The white owner of a construction company, initially sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for ordering that a black man be beaten and then thrown to a pack of lions, was released on Thursday on parole — a stunning turn in the notorious “lion’s den case” that left many South Africans enraged.
“It is clear from the poor working class, poor communities that those who are rich and white will continue to be treated differently than those who are poor,” a statement from the North West Congress of South African Trade Unions read.
Several other organizations issued similar words of protest.
Mark Scott-Crossley, the owner of the construction company, had been convicted of murder in the killing of a former worker, Nelson Chisale, in Limpopo Province.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and the most monstrous killings are a staple of newspaper headlines.
Just this week, a 12th grader covered his face with black paint, donned a terrifying mask and sliced his schoolmates with a samurai sword, killing one, news media throughout the country reported.
But even in the nation’s relentless cavalcade of brutal crime, Scott-Crossley’s offense seemed sensational.
Chisale had been dismissed, and a judge found that when he returned to get pots and other belongings, his former boss ordered other workers to beat him with sticks and tie him to a tree before loading him into a pickup truck.
Chisale, 41, was then driven 16km to a game reserve and was tossed over a fence to a pride of rare white lions. Remains of his skull, gnawed bones and bloody clothing were all that was found.
The crime was seen by many as a throwback to the days of apartheid and grisly evidence of enduring racism in South Africa.
During Scott-Crossley’s trial, demonstrators from the South African Communist Party and the governing African National Congress chanted so loudly outside the courthouse that bailiffs were ordered to quiet them.
But though he and one of his workers were convicted of murder, a year later an appellate court reduced Scott-Crossley’s sentence from life to five years, agreeing that he might have ordered a beating but not necessarily a murder — and that Chisale already could have been dead before he was fed to the lions. The convicted worker is serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Three years have passed since Scott-Crossley was first locked up. He was taken on Thursday to Bushbuckridge, a settlement in Limpopo, said Sarie Peens, the area’s correctional services coordinator.
She told the South African Press Association that “strict conditions” of parole were placed on Scott-Crossley until his full sentence was completed, and that his family had come to greet him and presumably took him home.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS