As an 82-year-old woman confronted by four fit young men out to rob her Johannesburg home, Nadine Gordimer might have been paralysed by terror.
But Gordimer won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991 for her insights into South Africa’s racial and economic divides. So as the thieves grabbed the author and her 66-year-old domestic worker she was overcome more by sympathy than fear. ”One grabbed me and had his arm across me. It was a muscular, smooth arm and I thought, ‘Shouldn’t there be a better use for these hands, this arm, than robbing an old woman?’ What a waste of four young men. They should have jobs,” she said.
Gordimer handed over cash and car keys but baulked at surrendering the wedding ring from her husband, Reinhold Cassirer, who died five years ago. ”He pulled off my ring. He held me tight, against his chest. I was very close to his face and could see he had very little beard. He didn’t shave often. I would put his age at 18 to 22,” she said.
The women were locked in a store room. They was released after about 30 minutes by security guards.
A week later Gordimer, a member of the ruling African National Congress, viewed the incident from the other side. The robbers, she said, are products of a society grappling with its past. ”I know that South Africa has a terrible problem with crime, with violent crime. But I don’t think the answer is more police. I think we must look at the reasons behind the crime. There are young people in poverty without opportunities. They need education, training and employment.
”South Africa needs a huge jobs programme … that will prevent youth from turning to crime,” she said. – Guardian Unlimited