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'US returned us to hijack hell'
08/04/2008 08:04 - (SA)
Lauren Thys, Beeld
Delmas - "We want the Americans to know to what kind of a country they
sent us back to."
Wentzel Herbst said: "I've had to go through another hijacking and,
this time, my children were with me."
Herbst had been in the car with his brother-in-law, Jimmy Watson, when
Watson was killed during a hijacking just more than a week ago.
Wentzel, his wife, Carol, and their children, Deiran, six, and Tegan,
three - who were born in the United States - were visiting the Watsons
in Delmas.
Three years ago, the family was refused asylum in the US, after being
there for six years and had to return to South Africa.
They had applied for asylum in the US because of the crime situation
in South Africa.
Just before they left for the US, Wentzel had been shot in the back
during a hijacking.
Wentzel and the children went to buy food for the family who had
gathered in Delmas after they had heard that Watson's daughter, Sharon
Knoetze, had died in a car accident seven hours earlier.
Carol said: "My children are traumatised. They got such a fright when
they saw the violence of the hijacking and when their father yanked
them out of the car so quickly.
Wentzel said: "When we said we feared for our safety in South Africa,
the Americans thought we were joking and said that South Africa was a
perfectly safe country to go back to."
Carol said: "If it were just me and my husband, it wouldn't be that
bad, but the children don't know how to process it."
When they came to South Africa, they were totally American.
"We had to teach my son (who was four at the time) not to talk to
strangers because they could steal Mommy's handbag.
"Since we've been back, many of our things have been stolen."
She said of her son: "He can't sleep at night - he said he was scared
of baddies and that was before the hijacking.
Her daughter had struggled to fall asleep at night since the
hijacking.
The American embassy would not comment on specific cases, but
according to do***entation on requirements for asylum seekers, crime
wasn't one of the criteria.
The fact that the children were born in the US did not make a
difference to the status of the parents.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2301821,00.html
South Africa White Genocide - 'We All Know Someone Murdered'
www.rense.com/general56/murd.htm
Since the Marxist-controlled African National Congress of Nelson
Mandela came to power ten years ago, over 1,200 farmers have been
brutally murdered. The police say this is not racially motivated. Yes
it is. It is a systematic, deliberate, cold-blooded programme to drive
the white farmers off their farms. And yet this year the ANC harps on
and on about 'Ten Years of Freedom.' Freedom? Who is free in SA today?
Are people free to live in peace and safety in their own homes? No -
they have to barricade themselves inside their own homes as if they
were criminals in a high-security prison, while the real criminals
roam freely outside.
Are they free to walk around without fear of molestation? No - even
fishermen at the beach have to fish in groups, and cyclists are
wearing bullet-proof vests, and joggers are being assaulted.
Are they free to defend themselves or their families? No - the new
firearms legislation makes it virtually impossible for anyone to
obtain a firearm for self-defence, or to use it if it is ever
obtained.
Are they free to have a family picnic at a city park? No - they are
liable to be held up at gunpoint or knifepoint.
Where is true freedom, if there is no true freedom of movement, or if
one is not free to relax, to let down one's guard for a moment, even
in one's own home?
Ten Years of Freedom? It would be a joke if it wasn't so tragic.
And today, another family mourns the loss of a beloved wife and
mother. After a decade in power, this is all the ANC can offer the
people of South Africa. A country in ruins, an entire nation behind
bars.
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