Modimolle Killer Kotze is no Monster – Tutu says he could become a saint.
18 January 2012
Decent people are rightly appalled by what happened to Ms Ina Bonnette in Modimolle. Her estranged husband is alleged to have forced three labourers at gunpoint to gang rape her, and to have mutilated her terribly. As if this were not ghastly enough, he tied her up and allegedly forced her to listen while her son Conrad begged for his life. Then he is alleged to have shot the boy three times, including a fatal shot to the head.
Those are dastardly deeds, barbaric and monstrous in extent and we are quite right to condemn them roundly, unequivocally. I join all decent persons in expressing deep sympathy and condolences to Ms Bonnette.
What is disturbing, however, is when our outrage leads us to dub the alleged perpetrator, ‘the Monster from Modimolle’, as the media has been doing.
He may indeed be guilty of inhuman, ghastly and monstrous deeds, but he is not a monster. We are actually letting him off lightly by calling him a monster because monsters have no moral sense of right and wrong – and therefore cannot be held morally culpable, cannot be regarded as morally blameworthy.
No, Mr Johann Kotze remains a child of God with the capacity to become a saint. This may shock some of us. But have we forgotten, those who are Christians, the story of the repentant thief on the cross? This was a man who had spent his entire life committing crimes punishable in their day by excruciating death by crucifixion. But Jesus Christ promised the man that they would enter paradise together on the basis of his deathbed repentance!
Have we forgotten Peter who denied his Master not once but three times but nonetheless becomes the chief of the Apostles, or Mary Magdalene, the prostitute, who became the Queen of Penitents as St Mary Magdalene? Or Saul, who approved of the stoning to death of Stephen the first Christian martyr, Saul who harassed and arrested Christians for being members of the infant Church, who after his Damascus road conversion becomes St Paul the leading evangelist and theologian of the faith he had formerly persecuted?
We could go on and on. Remember how Augustine of Hippo, who had led a reckless and immoral life, became the leading theologian of this faith. And remember Francis of Assisi, who led a profligate life as a happy-go-lucky Italian youth before his encounter with the leper led to him becoming one of the most popular of our galaxy of saints.
We should condemn ghastly acts of awful cruelty but we must, as they say, hate the sin and love the sinner, or hope that he may change for the better.
In many ways, that was the basis of our Truth and Reconciliation process. We heard bloodcurdling stories of how people had been murdered brutally and yet we saw some extraordinary scenes of magnanimity when perpetrator and victim or relative of victim embraced publicly. If it were true that once a murderer always a murderer then we should have had to shut up shop straightaway. But we believed then, and I hope we still do, that it was possible for people to change for the better, that the worst criminal could become a good and virtuous person.
My plea is that we stop calling Mr Kotze a monster.
Oprah Overjoyed At Graduation Of Pioneering Pupils At Her South African Leadership Academy For Girls – 14 January 2012
Copyright of these photos rest with Harpo Inc The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa has achieved a stunning success with the graduation last week of the first class of 72 pupils. The girls, from poverty-stricken households – many profoundly affected by the HIV pandemic – were personally selected by Ms Winfrey on a road tour of South Africa in 2006. “Invest in girls,” was her message at the graduation ceremony on Saturday (14 January 2012). Photojournalist Benny Gool has tracked the project since its inception. These are a selection of his images that were released to media this week on Ms Winfrey’s behalf.
Dehorned Worcester Rhinos Doing Well, But Slaughter Continues Across South Africa – 18 January 2012
While the two white Rhinos drugged and dehorned by poachers in Worcester, in the Western Cape, in December are back on their feet and generally “doing very well”, the slaughter continues with 12 of the precious beasts being killed in the first two weeks of 2012.A total of 11 rhinos have already been killed and de-horned in the Kruger Park National Park this month, according to SA National Parks, and a 12th was killed in Mossel Bay.
SANParks has responded by announcing the appointment of additional conservators in the Kruger Park, while the SA National Defence Force has indicated it is to play much closer attention to the problem. In a rare police breakthrough yesterday (17 January) a Zimbabwean national had been arrested with three horns in his possession, and would be appearing in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court this week.
Owner of the Fairy Glen private game reserve in Worcester Mr Pieter De Jager said last week that the male rhino dehorned on the reserve last month had lost most of his eyesight, which he ascribed to shock. He was confident that the condition was reversible if treated by the appropriate vet at the appropriate time. The animal will have to be darted, and De Jager wanted to avoid further trauma to the animal until it has well and truly recovered its strength.
“His eyesight is improving. Initially, he was walking around in circles, but he is now walking in a straight line. Both of the animals are leading relatively ‘normal’ Rhino lives again, enjoying their mud baths; it’s just that they don’t have horns.”
The Rhinos were darted with an overdose of a morphine derivative, known as M99, before having their horns hacked off with pangas or machetes. De Jager has called for access to veterinarian drugs and dart guns to be regulated in the same way as the state regulated access to assault rifles and ammunition.
2011 was a record-breaking year in terms of the number of rhinos killed. More than 443 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone, greatly surpassing 2010‘s death toll of 333, according to the Rhino Conservation group. In 2007, only 13 rhinos were killed.
Police have reported no breakthroughs in their investigation into the Fairy Glen poaching incident.
Statement on the Information Bill by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu – 22 November 2011
A State is entitled to keep information outside the public domain in instances where publication may jeopardise State security. But if the legal mechanism created to protect State security advertently or inadvertently prevents criminality from being exposed, the mechanism is patently flawed.
The Protection of State Information is not only flawed, it is insulting to all South Africans to be asked to stomach legislation that could be used to outlaw whistle-blowing and investigative journalism; that contains no public benefit defence clause; and that makes the State answerable only to the State.
This is not to suggest that those presently holding the reins of power intend to use the legislation to muzzle anyone or to cover anything up. But, equally, there are presently a sufficient number of investigations (to the credit of government) into alleged corruption by members of this and previous governments to warrant treading with extra care.
I appeal to our MPs: Please hear the disquiet this proposed piece of legislation has caused. Please hear the warnings of the academics, civil society leaders, labour representatives, media corps, and legal and Constitutional experts.
This law will do our people and our country a disservice. By voting for it today members of the ruling party will be doing themselves and their party a grave disservice.
Bono and Soweto Gospel Choir sing a tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu – 06 October 2011
Archbishop Tutu speaks on Dalai Lama Visa (full speech) – 4 October 2011
The South Africa Story
From the top of Table Mountain to the banks of the Limpopo River, from the place where Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was banished in the Free State to the site of President Machel’s plane crash in Mpumalanga, from the Big Hole to God’s Window…
Splendid high definition visuals intercut with historic archive news footage of the freedom struggle and liberation, Mahatma Ghandi, Emily Hobhouse, Albert Luthuli, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission…
It is the wide-ranging story of our stunningly beautiful country, the places, the people and events. It is the story that South Africa wants the world to see, hosted by one of the most loved and recognisable figures in the world.
The South African Story With Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Nine episodes. As seen on SABC.
The South African Story – Trailer
