The night-walkers of Uganda

Madame la Présidente? 
Level 1 
l
Elementary
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The colour of crime in South Africa
Level 1 
l
Elementary
1
Key words
Fill the gaps using these words from the text.
murderer apartheid regime folk hero revenge
evidence race sin support human rights
1. 
is the political system that existed in South Africa, in which only white people had political
rights and power.
2. A/An 
is a system or form of government.
3. A/An 
is a group of people who are similar because they have the same skin colour or other
physical features.
4. A/An 
is someone who commits the crime of killing someone.
5. A/An 
someone who is admired by the people of a region.
6. The 
of a crime is the facts or physical signs that help to prove it.
7. 
is something that you do to hurt or punish someone because they have hurt you or
someone else.
8. To 
an idea is to be in favour of it.
9. A/An 
is an action that is wrong according to religious laws.
10.
are the things that everyone in a society should be morally or legally allowed to have or do.
2
Find the information
Look in the text and find out who the following people are as quickly as possible.
1. Louis Van Schoor
2. Heidi Holland
3. Sabrina Van Schoor 
The Colour of Crime in South Africa
By Rory Carroll 
South Africa’s most famous murderer drinks some coffee, sits back in his chair and pauses when he is 
asked if it is true that he shot more than 100 black people. “I don’t know,” says Louis Van Schoor. “I’ve never 
counted them.” He is sitting at a restaurant terrace in East London, a seaside town in the Eastern Cape. He 
enjoys the sunshine as he remembers his days as an apartheid folk hero.
In the 1980s, Van Schoor worked as a security guard. His job was to protect businesses owned by white 
people. He shot 101 people and killed 39 of them in a period of three years. Some were burglars; others 
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were people who were walking past. All were black or coloured – people of mixed race. Van Schoor was 
convicted of murder but released from jail after 12 years. But he does not regret his actions. “I was doing my 
job - I was paid to protect property. I never apologised for what I did.” 
He is not the only one. According to black clerics and politicians, whites in general have never said that they 
were sorry for what happened during the apartheid regime. Heidi Holland agrees. She is the author of The 
Colour of Murder, a book published last month which reveals the cruel actions of Van Schoor and his daughter, 
Sabrina, who hired a man to kill her mother. “The story is of a family but it is also the story of a divided country 
and of the people of that country trying to find new ways to live with each other,” says Holland. 
Judges and the police welcomed the fact that black people were terrified of Van Schoor. They hid any
evidence against him until local journalists and human rights campaigners revealed his actions when
apartheid started coming to an end. 
During his 1992 trial, white residents displayed “I Love Louis” stickers to show sympathy for Van Schoor.
He was found guilty of seven murders and two attempted murders. He was released two years ago, thanks 
to a sentence reduction for all convicts issued by Nelson Mandela when he was president.
Since he was freed in 2004, Van Schoor, 55, has slimmed down, shaved off his beard and started working 
as a cattle farm foreman outside East London. So far, no one has taken revenge on him. Few black people 
recognise him, including the bookseller who took his order for The Colour of Murder. When Van Schoor gave 
his name, she realised who he was. “She nearly fell off her chair,” he says, smiling. 
Van Schoor married four times and he is now engaged once more to a local woman. He says he is “happy 
and content”. But he does not approve of the new South Africa. “Everything has changed - people’s attitudes, 
the service in shops, it’s not the same.” On the contrary, say black leaders, one thing has stayed the same: 
most whites still won’t admit past sins. 
Van Schoor’s killings took place during a white government. No one protested as his victims increased.
Many of them were poor children such as Liefie Peters, 13, who was shot while he was hiding in the toilet of 
a Wimpy restaurant after breaking in to steal cash. Jacques Durandt, a 33-year-old white former member of 
the security forces, defended the killer. “I won’t say he’s a murderer. For him it was a job.” 
But there is at least one person who supports racial equality in East London: Van Schoor’s daughter,
Sabrina, 25. While her father was in jail she shocked the white community by dating black men and giving birth 
to a mixed-race child. In 2002, she hired a black man to kill her mother because she thought her mother was 
a racist. She was convicted of murder and sent to the same prison as her father. She is seen as a martyr by 
some black people and is popular among other prisoners at Fort Glamorgan jail. “That girl, she’s not like the 
whites outside of here. She’s OK,” says one prisoner.