Crime in South Africa is an issue discussed and experienced daily by people living in South Africa.
Women, in particular, feel vulnerable due to the potential of being raped or abused and killed by their intimate partner or someone they know.
Self Defence Expert Mark Grobbelaar was a guest speaker on Wednesday at an empowerment breakfast hosted by the Reeva Steenkamp foundation in Port Elizabeth.
He said people who were threatened with a gun to their heads or a knife to their throats must not comply with the demands of the perpetrator.
He said people who are faced with this dilemma, always comply as they think that the situation will get better.
"If I comply with him, he won't hurt me, that is what we have always been told, to do what he wants and says, this is nonsense," he said.
Grobbelaar added that it did not necessarily mean that you would make it out alive
"Statistically when you fight in the 'first place', your chances of survival are 93%. When you go to the 'second place' your chances of survival are less than 35 percent. Whatever happens, must happen at the first place".
Grobbelaar said it is important to note that you can be killed or raped in the 'first place' but if a perpetrator is prepared to do that there he is certainly prepared to do it at the second place, and might then be accompanied by five of his friends.
Grobbelaar, who is a good friend of Port Elizabeth rape victim Alison Botha, felt inspired to start an organisation to empower women to defend themselves, following his friend's ordeal.
You can check out his website here:
http://www.wip.org.za/index.php
For more information on the Reeva Steenkamp foundation you can check out their website:
http://www.reevasteenkampfoundation.org/
