On my first night in Johannesburg, I accidentally shut the rape door behind me, trapping myself in the bedroom.
Most middle-class homes in South Africa feature rape doors sliding jail doors that compartmentalize a house so that no intruder can get at you if and this is the phrase commonly used your perimeter is breached.
It was funny for a minute. Then I realized that since all the windows in the bedroom were barred, I had no way to get out in case of a fire.
We phoned the couple wed rented our pleasant bungalow from and explained the situation. The owner laughed a long time, and then said hed be by in the morning to release me.
South Africans are afraid of many things. Fire ranks very low on the list.
This is the atmosphere in which Oscar Pistoriuss credulity stretching explanation of why he shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death as she cowered in a bathroom will be received. Its the reason hes going to get off.
We spent six weeks there covering the 2010 World Cup. There is no sufficient way to explain the paranoia about home security that grips average South Africans, except to say that fear animates much of their lives. The home we rented was typical.
It was surrounded by 10-foot walls. The walls were topped by electric fencing. When you look down a Joburg street, it gives the appearance of the frontage of a prison all high walls, topped by electric fencing (for the well off) or razor wire (for the not-so-well off).
A submarine door accessed the street, but we were warned never to use it. People enter and exit using the garage door, which was solid-oak, three-inches thick and would not stop once it began coming down. This is to prevent anyone driving in behind you as you enter an infamous home-invasion tactic.
Inside were the aforementioned rape doors. There was a gun locker (empty) in the master bedroom. Each room had a white button labeled Panic.
What happens if I hit the button? I asked the landlord as lightly as possible. I presumed it triggered a silent alarm. No, it summons the private-security company that is constantly roaming the neighbourhood in SUVs with blacked-out windows. The country is wracked by violence, but South Africans do not trust the police and would not bother calling them.
If you hit that button, someone will be here in 90 seconds with a machine gun, he said. He wasnt kidding.
