Canadian Tortured & Murdered on Farm in Limpopo, 3rd Farmmurder in Limpopo in 4 days...

Ex-Ottawan slain in South Africa

Resort owner had long career as an engineer

By Zev Singer , The Ottawa Citizen
March 5, 2010

The Killing Fields: Farm Attacks in South Africa: “A roadside memorial made by farmers, near Machado, Limpopo.” -- [Caroline Suzman: Gallery] [The Secret Race War you won't read about in any World Cup brochure]

A Canadian living in South Africa has been murdered in his home. But homicide is so common there, says his son, that he holds out no hope the crime will ever be solved.

Ron Smith, 70, who grew up in Ottawa, was found tied to a chair at his house near Bela Bela, 170 kilometres north of Johannesburg, on Monday. He’d been shot in the leg and was left to bleed to death, said his son, Jonathan Smith.

“Your life is not worth more than a cellphone,” he said. “And that’s exactly what they took from my father. They took a cellphone and a laptop.”

South Africa has one of the world’s highest homicide rates, with 37 murders per 100,000 people each year — nearly 20 times the rate in Canada. More than 18,000 people are murdered there every year.

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