The killing of South African reggae star Lucky Dube in a botched hijacking in Johannesburg last week has taken outrage over crime in the country to new levels.
Now prisoners serving time for violent crime have added their voices to the slew of politicians, artists and fans who have condemned his death.
Nearly 100 inmates of a prison near Pretoria in a petition decried Dube’s killing in a signed petition, according to the Sowetan newspaper on Friday.
”Though we are serving sentences for crimes similar to this one, we feel we have wronged our nation and there is no justification for this barbaric act,” the petition read. ”This is our way of apologising to the community and a sign that we have changed.”
South Africans have been united in shock and grief over the killing of the 43-year-old star on October 18 in front of his two teenage children during an apparent botched carjacking.
Dube’s 25-year career had seen him tour the world during the apartheid era and beyond with catchy tunes denouncing social injustice.
In latter years he had also pondered South Africa’s crime problem in his lyrics: about 52 people are murdered and 144 people report being raped each day in South Africa, making it one of the world’s most violent societies.
Key cultural figures have not been spared by the violence. Earlier this year, world-famous Anglo-Zulu war historian David Rattray was gunned down at his home in KwaZulu-Natal in an attempted robbery, and elderly Nobel Literature Prize laureate Nadine Gordimer was tied up at her home, also by robbers.
More than 1 000 fans and public figures packed a memorial service for Dube at the famous Bassline music venue in Johannesburg on Wednesday. His funeral on Sunday in KwaZulu-Natal is set to be a private affair.
Four men appeared briefly in court earlier this week charged with murder and attempted hijacking in connection with his death. — Sapa-dpa