Crime and Control

Three youths, one armed with a pistol, broke into a house in an expensive area of Johannesburg in October 1992. One of them was shot dead. He was killed by a pump-action shot-gun fired by the security guard: a scene reminiscent of numerous others down the decades. What was unusual on this occasion was that the wealthy house-owners were black and the robbers white. This took the police somewhat by surprise. They allegedly pulled a gun on the house-owners, thinking them part of the gang, and when they discovered that the dead man was white and the security guard black, they charged the guard with murder.