True-crime series Niggies tells the story of the rape and murder of two 12-year-olds in 1966 Free State. It's excellent, if harrowing, viewing.
The nine-part true-crime series Niggies (Cousins) is a gripping South African stand-out addition to this popular genre.
The disappearance of six-year-old Joshlin Smith was the real-time backdrop for the release on 25 March on DStv Streaming (scheduled for later on Showmax) of Niggies, set in the northern Free State goldfields in 1966.
The media frenzy, the fear that rippled through the community and the hunting down of suspects in Free State's Odendaalsrus is redolent of events in the Middelpos informal settlement in Diazville, Saldanha Bay, when Joshlin vanished.
Two cousins, Issie Fourie and Petro Nel, both 12, disappeared after leaving to swim at the municipal pool. Later, after a massive search by police and residents, the girls were found in an abandoned building, bound, each with a shot to the back of the head. Police confirmed both girls had been violently raped.
The horror
Though 58 years separate the Smith and Fourie-Nel cases, they captured national attention because of the horror of these stories.
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