14 hours ago written by Grant Foster
As news broke of the violent murder of popular presenter of the wildlife show 50/50 on SABC2, Johann Botha, the Institute for Race Relations (IRR) released shocking stats of almost 500,000 people murdered in South Africa since democratic elections in 1994.
The presenter of the long-running wildlife show who was also a popular radio DJ was shot during a robbery at a bar at the Maboneng Precinct on Wednesday night. Pretoria FM reporter, Anton Meijer tweeted that the owner of the Zebra Inn bar was also killed during the robbery.
Meanwhile the IRR revealed in the findings of its 2017 South Africa Survey 500 000 South Africans have been murdered since 1994. IRR crime analyst Kerwin Lebone said: “South Africans live with horrific levels of violent crime. While the murder rate has fallen since 1994, at 31.9 per 100 000 people, it remains one of the highest in the world.”
According to Lebone, South Africa’s murder rate is:
• almost 29 times higher than that in Australia, which is at 1.1 per 100 000 people.
• almost 30 times higher than that in the United Kingdom, and 45 times higher that that in Germany, which are at 1.0 and 0.7 per 100 000 people respectively.
• almost nine times higher than that in the United States of America, which is at 3.8 per 100 000 people.
Murder affects the most vulnerable people in South Africa’s society with the IRR Survey showing that 884 children were murdered in 2015/2016. Over the past decade almost 10 000 children have been murdered.
Lebone added that South Africa’s murder crisis is so serious that some South Africans are more likely to be murdered than the residents of many terror-affected countries.
Since the news of Botha’s murder broke, many people have taken to social media to pay tribute to him.
Botha, who was also a producer on Carte Blanche, the investigative journalism television series, was described as a person with “an enormous talent and a big heart,” by George Mazarakis, executive producer of Carte Blanche.
A friend of Botha, Johan Marais, posted a touching tribute on Facebook offering his condolences to the family: “The charismatic and talented Johann Botha has been killed in a robbery. My sincere condolences to those close to him. Many of you will remember Johann from 50/50 and Aardwolf as well as a variety of radio broadcasts on classical music.”
Botha was also a well-known radio presenter with an in-depth knowledge of music.