Suna's Ominous Words To Us

‘I’m providing this information to you so the truth won’t be lost should something serious happen to me . . .’

- Jana Van Der Merwe & Jana Smit

FEAR is etched on her face as she stands tied to a tree, ad­hesive tape tight around her throat. It’s the dead of night and she’s been left all alone on the deserted Melville Koppies in Melville, a western Johan­nesburg suburb.

This ghostly image of Suna Venter, a senior SABC producer and one of the so­ called SABC 8, was allegedly captured just hours after she was abducted from her home and the grass set alight around her in a circle while she was bound to the tree.

This incident, of which she showed YOU pictures in the months before her death, is one of the harrowing ordeals Suna endured in the past year.

But while the harassment wasn’t a se­cret, no one was expecting the shock an­nouncement: Suna had been found dead in her flat in Fairland, Joburg, after failing to report to work for two days.

The relentless stress had taken its toll. According to a statement released by her family, her death on 29 June came three months after she’d been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, also known as broken heart syndrome, a heart condition that often arises after periods of prolonged and unnatural stress and trauma.

Her death sparked outrage across the country and beyond our borders. A young journalist had been hounded to death – intimidated and frightened until her heart gave in, social media users commented.

The nightmare started after Suna and other members of the SABC 8 were sus­ pended after defying an SABC ruling – instigated by then CEO Hlaudi Mot­ soeneng – that journalists should stop reporting on violent protest action.

While all eight members were target­ed, Suna allegedly bore the brunt of the barrage of harassment. Her car was bro­ ken into, her flat was burgled, she was shot at through the windscreen of her car, she was abducted, she was shot in the face with a pellet gun and her car brakes were tampered with.