 Welcome back to the breakfast here on Plus TV Africa. Now let's go back in history to the year 1966. His name, Henrik Vervoord, I hope I pronounced it right. And it might seem a little weird saying a name like that and talking about the name of the country South Africa. But that's because South Africa was initially colonized by Netherlands and of course the Great Britain. And that's why you can hear such names. But it was on this day that he at this time was prime minister and was stabbed to death. He was stabbed once in the neck and four times in the chest. Just a little bit on him is on Mr. Henrik now. He was the architect of Appetite, first of all, which was a system of institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa. He was the one who of course had started Appetite. He also helped a far right national party come to power in 1948 and become party leader. The Union of South Africa, he also was a prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1958 to 1961. And also proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, which he was also prime minister until his death in 1966. The assailant, his name Demetrio Safendas, was a Mozambican immigrant and mixed racial dissent of part Greek and part Swazi. He stabbed over in the neck and chest four times before being subdued by members of the assembly. He was apparently not acting as a reaction to Appetite, but eventually was sent to mental hospital where he eventually, I think he died in 1999. Yes, he died eventually in 1999 in a mental hospital. But that was also the end on this day in 1966, the end of Henrik Verwoid. I'm hoping that I pronounced it right. It was on this day that he was killed and the end of his time as prime minister. It might be sad, but when you also add the fact that he was the one, of course, one of the original founders of the Appetite rule in South Africa, kind of makes you not feel so bad. Do you know how much of a revolution this story cost, this political assassination? I mean, it was widely celebrated globally. People saw this as the beginning of the end of Appetite. Now, this man, a messenger, decided that Verwoid was basically the founder of Appetite. He was disgusted by the racial segregation policies in South Africa. And he said, you know, I have quotes from that. He said that it is not only criminal to do bad things or somehow, but he said it's also wrong when you see bad things being done and you stay silent about it. He said this guy was instituting racial policies that were discriminating black, original, native inhabitants of South Africa from these foreigners, so to speak. And he was going to do something about it. He went ahead, stabbed him in the neck, stabbed him in the chest until he was subdued. So even though the police tried to say, oh, he was insane. There was a tapeworm in his chest that was causing him. He said, no, nobody paid me to do that. I am not insane. I wanted to go ahead and stab him because I felt that when this man dies, you know, all those racial policies that creates, you know, what's the word? Now, segregation would begin to end. That's what he believed. And he eventually was sentenced. He died at the age of 81 in Robin Island prison. And, you know, after that, we know what's happened with the apartheid movement, even though you can still see traces of xenophobia in South Africa today. But essentially, apartheid became a thing of the past in South Africa. And even though this was wrong, I mean, going ahead to assassinate someone, the man was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. But people said it was the beginning of the end of the apartheid movement in South Africa. It's also interesting, you know, that, you know, as harsh as it may sound, you know, some people maybe also need to go for, you know, a better future for others. You know, because it makes, you know, it's hard to imagine that you colonize the people and, you know, you then place yourself in government. You're prime minister about three different times, different parties. And you continue to remain there and enforce these racial laws, you know, on the people that you colonized. And, you know, like you mentioned, sadly, there's still some elements of that in South Africa today. I don't understand, you know, and it would never just look interesting to me to see the white population of South Africa, you know, seemingly having, you know, a better life than the black population. It makes no sense because this is not your place. But that's a different conversation. All right. Let me ask you a question for the next Today in History story. What would you do if you get back home from work after a long, entire day and you find someone on your couch eating ice cream? Now, a female police officer in the U.S. encountered that question and her response was to put out her gun and shoot at him. Second question, what would you do if you're sitting in your home watching TV eating ice cream and someone opens the door? I love that perspective. And shoots you. Shoots at you. Shoots you twice in the chest. Just pass out. What would you do? So on This Today in History, the 6th of September 2018, a female police officer, her name is Amber Gaia. She returned home from work, right? And, you know, it's one of these apartment buildings that look totally alike. And she said that because she had had a long and tired, tiring day at the office, she climbed an additional flight of stairs. She basically passed her own apartment, went upstairs to the apartment on her own side, opened the door thinking it was a house. She saw a black man sit on the couch eating ice cream. She asked him to raise his hand. And within a few seconds, she shoots him twice in the neck, twice in the chest, and he drops dead. This story really is so interesting because the lady is a police officer. She had a, you know, department issued pistol. This black guy was a 26-year-old man. His name was Jean. He was black. He was an accountant working at the powerhouse accounting firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers. They said he was a church singer. He was a youth leader and all of that. So Gaia eventually testified that she accidentally entered the wrong building on the wrong floor. She mistook all the visual clues that, you know, the door mat is a different mat. You know, the house setting was different. She mistook all those clues claiming that she was just tired from a long day at work. And she went ahead to shoot this imposter that she thought she had seen in her own house. You know, so it really was what happened. It happened in 2018. A few months ago in April, Amber simply was going ahead to say she wants this case to be appealed. And her attorney claimed that the shooting of Botham Jean was a justifiable act of self-defense based on her mistaken belief. How do you claim self-defense on a mistaken belief? You know, lawyers, they can do all these things. But anyway, the court has not yet announced the ruling on this matter. But they're opposed to it. Opposed to giving her a lighter sentence for her crime of murder. I hope she doesn't get it. You know, and one of the reasons this case also blew up and she probably was even arrested. And this is still the same thing you know, talk about, you know, in situational... And racial segregation, yes. Because some of the reasons she even became or was arrested. And this case, because of public outcry, she was arrested three days after this incident, walking into another person's house and shooting him. And you know, basically just going home. I thought it was my apartment. And you were tired and you talked towards your apartment. But that's not even the most interesting part of this whole case. It is during her trial, there's a part where the younger brother and the mother of both Botham Jean walked up to her and said, oh, I forgive you. Let's wrap it up here, Sergei. That's what happened on This Day in History, September 6th, 2021. All right. And of course, I took a story in South Africa in 1966. We'll take a short break when we come back. 21, 2018. 2018, yes. When we come back, we're moving into our first major conversation for today. And that is with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, summoning six and eventually over the weekend, seven Chief Judges of different states across the country because of conflicting court orders and court judgments. We'll get into that conversation next with a senior advocate of Nigeria who's joined us. Good morning.