This article is dedicated to Bianca Warburton who was tragically shot and killed in an attempted hijacking on Wednesday 14^th October 2009…

I wouldn’t normally write about something like this since it’s a daily occurrence in South Africa and they have thousands of people with full time jobs dealing with things like this on a daily basis which they still battle to keep up with. However when it hits a bit closer to home it becomes a far bigger issue as I’m sure everyone will agree. In this case, this is a friend of a friend. I did not know her personally therefore some information may be incorrect so please forgive me if it is; I’m going by what I’ve managed to get together through numerous articles on the net.

My deepest sympathy goes out to the friends and family of Bianca Warburton, my thoughts are with them during this tough time. It’s a bit hard to put this all down knowing that with it being hard enough for her friends and family to deal with the pain of their loss, the last thing they really need is to be reminded of it everywhere they look, so for this I do apologise, however this post is not intended to spread the news but hopefully serve a purpose and get people to think a bit more so that Bianca’s death is not in vain but can hopefully change and save further lives that are currently on a path to a very unfortunate similar end.

For the majority who may not be aware, Bianca Warburton was a 26 year old girl originally from Durban completing her Masters Degree in Psychology through WITS University up in Joburg and was doing her internship in the Ububele Umdlezane Parent Infant Project. On Wednesday morning 14^th October at around 9am, Bianca was leaving a clinic in Alexandra when she stopped at a stop street on First Street, two men believed to be from the township attempted to hijack her car but then shot her in the upper body and fled with absolutely nothing, no car, no handbag, no cellphone… yes nothing. She managed to drive further however lost control of the car which came to a stop in London Avenue. Unfortunately Bianca had been fatally wounded and died at the scene before police or help could arrive. Witnesses were able to describe the gunmen as apparently these okes weren’t even disguised or anything. The police were not able to and still have not found them, the case remains open at this time.

Now there was a girl working at building a better South Africa, she had aspired to doing her Masters degree which many of us including myself could only ever dream of achieving a masters degree in anything, this was a girl who may have done great things and played a key role in building a better South Africa through compassion and understanding that sadly the last person in power who displayed such ideals was Nelson Mandela himself, sadly those in power these days sitting from where I’m sitting, seem to be driven by power and greed, not concentrating enough on bringing the country together as one.

I have read Long Walk to Freedom, I understand full well how Mandela and the old ANC dedicated their lives to bringing the country together and bring peace to the nation; however those they’ve left to run with it are doing a fine job basking in the ambience of power and fortune like old farts in a steam room, not concentrating on the bigger issue. Honestly, Jacob Zuma seems to be better than expected though, to the extent that the thought has crossed my mind of the possibility of returning to SA a couple times to also play a part in building better and beautiful country, but he needs to honour that of what his predecessors have built for him and along the same path else everything they ever did is all for nothing. As for Julius Malema, him and his racial hate speech have no place in South Africa as it is quite possible that Bianca’s blood is on his hands. The reason I say this is because the gunmen didn’t even take anything, they just killed her and left, I guess it is quite possible that she was killed because she was a white girl in a black area and they may have been filled with the evil that Julius preaches.

Now the question I asked myself is this, do I read this as daily news and forget about it by tomorrow, or do I not let Bianca become just another unfortunate statistic of crime in South Africa, or do I add my two cents and not let this go to rest so easily. Well there’s no secret of the choice I made. I’ll ask you to ask yourself that same question, are you going to let this poor girl’s life be just another number in an excel spreadsheet or are you going to do the very least and help to make people aware of just what the hell is going on and not let this go? Think about your life, your entire life and everything that is in it, what does your life mean to you? Do you want to just let someone take it and end it on their terms? No flipping way! Picture in your mind for one moment that Bianca was your friend how would you feel, a lot of us have sisters, now think of your very own sister, picture your sister in your mind and think about her, now picture Bianca as your sister, picture your very own sister as her, imagine the sadness of loosing your very own sister right now, today, within the next 10 seconds, can you imagine the emptiness and the loss of loosing your very own sister right now, realise that you are never ever going to see or speak to her ever again….think about that hard right now…..am I causing an emotional stir in your mind? I have a sister and she is my life, she is my number one girl that I would give my own life for, I can not even come to terms of what my life would be without her and it makes me physically sick to even think of it. Now whatever you can imagine right now is nothing even remotely close to how Bianca’s family are feeling right now, their sister and daughter has been taken from them and this is very real for them, they are feeling this right now wherever they are. Now ask yourself that question again, are you going to read this and forget about it, until the day comes where it is your sister you are reading about, because you will remember what I’ve just said here and you’d wished you’d done something, or are you going to do the very least and help to make people aware that this can also happen to them and something needs to be done. Do you think Bianca’s family knew the terrible events that were about to unfold while sitting in Durban morning traffic just like you this morning on your way to work? This is the harsh reality of it, it could be you walking into work tomorrow morning and getting that phone call. What are you going to do? Are you going to sit there reading this and at the very least pass this on, or are you going to read it til the end and think “it will never happen to me” because those are the most famous of famous last words.

What do we do? I hear you ask… Well getting a few people to stand around waving boards and banners outside a courthouse is just not going to cut it I’m afraid, it’s like a small bee sting on the arse of crime, it may swell up for a minute but not for long. Ideally this needs to be tackled in the same manner as the fight against apartheid as this was eventually successful, and if mass action strikes and stay-aways are the way forward to get the government to stop buggering around, throw everything they have at it and tackle this once and for all then so be it, seeds need to be planted in the minds of those who can make that difference so I’ll ask you that question again… what are you going to do after you reach the end of this article? Remember the loss you could feel which has become a tragic reality for Bianca’s family? That could be you, what are you going to do?

Below is a photo of Bianca, as I said, I never knew her, she is a friend of a friend but I can tell you that when you look at her face you can see a person with a beautiful personality that shines through, don’t let her life, just like the life and lives that you cherish so much, become another statistic… Please pass on

Bianca Warburton

Just a note before leaving a comment:

I know there will be alot of anger over this however displaying that anger in the form of racial hateful comments is not going to help, probably only make things worse, so therefore if you do comment please do so tactfully and maturely. Telling people how many people you want to kill will not help the problem at all and I may delete comments that display racial hatred and the likes.

- Marky Mark

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