South African reporter mugged live on air
Stella Mapenzauswa – Reuters
(Reuters) – Two men, one armed with a gun, were caught on camera late on Tuesday mugging a South African journalist in Johannesburg as he prepared for a live television report on Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s hospital treatment.
The incident is just one of scores of often violent crimes, including rape, robberies and murder recorded every day in Africa’s most advanced economy, earning it a place among the most violent countries in the world outside a war zone.
The video, which went viral on the Internet, shows the men pacing around reporter Vuyo Mvoko while he speaks to the camera outside the hospital, before a scuffle ensues, and then Mvoko is heard shouting: “Hey, we’re being mugged.”
Police spokeswoman Colonel Noxolo Kweza was not available for comment, but the government condemned the attack.
“Government has intensified the fight against crime to protect the rights of citizens … and will continue in its efforts to reduce crime to ensure that all people who live in South Africa are, and feel safe.”
Last year, South Africa’s football association launched a gun control campaign in the wake of the high profile shootings of the national team captain Senzo Meyiwa.
Getting a license to own a firearm in South Africa is not an easy feat; it is not impossible but the government sure does not make it easy.
Ownership of a firearm is conditional on a competency test and several other factors, including background checking of the applicant, inspection of an owner’s premises, and licensing of the weapon by the police.
In order to get the licensing by police you have to submit a reason for wanting the gun, and then a specific permit is issued for that reason. So separate permits are issued for those wanting to own a gun for hunting and sport, versus those who want one for self defense.
If you want to own a weapon for self defense, you have to prove to police that you cannot reasonably satisfy that need by means other than the possession of a firearm.
The process to which one would obtain a weapon permit took at least two years minimum, until a recent law changed that to 90 days.
When a society makes it difficult for good citizens to legally own a firearm, then only the bad guys have firearms. This mugging on live television is a perfect example of this. No one in the news crew had any way to defend themselves, and the muggers knew that.
They brazenly went up to the reporter and his crew, while he was being recorded to go on live television, and demanded money and phones right in front of the camera. All that could be done from the reporters was to cry out to the camera that they were being mugged. How did that work out?
It is important that free Americans remain an armed society to ward off against these brazen thug attacks. The more criminals realize that good, law abiding people, are ready to defend themselves the far less likely these thugs will be to continue their actions unabated.
