We live with crime on a daily basis, not just here in Springs or South Africa, but the world over.
As I write this, London police have confirmed they are investigation a terror attack after a van ploughed into people coming out of a mosque in north London at about 11.30pm (London time) on Sunday night.
At least one person was killed and eight injured in this, the fourth attack in London in the past few months, as they and fellow worshippers were leaving the mosque after night prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.
What struck me most wasn’t that the world media, including the South African press, was reporting on this by 5.30am – only six hours after the attack, but that crimes closer to home seem only to be reported if there is some sexual deviance involved.
It seems that we as South Africans have become so desensitised to the daily crimes occurring in our backyards that we aren’t that interested in crime which is not sensational or shocking enough to warrant our attention.
Sex crimes of any kind used to garner a frenzy of public attention but even these have to be quite salacious to get people interested.
When the first alleged human trafficking sex den was bust in Springs, in May, only 1 943 people read the article.
However, add a local actor to the mix and the story about the second sex den attracted 3 751 readers but, as soon as he was released without being charged, interest in this story quickly waned.
If you don’t have salacious sex to spice up crime, but you sorely crave attention, simply add a little foul play and you’ve got readers flocking.
This was aptly demonstrated when Thembisile Yende’s body was found in her office at Eskom in Springs last month.
With foul play immediately suspected by her family, and the police announcing they would open a murder investigation, we saw 6 749 readers (and another 3 300 on the African Reporter website) take an interest in the story.
A further 5 973 readers tuned into read about a murder/suicide in Dal Fouche – once again showing foul play and famous people are far more interesting than the plain old crime to which we have become accustomed.
But if you think this is a phenomenon unique to Springs you would be wrong.
Last week an estimated 20 suspects blew up the vault at the back of a cash-in-transit van, injuring four people including a motorist who was simply driving by.
However, there was no thrilling video taken of vehicle parts flying across the road so the story only garnered interest from 3 069 people (compared to the 3 236 people who watched a video about Helium beer during the same time frame).
While we were shocked at how few Springs people cared, what interested me more was that not a single other news agency covered the heist.
Sure, the Citizen ran the story but, as a part of Caxton, it was the Addie’s story written by Anna Robertson which they simply printed verbatim.
The world seems to have gone wild with terrorist attacks taking place almost every month around the world, and news of these seem to get more attention in our press than events at home which directly affect us.
Is this because we are no longer surprised by crime at home?
Or is it rather the morbidly comforting feeling we get from knowing we aren’t the only nation in the world troubled by senseless violence?
