Last Friday, my car was jammed in the Epsom Downs Shopping Centre parking lot in Bryanston.
I was in Pick n Pay for no more than 15 minutes. Still, in that short time frame, my life was dealt a major inconvenience as my backpack, containing my work laptop, wallet, passport and identity document, was stolen from my car.
When I went to report the matter to the Douglasdale Police Station, with tears in my eyes at the blow that my plans had been dealt, given that my German residence permit was stolen along with my passport, the compassionate law enforcement officers assisted me with kindness.
Two days later, I received a call from a friend that someone had contacted them on Facebook to inform them that my German residence permit had been found dumped in a rubbish bin 32kms away in the Johannesburg CBD.
A domestic worker had found the passport cover containing the document and informed her employer, who turned out to be one of my many unknown followers on Facebook. As my Facebook account has been deactivated for some time, the person contacted a mutual friend and left her mobile number for me to call and collect the document.
I did so and was deeply grateful for the effort it took to look for me and ensure that I received my important document, without which I wouldn’t be able to return to Germany where I’m pursuing my doctoral studies.
Another person might have decided to leave the document in the rubbish bin, and had that happened, I would’ve been in a worse situation given that I’m scheduled to travel to Germany this evening.
The day before the frustrating ordeal of my car being jammed, I had returned from a week-long trip to Brazil where I had attended the G20 Summit.
Upon arriving at OR Tambo International Airport, I posted on my WhatsApp status that I had missed home and that having been to more than 80 countries in my life, SA remains the best country I know.
It was almost a cruel irony that within a day of posting that status, I would be standing at a police station filing a report about a crime that occurred just minutes from my house.
It was a reminder that even with its beauty and being alive with possibilities, SA is still a country with debilitating crime levels that make it impossible to exist as a truly free human being.
Having your personal space invaded as mine invites crippling anxiety that only a victim of crime can fully comprehend. And knowing that stolen identity documents are often used in the commission of crimes and that our identities could be sold to undocumented foreign nationals, makes the anxiety even more terrifying.
But amid my turmoil, I was also reminded that high crime levels have not eroded the sense of humanity that many South Africans still possess.
Even as we experience crime daily, desensitisation has not fully taken root in our people. This is why, when she saw my documents thrown into a rubbish bin, sis Thembi recognised that someone had been dispossessed of their belongings and decided to make an effort to locate that person. Criminals may be winning in eroding our sense of security, but they are losing in making our people uncaring.
This is how I know that no matter what challenges confront us as a county, no matter how insurmountable the situation may seem, we can and will reclaim this country from criminals. Maybe not today, and perhaps not even in my lifetime, but someday, SA will be a country where it is possible to exist as a truly free human being with a community that knows compassion and kindness.
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