Forest of Crocodiles
Transcription

Start 0:00:00.00
0:00:00.2 blackness
0:00:07.1 (Lee-ann)
I won't say there is a place on earth that could ever present freedom for me because you would get to that place - you would experience it and then the next moment you would
0:00:15.00
Think by yourself, that would be a great hiding place or here this can happen - no one will see. There's a lot of things that would come up then... the moment that you say that you’ve got fear inside of you then anything can happen, you open
0:00:30.1
all doors - so anything that you are afraid of or it starts as an idea in your mind and then it starts growing and then you start speaking it and... then it happens.
0:00:43.3 (Johannes)
My feeling of hope makes it almost impossible to move to that side...of living in fear. And when I’m confronted with fear and things like that I revert to what I believe.
0:00:58.2 Title: FOREST OF CROCODILES
0:01:09.9 (Lee-ann)
So I was still in school when I dreamt this house, how it could look,
0:01:14:0 ONSCREEN CAPTION: LEE-ANN - HOUSEWIFE
how I was sitting upstairs looking at the open plan,
and all the rooms and everything, how it would look like, with no burglar bars no fence. It was an open ..open house.
0:01:26.1
we’ve got radio contact with each other - all the houses. And if someone hears something they would radio. So you know that they were watching the house, they were also sitting in the bush, and me alone as a woman...no, no... I don’t even think I would even go and walk in the public street alone.
0:01:45.4
Sometimes the men would go out start driving around, so you can get the sense of feeling trapped.
0:01:59.4 (Christa)
ONSCREEN CAPTION: CHRISTA
She doesn’t like to walk from the TV room to the sitting room or to the kitchen alone. And it's now a few months since she's sleeping in her own room again.
0:02:11.1
If you are going out at night to other places you've got the feeling of looking over your shoulder, you know. You’re not enjoying the stuff you enjoyed anymore, you know. Because I mean we are living in South Africa - we are not going away. I think you just have in your own way to make it safer for yourself.
0:02:50.1 (Margaretha)
I'm just putting colours on... I have nothing in my mind at all. I'm thinking as I'm going on, while I'm painting.
0:03:04:05 ONSCREEN CAPTION: MARGARETHA - ARTIST
Once a colour is there... you can't take it away again.
0:03:17.4
Can't remember coming across a crocodile in a folk tale. I’ve come across monsters... see that's what’s so beautiful in these fairy tales when you have these people that are turned into animals... through enchantment, and it's a question of whether nature gets the better of us, or whether one can meet it and overcome it.
you could bring in a crocodile... why not? Why shouldn’t I bring in a crocodile?
0:04:06.9 (Kele)
This is a story about crocodiles that settled here along time ago. From the beginning they were hostile to all the other animals and all the other animals were hostile to them. Yet, hostility was nothing new in this land. Fear ruled like never before.
0:04:38.3 (Johannes)
Apartheid started in South Africa officially by request of the Dutch reformed church. I mean it's a fact of history, we can't deny it, and I grew up Dutch Reformed and part of the problem is language. One of the reasons why you would have only a white community is because they want to have their services in Afrikaans, which is not wrong, not at all. But apart from that many of these people are living in fear. They feel... pushed aside, I'm speaking of the Afrikaans speaking people specifically. And so the political feeling mixes in with the church feeling and the church is seen as the last place of safety for us, so we keep out other people who are not part of us, if I can put it that way.
0:05:35.5
The people were afraid that the political changes and things would take away the church from them. The church as they know it as the last place of refuge for them, that lies in the hearts of people. So they don't want the church to change because it is the one thing that does not change or their hopes but it doesn't work church is changing all the time.
0:06:10.1
Traditionally the people who came out here always had the feeling that they were in control, they were the bosses, that's a very important fact. If you read all the histories of all the European people who came out they sort of were in control and they want to be in control and still be in control, and that has changed totally, at the moment. That's one of the reasons why there is this sort of resistance, my life: I don't have control in the sense of the olden days and I feel, I don't know where I'm going. I'm not in control I'm being controlled. We've been living like that for years and years and years, that's the way we live and frequently I have become very sorrowful about this, through all these years because I was always thinking, what...how much do these, my own people my own white people miss, how much do they miss?
0:07:21:23 ONSCREEN CAPTION: JOHANNES – RETIRED PASTOR
0:07:30.4 (Chantelle)
It's as though they've got this hatred in their eyes for us. Maybe it's because of the past, the past history of South Africa, it must be that, I'm sure.
0:07:40:22 ONSCREEN CAPTION: CHANTELLE - SHOPKEEPER
0:07:45.7 (Christa)
There's no black people in the school that she’s now. So no, but I think that she would always have this question of are they good or are they bad.
0:07:58.6 (Chantelle)
As soon as something as horrible as like this happens to you, that's what you fear, I don't fear white people, I don't fear white people, Indians, Asians but Black people, sounds horrible, really sounds horrible.
It's not all of them that's that bad, it's one or two or three or ten, or 10,000 but now there’s 30 million of them, now you fear all 30 million because you classify all of them as the same.
0:08:33.4 (Johannes)
How do you teach a little child in South Africa not to be afraid of I mean other nations especially black people, and the colour thing has been so emphasised in our history and in our country that black and white is a reality whether you like it or not.
0:08:57.6 (Margaritha)
Violet... is one colour you can use for fear, to express fear.
Violet has also to do with satin, it is also a holy colour.... or lilac is more.
But you wouldn’t use black.... it’s my crocodile.
I think a crocodile is treacherous, he’s sly, it lies in the water... and all you see is its eye perhaps.
0:10:00.2 (Jan)
Because of the rural outlay, people are so vulnerable I mean even if they, if there is a farm attack or a house break or whatever I mean he can’t run out his front door and shout to the neighbour come and help me because there is no one there. The neighbour’s not going to hear him because he’s half a kilometre away or a kilometre away or whatever the fact may be.
0:10:18:20 ONSCREEN CAPTION: JAN – SECURITY MANAGER
Basically in the daytime you are installing a security system and you’re monitoring and you are connecting it to a control centre, and should an alarm or a panic occur at that premises and then you are basically either dispatching a vehicle to the premises or you yourself is going to assist with the emergency situation.
0:10:42.1 (Lettie)
You think you going home to your safe private environment,
01:10:46:00 ONSCREEN CAPTION: LETTIE – SECURITY MANAGER
but actually its not so safe and it's not so private because somebody else is watching you the whole time but you don't know it.
0:10.54.7 (Jan)
The one attack that we had was an old lady of sixty years old, they took her, put a bath full of boiling water put her feet in there, she wouldn’t say anything or tell them where the keys were they took an iron, burnt her, they raped her and eventually they killed her. And all they took then was a City Golf, an old 1985 City Golf.
We're basically balancing on a fence, you know, you can fall either way. Crime is picking up, times are getting harder. It's going to get a lot worse, its not - can get a lot worse - it's going to get a lot worse.
0:11:26.9 (Promo)
The name Rustenburg is translated as a town of rest. Nestled at the foothills of the Magalies mountain range Rustenburg is an area rich in wildlife and scenic splendour.
The Waterkloof hill family can enjoy an abundance of indoor and outdoor activities in the form of various recreational facilities around the estate.
0:11:48.6 ONSCREEN CAPTION: WERNER – PROPERTY INVESTOR
A very valuable proposition in the property industry in South Africa is the fact that these golf estates have been popping up all over the country. To a large extent you don't have a choice anymore unless you can really afford to have good security - maybe you are younger in age, but I think especially the older people they prefer moving into these gated communities and prefer the lock up and go scenario.
0:12:17.3 (Jan)
Just book me a job card for N.I.C please
0:12:20.6 (Lettie)
And Max
0:12:24.3 (Jane)
Yes I will do so
0:12:27.9 (Jan)
And Max Reed Max Reed
0:12:34.8 (Jane)
Sir, I will do that
0:12:42.0 (Jan)
Yea everything 30 or 60 seconds there is some farm attack or house robbery or rape or something to that effect, to us it's not it's not news anymore.
0:12:45:07 ONSCREEN CAPTION: ANNE – SECURITY WORKER
0:12:50.9 (Lettie)
You’ve got your fence you’ve got your alarm system, now they can get to you at the house, now they wait for you in the road. If they want to get to you then they will get to you.
0:13.01.8 (Jan)
There’s normally a syndicate that has moved into an area and what they normally do is get local farm workers to watch a house. If they see that that house is an easy target then what this spy will basically do is say to them 'right I will mark via bottles or rocks or twigs or plastic bags tied onto fences', but your last marker will be the marker to say 'right the persons are at home or it's a safe hit or it's not a safe hit, or you will get assistance from inside one of the maid or the gardener or whatever it is. Instead of being scared and crawling up into a little corner and saying 'I'm scared now' you know use that and say 'right I'm afraid but why am I afraid?' You know, alright there could be somebody waiting around that corner, right - expect somebody around that corner.
0:13:59.6 (Chantelle)
The scariest part of this is, he had a dream and this is going to, maybe people won't believe me but he had a dream that we were in the shop. We were being robbed and that he came into help and precisely as it happened - being shot. He said he could literally see me holding him and he could see this scenario and he was screaming for me but he couldn't, nobody was hearing him. And I told him it's just a dream, dreams don't mean anything.
0:14:35.4 (Lee-ann)
We had just finished eating and the twins were already in bed. I put each one into their rooms and my eldest son Devan; he was watching Barney on the television. So we were in the kitchen and I was just tidying up everything that we had eaten and I took a plate with the bones for the dogs, and that was about 7 o’clock at night. When I walked to the front door, and I barely touched the door to open it, then a person - a black male, he opened the door further. And he was standing in front of me; he had a gun in his hand - he was pointing that to my face and at that time everything just froze. You feel very powerless when they enter; you know that it was your turn now to be attacked. I was in the corner, at that point I had all three babies on top of me on my lap. Derwalt was lying in front of me - he was lying on his side, my father in law was then next to me and my mother in law next to him, and so they were all lying face down with their hands and their feet tied with wire. I think because I opened the door, everything was fine everything was safe and I went and I opened the door, you feel bad about that you let them in. But also seeing out of the darkness that person coming towards you, that was the thing that frightened me the most, that kept me up at night. Your body goes cold you can't move it's a terrible feeling. And of course the children started getting the same kind of fear.
0:16:16.0 (Chantelle)
That, that really… the way that he, the way that that… I can't put this I can't put in over in words because it's something that you can't explain to nobody. You know, at nights I couldn't close my eyes because I heard that, I heard the sound that he made before he blew out his last breath. That, that was something that stayed with me and I’m still now just thinking of it - I can still hear the sound.
This black guy came in and he walked in and walked past my Mom and my Dad, and there was just the counter between him and my mom and he had a gun on him. Three other guys came in and they came into the back side of the shop, they kept a gun to my Dad's head and then the one guy started slapping my Mom, and then they said they wanted the money. I heard the shot.... one of the people that worked for us one of the blacks that wasn't in the shop just came running and screaming, 'please madam come somebody's dying, please madam come somebody’s dying'. And the thing is I couldn't help him, he was literally choking in his own blood. That's the noise that he was making because he was choking in his own blood. And I knew I could do nothing not even to give him some air, I did I tried my whole mouth and face was full of blood because that was like, I did try to because I couldn't press, I tried to give him oxygen.
I couldn't go to the shop after my husband was killed I couldn't go into the shop. I had this fear of something happening again.
0:18:21.2 (Margaritha)
It's so heartbreaking to have to leave all this behind, I don't find that very easy but I have to do it.
Well I don't feel safe at the moment, I don't feel safe at all my trust in my safety has gone. So at the moment, it may change but at the moment I don't feel I can go and sleep now there and think that maybe they will come in again because it can happen.
I suppose you are wondering what I am doing, my doggy, we are all wondering what I'm doing.
So that doesn't help to bring about trust but I have worked very hard at that to try to break that, to overcome that.
That is the only thing I have left from my father, that coat…
0:20:00.0 (Bob)
No one should leave his/her home at night to investigate any noise, do not leave the safety of your home, if the sound persists the correct course of action is to call on your immediate neighbours.
0:20:14:10 ONSCREEN CAPTION: BOB- FARMER
Our radio systems are specifically installed in our homes to communicate with each other in times of need.
Events the morning Sunday 12th April 2009 it is alleged Margaritha woke up at approximately 1.30 with the dogs barking continuously outside in the garden.
0:20:31.2 (Margaritha)
And I saw two men walking through the garden, and I said that to Christine on the radio I said there were two men walking through the garden and then there was this lull between the barking and the quiet moments and then the barking and the quiet moments and the barking and quiet. And that made me extremely nervous.
0:20:50.6 (Bob)
The dogs stopped barking and Margaritha assumes the dogs have been poisoned.
0:20:55.3 (Margaritha)
And then the window broke and I screamed, I screamed as they came into the room.
They rushed toward me and then they grabbed hold of me, and they turned me round they pushed me round like that. And then they, I don't know how they got me to my bed but they got me there. And then they grabbed the cell phone out of my hand and they said, 'where's your money?' so I said, 'well I have to get it for you, it's in my bag'.
And they took the money and they dropped the purse, and then they grabbed me by the hair threw me on the bed and left and must have taken the laptop on the way out.
0:21.34.0 (Bob)
At approximately 06.00 the Rustenburg SAPS dog unit arrives at the crime scene, the four Boons police constables leave the crime scene (fade out) soon after..........
0:21:43.6 (Captain Napu)
01:21:46:07 ONSCREEN CAPTION: CAPTAIN NAPU – SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE
And the area is too big - you find that sometimes when somebody calls the vehicle is on the other side of the area, of which it might take two to three or twenty to forty-five minutes to comeback to you. But what we say is whenever we’ve got a chance to come and assist you as soon as possible we'll be there.
0:22:04.2 (Han)
And we appreciate that, but if they come out to a crime scene, what actually can they do,
0:22:08:00 ONSCREEN CAPTION: HANS - FARMER
because they are people like us - they can only come there and see what's going on. We shoot them also, don't aim to kill him - just wound him if you can.
0:22:23.8 (Bob)
At no time can any of us take the law into our own hands. It is the responsibility of SAPS to deal with any criminal issues; it is our responsibility, as the community to assist SAPS wherever possible to make their jobs easier.
0:23:13.9 (Roger)
The fears and the conversation that goes around the fears whether they are real or imaginary is part of the culture or part of the mythology of the country itself. So it is a way that people relate to each other and in some countries when people get together they spend a lot of time talking about the weather or the schooling or the food, in this country people talk a lot about fears and you know it's hard to distinguish you know what's a real fear and what's an imaginary fear.
01:23:42:11 ONSCREEN CAPTION: ROGER - ARTIST
The consequence is that people become more insular, more insecure, more anxious so the fact the sensibility feeds on itself so the more you hide the more you need the hide, and you can't get out of the syndrome and that's what’s happened here in a lot of cases is that it just leads to a further sickness or the disease just continues the spread until it gets to the roots of the soul, to the bottom of the persons personality and they become immobilized in terms of their own growth and their ability to expand their own consciousness.
0:24: 21.7(Werner)
Unfortunately the true reality of it is it's only the rich that can afford it but like anywhere else in the world, it's a capitalist market and unfortunately that's the way it is.
0:24:32.7 (promo)
The signature 18 hole whole world-class championship golf course, driving range, golf academy, pool, tennis courts, walk and cycle paths, bird watching and fishing. Indoor amenities include clubhouse, gym, health spa, pool, play area and kiddies club, coffee shop, restaurant, entertainment area and pro shop. The estates wall perimeter is equipped with twenty-four hour guarded patrol. State of the art technology is installed at all controlled access points providing residents with total piece of mind. Safety and security is the very essence of estate living and Waterkloof hill is no exception.
0:25:19.6 (Werner)
I think in South Africa we've turned a corner and our crime is busy coming down and hopefully South Africa will be one of the few places that you can go to in 10 years time that won’t have all the problems that you find in all the first world countries.
You get on your golf course, you go to the club house, there is 10 of your friends either watching rugby together or having a beer or about to tee off for golf, and you know, come and have a drink and come and sit down and lets have something to eat, quickly. I mean the lifestyle is phenomenal, and you go to the gym, all your friends are there and your friends are really the people that live next door to you, you know and when our parents grew up you know that was what it was all about - your neighbour was your friend. Today you and I don't know even who are neighbours are, if you think about it so it's part of bringing that sense of community and that sense of longing and those friendships back into the house.
0:26:12.4 (Jeff)
It's blunt.
That's a nice sized boar
0:26:33.0 (Jeff and kids-sync)
OK
0:26:55.9 (Jeff)
I was born in Africa, I'm an African,
0:26:59:00 ONSCREEN CAPTION: JEFF – UNEMPLOYED I.T. WORKER
so what if I've got a white skin I'm an albino, if that's the way you want to put it.
Since I got married, we've lived in a town, I think it was three months after we got married and that was the only time we've ever lived in a town. I could never live like that, that’s why I live here.
I know if I come under attack here there's going to be a lot more of them dead than me. I mean look at my front door - I don't even have a lock on it, and I've lived like that for four years. I have nothing go missing, but I don't give the blacks trouble and they don't look for trouble.
0:27:57.1 (Roger)
Sometimes the people who have less resources have a more open experience and more realistic view of life than people who have the money who create defences and the wires around them, so I think one has to be very careful about deciphering the code of conversation that one hears. An educated way of viewing the world can be a better way of camouflaging those fears - it doesn't mean that they don't exist, but they may exist to a much more grand level to perhaps people who are living in the fire as they might say.
0:28:33.8 (Jeff)
We've got our own little thing here - I mean it's us. Why make stress for yourself, I mean I'm happy. I don't give a damn what they do next door, I don't give a damn what anybody thinks of me. I'm happy, if you’re happy then that's the way you got to be, but that's life, and if you’re not happy with what you do for yourself who’s going to help you?
We’re at the bottom of the chain here, we’re bottom dwellers at the moment, but I mean I don't give a damn. As you can see it's quiet - nobody's giving me trouble. As my Dad said and a lot of people have said, you know we were born with fuck all and still got most of it left.
0:30:30.0 (Johannes)
We live in separate worlds, in the same town. It's standing in the same rows in the shop and in the bank and things, we are there physically together but in our hearts people are living in two different worlds. And I think this feeling of fear and crime and things has increased a lot. People who are thinking that things are growing better, better and better - I don't agree with them - it's not what I really experience.
A person is a person through other persons, you don't exist in isolation, white people think they can but they’re stupid to think that even.
0:31:58:24 ONSCREEN CAPTION: JOHANNES – RETIRED PASTOR
They're like my own people - when I'm with them I forget that I'm white, I really forget it - especially when we sing. Living with people, and sharing in their sorrows and their joys what type of crocodile would that be? It's part of the bunch there lying next to the river or the dam, the water, not fighting, I don't fight the other people.
0:32:31.2 (Margaritha)
This is an African fairytale - I mean painting. You know I'm not an African, don't tell anybody. I have had to learn to love this country I didn't want to come here I had no choice, you don't have any choice when you are two years old, do you?
0:33.15.0 (Johannes)
I'm tired of church services where people sit properly and look like good decent citizens and Christians and during the week their life is different. So I like to challenge people in the workshop in the situation where they are swearing and they are getting angry with one another, but I do it with their agreement. My point of departure is if you've got love in your heart you can't have fear. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment and the man who fears is not made perfect in love. I believe that and I practice it. Alright, you will come back to me and say, Pastor you haven’t experienced terrible fearful things like some others, I know, but I would go so far as to say I know many people have experienced fearful things and I have seen this principle being confirmed in their life.
It's not popular for an Afrikaans person to walk the road that I've walked. They think I'm stupid, I'm wasting my life and I'm wasting my training, they would say to you why don't you come to a white congregation, Pastors would say that to me and on the other hand there are people who appreciate what I do. But the general feeling is that you know you must stick to your own people - it's a very strong feeling.
0:36: 07.8 (Lee-ann)
We were definitely protected so we have decided on Psalm 91, and we made that big and we put it on the front door, and we said, 'there's no way that they will ever come through that door again'. It was as if I enter a dark place they would come or that person would come up and I would just get the fear all over again. So even if I just want to go into a room I can't get myself to just switch on the light. Just putting my hand to switch on the light and then enter the room, I couldn't do that I couldn't come close to that room, so that was a very big problem for me.
If I do find myself in a dark place and I feel a bit overwhelmed the idea that the light pushes away the darkness… that also gives you a sense it's good to be trapped then within that light - to be inside of that, it's a safer parameter to be in than to be in the darkness, than to be lost.
0:37:14.3 (Lee-ann and Rina)
We realise that fear can't play any roll in your life, so that is the way that I have learned to cope with it. I've definitely come out a stronger person after the attack than I was before the attack.
With my mother in law and my father in law their first instinct was immediately to praise god. They could have said lord help us take us out of this situation don’t let this happen to us, but instead of that they started praising god and thanking him for how good he is and how great he is in their lives. At that point I was not at that same, from a religious point as they were, so I was crying and in fear, total fear that the lives of my children are in danger.
0:37:55.9 (Rina)
Yes. As we prayed god said to you that I was there you could have been raped you, could have been killed, your family could have been wiped out but I was there and I did protect you.
0:38:19:07 ONSCREEN CAPTION: RINA – MISSION WORKER
Fear is like pouring a load of blood and guts over board and all the sharks will come and feast on that fear but faith is the opposite.
0:38:26.3 ONSCREEN CAPTION: LE-ANN - HOUSEWIFE
Now when it happens if I go down the stairs and face the darkness or anything I still get that feeling… that it pushes up and you can feel it's intimidating and its not right and you don't really know how to handle it. I can't say that it won't happen to my children, I hope now and I can pray that they will be, I can trust that they will be safe. But even if something has to happen I hope that they wont do the same thing that I did. That they will go into that same state, that they would be in that relationship with god to know that it is alright, you can praise god. Even if we had to die that night it would be ok.
0:39:07.1 (Rina)
Lord you are here on our side to minister and to comfort and to just pour out your mercy and your grace upon every victim. Oh god you say in your word that we must heal the broken hearted and that's the desire in our hearts is to touch lives and so that you can change the lives. Thankyou my father thankyou my god, in Jesus name, amen.
0:39:49.2 (Koos)
One of the guys that came there in the beginning when I got there he says 'you must feel at home, even though you’re a white person among us you must feel at home'.
0:39:54:20 ONSCREEN CAPTION: KOOS - SALESMAN
When I first got to the taxi rank, because the people didn’t know and they thought I could not speak their language and they passed by - just looking without coming to ask what I'm doing there. But gradually when they started realising I do speak the language they came to me to find out what I am doing, what I am selling, what the products do, can the products help them. They don’t understand why I should be the only white person there - that there are not other white persons that come and sell their products there as well, because they say it would be safe for anybody to come and sell there.
On the long trips they do get tired, and it is risky for the passengers, it is not safe for them if the taxi driver gets tired, so they use these products to stay alert and to be able to take their people to wherever they want safely.
0:40:52:00 ONSCREEN SUBTITLES: …people’s bodies respond differently…
0:40:57:08 ONSCREEN SUBTITLES: … an old man who used it was better in two days.
My people think I'm mad, me being a European among the blacks there - that it’s not safe for me. And I feel safer there than what I will be feeling in the centre of Rustenburg because I know the people will protect me there.
0:41:20.0 (Chantelle)
You know we don’t.... we don't even drive in the areas where the local taxis are because you are too scared that you would be hijacked, raped, killed or just left for dead. So you are precautious because you know there are thieves there. You do feel scared when you're there. So when you say to me that this guy is selling products there and they are not doing anything to him, that's awesome.
0:41:46.0 (Koos)
I invite them to come and join me, to come and be with me for a day, but they say there's no ways they would come down there. I don't know if it doesn't come from their parent’s side to say that you have to be afraid of blacks because they will harm you if they ever get the chance. And I mean at this stage, from my side, I don't believe that.
They don't want to speak where other people are together - they take you aside and they say 'this is my problem can you help me?'. 'Is there something I can use from the health products that you've got to assist me? And they definitely then come back to me and say whatever you said was going to happen with the products I'll be using happened to me and I'm so glad about it.
0:42:49.9 (Chantelle)
I don't think it's going to become better, if the government is not going to change and change everything and try to make it better I'm telling you now it's not going to become better. My fear is for my son growing up in South Africa really. I know there is crime everywhere in the world, but if I could move to any other country. No I wouldn't...I wouldn't.
0:43:08.1 (scared girl)
When there's a lot of black people around us she's very scared and very irritated sometimes you know, of knowing what they could do and you must be awake to just look the whole time, so she's just scared.
0:43.28.2 (Roger)
I think we are products of our own fate in a way and products of our own destiny and products of our own actions. So you know it's an interaction between what we can control and what we can't control, what we are born with and what we create and ultimately I think that the true gist of living is to be able to take responsibility for your own action and know who you are as we can through those interactions with the world around you. If those aren’t your goals and you are constantly making excuses or blaming the other or blaming crime or blaming the outside environment for shortcomings, well then I guess as a human being you’re not going to get too far.
0:44:15.9 (Jan)
And I started getting some heart cramps or cramps in my chest which I thought nothing of. The cramps started getting worse and I sent the kids out of the bedroom and basically I had a heart attack. The first time I went to the hospital with the first heart attack they said to me, ‘anxiety attack’. When I went to the doctor the second time the heart tablets made me aggressive and then they gave me a calmative and then these tablets gave me headaches, and that's when I started with the Grandpas. Grandpas is more of an addiction than anything else I mean, but that was because of the heart medication. I don't know what's in the stuff, but I think to an extent it does keep you awake as well.
0:44:55.3 (Anne)
It's a terrible problem to stay awake. I'll most probably sit and read a book until say 1, 2 o'clock and then I won't be able to open my eyes at all. Before one day when I die I really my biggest dream is to go to Switzerland and see the snow on the mountains, and hear the people speak and just talk to them, that's my dream in life.
0:45:13:22 ONSCREEN CAPTION: ANNE – SECURITY WORKER
I don't think in Switzerland they’ve got half the trouble what we've got here. I can just imagine them still sitting outside, sleeping with open doors, enjoy the open spaces on their farms and things like that. I can just imagine they’re doing it, not like us in South Africa that's got to be behind closed doors, or bars in front of the windows because I think it's just like a jail.
0:45:52.1 (Jan and Lettie)
(Jan) I actually think we were talking to buy a holiday resort - that was something we were looking at.
(Lettie)Yes, a holiday resort.
(Jan) because you've still got new people coming in everyday, so you get to meet new people then, you know hear different stories of their life and their areas and things like that, so yeah.
(Lettie) and also enjoy it, yes, more relaxed. I think change from security to a holiday resort - I think it would be a good change.
0:46:28.6 (Johannes)
Make a decision that I'm going to ask god to help me love people whom I would normally not love. Help other people help one another. I believe in that I’ve given my life for that, and I still hope sometimes it's difficult to hope, but anyway lets hope that as we go on we'll come closer to one another. Because I think our problems can only be solved if we come together I mean all the people of this country all the different nations. Now listen to all the political parties and with that I close. It's very interesting if you listen to them they are all saying, one nation one people, all of them are saying this, join our party and we will be one - all the political parties are saying that. Because if you ask what, for whom am I fighting they'll say I'm fighting for this group the other will say we are fighting for this group. I want to say lets try and ask god to help us to take hands, really take hands from your side I'm doing it from my side as best I can. But sometimes I feel so lonely it seems as if there are so few people and then the bad feeling in this country - you know it. And I'm not talking of black and white only ... Now I want to close with a song, you must give me a song but I want a Tswana song if you don't mind...
0:48:32.8 (Margaritha)
We look at it from a point of view of animals actually being a part of man. You could say it's a part of a soul quality of man, if you know what that means. What does a crocodile stand for - it's vicious and it's treacherous. So the only way I suppose that one could redeem it is if man redeems that quality or mankind redeems that quality of treacherousness. No - one has to find a way to live with it you know it won't go away by itself, you can't run away from it so in some way or other you live with it. I had one way of working with anxiety and that was by telling myself a fairytale backwards to overcome fear.
You know why, why must I be here and what is the purpose of my being here. I've always asked myself you know there must be a purpose in things, you know and the only thing that really binds me to this country is the nature, and you know I have gained so much by being here, but I have never been able to really use it, and now I've got to find a way to use it I don't know how. But maybe if I can really let it go surely that which I have gained is not lost. And it is so when something dies something new can grow out of it you see, because you go through a death and you go through a birth again, and therefore one can't hang onto things, one has to let go and that's maybe the lesson I've had to learn.
0:50:54.8 (Kele)
So we must know that there are different types of crocodiles, some never evolve and live in fear, yet they are very good at surviving. Others make fear their friend and evolve in ways you cannot believe. And they are all crocodiles living in the same forest.
0:51:29:21 CREDITS
For Mum

Mark Aitken – Producer, Director, Editor

'The Evolution of the Crocodile'
performed by Kelebogile Mantsho

Nora Agapi, Mark Aitken - Camera

Nadine Richardson, Lina Lapelyte – Sound Recordists


David Enright – Production Manager


Nadine Richardson - Dubbing Mixer

Alex Bryce - Sound Editor

Leafcutter John – Composer

Additional music from The Forest & the Sea
by Leafcutter John, Staubgold Records


Special thanks to
Roger Ballen, Hester Schofield
The people of Rustenburg who participated in this film
Newday Pictures
The Sanity Clause: cold water swimming


Forest of Crocodiles
Copyright Flux Film 2009