Sexual crime in south africa documentary

​My Neighbour The Rapist  - BBC - Golden Mtika

"My Neighbour the Rapist" is a controversial BBC documentary presented by Golden Mtika, that purports to showcase the sexual crime epidemic affecting a village in Johannesburg, South Africa known as Diepsloot. The presenter, a journalist who happens to reside in that part of town, and thus has an intimate knowledge on its ins and outs.

​Golden Mtika interviews several "victims" and "rapists" who's stories are as appalling and sickening as they come.  You will note that I enclosed victims and rapists in quotation marks. This is because, some of those that were interviewed alleged that they were paid to say what they said.

However, irregardless of whether some interviews were scripted or not, one thing that certainly wasn't scripted was Diepsloot's mob justice. Diepsloot's mob justice is depicted as being a public execution of suspected rapists, wherein some of the suspects are burned alive. 

While the documentary was extremely interesting, it was also quite annoying. Mtika constantly expressed his fear for the safety of his wife and children, given the prevalence of rape of women and children in the area. However, when you compare his living conditions with the rest of the neighborhood, it really begs the question, why doesn't he move? Unlike many of his neighbors he lives in an actual concrete house, rather than a shack, and has a car, which is more expensive than my own (I only drive a Daihatsu Terios). Therefore, if he is truly concerned about safety, to my mind, he should move.  (Apparently he moved after the documentary for a little while as it caused a bit of upheaval in his community). Other than that the documentary was a really good watch. ​