The news of the alleged racial attack on South African 5 000 m athletics champion, Thabang Mosiako has transcended beyond the African border, straight into a home in the United Kingdom.
Mosiako was attacked on the Bult three Sundays ago in what it is alleged to be a racial attack. The athlete was beaten unconscious and sustained injuries to the head.
The attack has also sparked an outcry from the whole of South Africa, calling for justice for the 22-year-old Boston College student.
The letter from the United Kingdom resident reads as follows:
Dear Mr Mosiako
You are a young and strong shining star in our beloved country.
Although I am working here in England, my heart will always be there in South Africa.
To you, and your friends and fellow athletes, Rantso Mokopane and Sandy Londt, I send my thoughts of strength, passion and energy for your recovery.
It is you, and your wonderful friends and fellow students and colleagues who are the future of our magnificent country. Not the ignorant, pathetic, immature and stupid young boys (I can’t call them men because they aren’t men) who don’t want to (or cannot!) embrace the new reality of South Africa. These boys are not worthy of your time. They are afraid and they are pathetic losers. Don’t let them take up space and time in your mind.
Instead, please concentrate on you and take strength from your family, your friends and strangers like me, who care and will hold you in our hearts as you recover, and who will be there in spirit as you continue to succeed in your sport and your studies.
With much respect, I sign with my given South African name, Naledi.
*The writer wished to remain anonymous. She was born in the UK, spent all her life in South Africa and is now back in the UK, working and looking after her ailing mother.
