Glitz, guns and Pistorius: what haunts white South African men

The country's brittle, edgy atmosphere has its roots in apartheid, argues Marlene van Niekerk

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AS SOUTH AFRICA, in election week, sees the restart of the trial of Oscar Pistorius for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, my perception is that our society is experiencing an overall paroxysm of social aggression.

No population group is exempt from the psychological and physical violence arising from this general social tenor. What is truly shocking is that the victims often belong to the category of the vulnerable and the utterly defenceless: women, children, old people, the disabled, the socially marginalised and the isolated.

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