the corner office : Leigh Matthews

Leigh Matthews

Gauteng blog reflects on how the kidnapping and eventual murder of Leigh Matthews became something of a media sensation. It seems everyone hopped onto the bandwagon, even the ANC.

On the one hand, we should perhaps take a long hard look at ourselves and ask why it is that this story in particular got so much attention when murder and other violent crimes are so commonplace in South Africa and often go virtually unnoticed. On the other hand, it's a pity that the sensationalisation of the story cheapens the sadness of the whole affair, the suffering Matthews must have gone through and the terrible loss her family has to endure.

Sad truth is that in a year's time, I doubt most of us will even remember this poor girl's name.

{2004.07.22 23:08}

Comments:

1. Senkwe (2004.07.26 - 14:38) #

>>On the one hand, we should perhaps take a long hard look at ourselves and ask why it is that this story in particular got so much attention when murder and other violent crimes are so commonplace in South Africa and often go virtually unnoticed<<

I'm sooo glad you said this. Coming from me it would have sounded very cynical. But I've now settled into the theory that it was E-TV in particular that higlighted the story and ran with it, causing everyone else to do the same (I could be wrong, I don't subscribe to the pay channels), so as not to look like they didn't consider it that newsworthy. Truth is, with all the violence that goes on everyday in SA, one could argue that this case was indeed NOT that newsworthy, as sad as that sounds. By the way, E-TV has a habit of tenaciously going after these kinds of stories (for example, the little boy that fell down the drainage pipe as well as the premature babies that died in hospital due to what amounted to negligence) so I applaud them for that.