NEWS

"Let he who has no Sin..."

The Bible, one of the few inspired books in the world today teaches us that only those who have no sin must be brave enough to cast the first stone. Well, I’m not that brave because my sins have the ability to eclipse the sun.

However, given that I have interviewed so many people in my life, amongst them politicians, businesspeople and ordinary folks, I must add that I have also interviewed angels and demons, and think that I might have interviewed the Devil himself during one of my sojourns.

So, yesterday (Thursday) I was my composed self when I prepared to interview Mark Scott-Crossley, the Hoedspruit chap who was first found guilty of killing Nelson Chisale and throwing him in a lion’s enclosure.

That conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and he got off lightly, from being sentenced to do life to being given five years for accessory to after the fact of death. This is a new one for me.

Well the chap served his time at Barberton and on Thursday he was whisked off from the prison to his correctional office, where I waited with my camera. The situation was tense as there were fears that bus loads of community members were on their way to lynch the free bird.

I’ll cut a long one and a half hour story short and confess that when I shook his hand it felt so soft like that of a guy who has been doing nothing behind bars all these times. I shook his hand because I wanted to know how does the hand of man convicted of a heinous crime feels like.

I felt it was the closest I would come to touching the hand of Adolf Hitler. Well, I’m not being judgmental because the chap was found guilty anyway. He however has a sense of humour and a short temper that made me believe that he assaulted another darkie in prison for which he was fined R4000 instead of having his sentence extended.

Mark is out, placed under house arrest, will do community service at a police station, will be visited by officers and treated like a prisoner. What intrigued me was when I was told that he asked for three hours before being placed under house arrest because he wanted to go and check on his investments which were long term but have since been reduced to short term.

I wanted to ask him what was the first thing he was going to do when he get home but he was in no mood to be co-operative. I wondered whether he would like to have a thick rump steak or a boerewors? But by the way he kissed the woman who came to meet him, I left the lot to the imagination.

Damn, the muthafucka has very soft hands. I’m thinking of writing a book about him. What do you think about that? The title could be ‘The Diary of Adolf Hitler’