About Jaco Roodt
Jaco Roodt ( 1970- 1998)
Brief overview:
Jaco (27), a security guard was shot to death on 15th May 1998 in Germiston.
Brief Biography:
- Other Victims/Family
- Funeral/Memorial
- The Street/Suburb
- The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)
Attack Details:
- Date and time of attack
- Weapons
- Items Stolen
- Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
- Torture, Gratuitous violence
- Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.
Perpetrator details:
- Number and Descriptions
- Arrests
- Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
- Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
- Trial/Conviction
Additional Biographical Information:
May 22, 1998
Pat Reber
JOHANNESBURG - When his questions to President Nelson Mandela about the soaring crime rate in South Africa went unanswered, Mitchell Krog went public.
He printed a letter to Mandela in one of South Africa's leading newspapers and created a Web site warning visitors about the country's crime problem. About 1,000 people contacted the site this week, he said.
"The international media is making out South Africa as a beautiful country to come to," said Krog, 26, whose brother was murdered in February. "I want them to know there's a possibility they'll leave in a body bag."
For the Krogs, like many South Africans, crime has become a fact of life. With about 2,221 murders a month nationwide in 1994, the latest year with comparable statistics, South Africa's murder rate is among the highest in the world and more than seven times higher than the United States. Murders often receive little more than a paragraph in a newspaper.
An abundance of weapons, many of them from regional wars that involved apartheid forces, and simmering political hatred make violent crime a daily occurrence in South Africa.
Airports and coastlines have become conduits for African drug smugglers.
Police are understaffed, under-equipped and, after years of operating as political enforcers rather than crime investigators, seemingly no match for the robbers and murderers.
Krog's brother, Brandon, 29, was killed in February trying to defend himself from three robbers outside the family's scrap-yard business. Last week, just 500 yards from the spot where Brandon died, security guard Jaco Roodt was shot to death. Krog didn't know Roodt, but he attended his funeral yesterday.
"Jaco's death made us feel like we have lost another family member and brought back all the pain and suffering," Krog wrote in the letter.
Roodt's killing a week ago spurred Krog into action. He chose a forum in South Africa that could not escape notice: the classified obituary columns, which have gained readership as the number of deaths have skyrocketed.
He paid $80 to publish his letter to Mandela in The Star, a leading South African newspaper.
Krog said government officials are lying to Mandela by telling him that police are beginning to get a handle on crime.
"We demand justice," he wrote. "These criminals . . . are befouling our beloved land and ruining all hope of a future for this country."
Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi sympathized with Krog but said it is important not to lose sight of the broader picture.
"There is growing consensus both inside and outside the country that levels of crime are stabilizing," Mufamadi said yesterday through a spokesman.
"But this does not mean much to an individual who as been affected by crime."
Mandela and government officials say statistics show that crime has been decreasing in recent years. From 1994 to 1997, the number of murders fell by 14 percent and armed robberies dropped 23 percent. Even so, the rates of murder, rape and other crimes rank among the highest in the world.
Krog doesn't believe statistics that show a decrease in crime.
On the day his brother was buried, the car his mother was riding in was stolen after carjackers forced the passengers out of it, he said. Since then, his father's car was broken into, a friend was locked in a safe during an armed robbery, an employee was knocked over the head by thieves, and a neighbor's car was stolen in a carjacking.
Krog realizes his brother's death is one of many that go practically unnoticed in South Africa. But he believes the Internet site is the first step to galvanizing support to fight crime.
His family considered emigrating - only to realize it would be too hard to leave home.
"We have a right to stand up and fight," Krog said. "We're not going to let (the criminals) chase us out of the country - the land that we love."
- https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19980522&slug=2752176
- https://www.myheritage.com/names/jaco_roodt#
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Jaco Roodt's Timeline
| 1970 |
August 16, 1970
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| 1998 |
May 15, 1998
Age 27
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Germiston, GP, South Africa
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| ???? |
Elspark Cemetery, Germiston, East Rand, GP, South Africa
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