EDITOR – In the week of 5 September we have witnessed three gruesome acts of violence in a period of 48 hours.
The first being the brutal torture, murder and rape of a young Capetonian girl, the second being that of a 24 year old mother burning her new born child in a box in a dump and the third that of three Port Elisabeth school boys dressed in uniform, hijacking and shooting a young lady just after school and then driving off in the stolen vehicle.
I’ve tried to wrap my head around these extreme acts of violence and have heard various criminologists and psychologists on television giving their assessments and expert opinion on whether the acts are part of a manifestation of poverty and related inferior social conditions and how South Africans come from a very disturbing past of tyranny and violence and somehow relate all these acts to being a manifestation of apartheid. There’s even a debate on whether the death penalty should be brought back and whether this would contribute as a deterrent to further acts of a similar nature.
The fact that these incidents did not attract sufficient attention of the Government and the media was also brought into the mix. Unfortunately within a week or so South Africans will carry on their lives as if these tragedies did not occur and re-appear once there’s another tragedy.
As we move forward South Africans need to fight our evils and we must confront without flinching the history of this country that continues to shape who we are and limit who we can be. In great pain and terror we have to do this as we bury our dead.
Sicario
Durban
