Tag Archives: Hillbrow

When you know the dead

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Shaun Smillie

It is not often that the dead I report on I know. But the 30-year-old police constable who lay dead beneath the medic’s space blanket, last night I knew. He was a communications officer and in the past I phoned … Continue reading →

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Revealed: How the cops tamed Hillbrow

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Shaun Smillie

Hillbrow on New Year’s eve is the stuff of journalist war stories. Media contingents squeeze into armoured Nyala vehicles then under heavy police escort head into the flatlands of Hillbrow. Fridges would fall from the high rises, bullets ping off … Continue reading →

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Getting the crime in the quietest city in the world

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Shaun Smillie

  There is a ritual on the night shift at the paper. The night reporter has to do crime calls. What it means is phoning police spokespeople across the city of Johannesburg and asking them if anything is happening in … Continue reading →

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