Confessional Interview- Magazine Journalism Assessment

Confessional Interview with David Webb

"I remember thinking that I was going to die...''

When David Webb cheated death twice at the hands of fellow citizens of South Africa, he knew it was time to leave.

12 years ago I was living in South Africa with my family running my own successful business in Cape Town. I had cheated death twice and decided that my country was no longer a place in which I wanted to live anymore. For me it felt like a three strikes and you’re out kind of thing.

South Africa is an incredible place but it has its problems, there are lots of poor people, who are so desperately poor that they will do anything for just a ten pound note. These poor people have to spend each day living in slums which they call Townships, seeing wealthy people live in the nice suburbs and driving nice cars. These people want this lifestyle but it is out of their reach.

The decent people in the Townships just want to work and earn an honest wage but a lot of them don’t wish to work, instead choosing to earn a lot of money and fast, through crime.

I lived in a nice suburb but even then it was standard safety procedures to have burglar bars on the windows of your house and an alarm system linked to Rapid Response Units across the country.

On a day to day basis all of this is in the back of your mind but it is not until you have had a gun pointed at you that you can fully understand how dangerous your country actually is. You see that there is no remorse in their eyes, they are cold and full of desperation. There is no doubting that they will shoot you if you do not do what they say.

From this point on I decided that you can either bury your head and just carry on living in fear, or you get out. After my two close shaves with death I decided that what was best for me and my family was to leave South Africa.

I had my own business in South Africa; we were situated on the top floor of an office block and below us was a logistic company which meant that they often had cash on site. One day just after lunch they got held up by two armed men in balaclavas. I heard screaming and a terrible commotion going on downstairs so I came out of my office to see what was going on.

The devastation that I saw is still vivid; it was not a nice sight I can tell you. The armed men had come into the office full of aggression, they smashed one girl’s face and had cut another man on the side of his face.

As I came down the stairs one of the armed men saw me straight away and pointed his gun at me. He screamed that if I didn’t go back upstairs he would shoot me and everyone downstairs. I went back upstairs having held the man’s gaze and knew that this was not an empty threat. I almost pitied this man that stood before me, it wasn’t until I was put in this position that I understood what it must feel like to be this desperately poor and do anything for money.

It was chilling having to go back upstairs not knowing what further chaos was taking place. I felt sick and couldn’t think straight from all the screams and shouting that was continuously coming from downstairs. The armed men didn’t realise but in both offices we had panic buttons which are linked to the Rapid Response Unit. So I pressed mine and just waited for help to come and hoped and prayed that the people downstairs were ok.

The armed men must have been suspicious because they were in and out very quickly after taking what they believed to be bags full of money and luckily there were no deaths. The logistic company were aware of the possible dangers of armed robbery and so had ‘dummy bags’ full of paper to prevent any actual money being stolen in an incident like this.

I believe this to be the worst thing though, all that fear and pain and for what? A bag of paper. That particular memory of fear has never left me, I can visualise now the guy holding the gun up to my chest. I will never forget that day.

My second strike with death was when I witnessed a crime on a much larger scale. I was running errands and had to pick up some printer paper which meant I had to go into the industrial area which took me right past the Township. I never liked this particular journey and was cautious about the possible dangers. What I witnessed on that day however, was way beyond anything I had previously imagined.

I had stopped at the end of a slipway just off the main highway, with about two cars in front of me. The car that was in the front of the queue was approached by three men who came from underneath the bridge that was located next to the slipway. The men surrounded the car, each with a gun.  One of the men then pulled the man out of his car and shot him in the head. There was a briefcase that was attached to the man which they broke off. It became clear that this was all that they wanted.

Bullets were then fired towards the other vehicles that were in the queue, mine included. The lady in front of me was in a state which was beyond hysterical. She was screaming and crying like a wild animal. The memory of that scream still rings in my ears; I can hear it as I'm talking to you now.

Just by chance a Police car happened to be driving past and saw what was happening and opened fire on the three men. If anything this made things worse, bullets were flying everywhere. The sound of bullets is nothing like what is portrayed in films, they are deafening and can be heard from miles around.

I remember thinking that I was going to die and that I should have left the country after my previous incident. I thought of my family and how I feared for their safety without me.

The shoot off lasted for what felt like an eternity but must have only been a matter of minutes until the Police managed to chase the three men away. I got out of my car to see if I could help the lady in front of me, forgetting about the fact that I had faced death and was lucky enough to say once more that I remained unharmed.

The lady had also been blessed because a bullet had smashed through her windscreen narrowly missing her head. The ambulances came and because I was fine I was allowed to continue on my way, as if nothing had happened, as if I hadn't just witnessed a murder.

Don’t get me wrong these weren't typical everyday occurrences; I believe that I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time but I didn't want to wait for the third time to occur. You have to ask yourself how many times is it acceptable to witness something so horrific and do nothing about it. The odds against me were arguably higher due to the fact that I had my own business and therefore came across as a businessman. I was a target so I knew that I had little option but to leave.

I don’t want to portray South Africa as a really bad place, it’s not, it’s a fantastic place, I grew up there and will always love the country but it has its problems and we had a choice to make. If I was a single guy I would have never left, but because of my family I just couldn't risk something happening to them or myself. Your priorities and responsibilities change when you have children.

England was the obvious choice of country to move to since my parents both live here. It took us two years to move due to the time it took to sell my business and our home. We found it hard to restart our lives in England mostly due to the fact that the South African currency the Rand, compared to the British Pound, was very weak at the time. I haven’t been able to start my own business in England but I know that I made the correct decision to leave South Africa.

I don’t regret moving to England in the slightest, despite having to sell my business which I spent 8 years building, because at the end of the day my family’s health and happiness are my priority. I know that if we stayed I would never have been able to forgive myself if I became third time unlucky and never got a chance to see my children grow up.

David Webb, 51, Dorset.
As told to Shona Race. 

"We are safe now."

"My family is everything to me."

"The house I designed and built in South Africa."