home last Friday, police said.
Prince Charles, who was a close friend of the South African, said he was "shocked and deeply saddened" at the death.
It comes just days after the country's police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, dismissed talk of a crisis surrounding violent crime.
Both Mr Selebi and President Thabo Mbeki say official statistics show crime is falling in all major categories, but few outside of government circles believe the figures.
Opposition parties, civil society groups, and prominent figures, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have become increasingly vocal about what many describe as a crime epidemic.
Joining the chorus of disapproval yesterday was South African billionaire businessman Johann Rupert, an acquaintance of Mr Rattray, who told the South African Sunday Times: "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." Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the historian was a "unique person" and his death was an "inestimable loss".
"This heinous act will not only send ripples throughout the country, but across the seas, because of the person David Rattray was and because of the respect he commanded internationally," Mr Buthelezi said.
Mr Rattray, who guided tourists around the famous battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, had just completed a new book on the 19th century colonial war.
According to police, he was shot in the hand, chest and shoulder in what appeared to have been a botched robbery. His wife, Nicky, who was also in the house at the time, released a statement saying her husband had joined "the unacceptable list of citizens who have lost their lives" through crime.
Earlier this month, President Mbeki acknowledged for the first time the seriousness of the violent crime problem, describing it as "a scourge". He subsequently qualified the statement, however, saying the problem was mainly one of perception rather than reality.
"Nobody can show that the overwhelming majority of the 40- to 50-million South Africans feel that crime is not under control - nobody can - because it is not true," the president said, drawing howls of protest from some quarters.
Mr Selebi, who yesterday condemned the "senseless murder" of Mr Rattray, has attracted similar criticism for telling a parliamentary committee not to worry too much about crime in the run-up to South Africa's hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
"I don't know why there is a frenzy around this 2010," he said. "Levels of crime when we had the Rugby World Cup [ in 1995] in this country was higher than today."
According to police statistics, the number of serious crimes per 100,000 of the population fell by 10 per cent between 1994 and 2006, with murders falling from 26,000 to 18,000.