Letter: Maximum sentence is required

As a member of the KwaDukuza community and a friend of the murdered Dillon Puckree I feel we are still being ignored and so are our issues.

It takes a huge amount of courage and emotional investment for us to speak out, raise awareness and fight against the escalating violence against our youth in our cities, provinces and country.

Gang/youth violence continues to escalate, yet little has been done to address this serious problem.

It is time to stop the denial, put aside our apathy and get serious. Our children are our future and they are dying in our streets. Gangs, organized crime and spoilt rich kids will gain more and more power and will terrorize our communities until our lawmakers and judicial system wakes up and gets serious by making the necessary changes!

For the last week we have been speaking out against the murder, which has shaken the entire community. We are outraged by this along with many families whose children were also beaten, stabbed or shot to death.

Murder is murder no matter what weapon is used!

The outcome is always the same – broken hearts, shattered lives, destroyed families and another young life robbed from us. I have very strong feelings about those who can beat someone senseless.

Your hands and legs can be every bit as deadly as a gun or a bomb and I have seen too much evidence to prove that. I believe society has the right to protect itself against such behaviour.

We suggest that maximum sentences ought to be considered in any cases involving murder. We still have no deterrent for violent criminals who commit these heinous, evil, inhumane acts. Sentences remain far too short.

This allows violent offenders to re-offend. We must focus on changing our Justice system, stop the revolving-door policy at the courts and stop the hug-a-thug attitude. Immigrants committing violent crimes in South Africa need to be deported instead of hiding behind our pitiful laws.

Murderers should not be granted bail, given day passes and should not be allowed parole. Dillon will never get out on bail, a day pass or parole. He is gone forever. His family and friends are serving a life-sentence without him.

Our government needs to back our police, so when they catch and arrest these weapon-wielding violent murderous thugs/gangsters, they are removed from our streets permanently.

Judges are now saying they give out sentences according to our laws.

So, if the judges are not at fault, who is?

I believe the time has come to stop making uninformed, uneducated and hasty decisions that are merely band-aids and do not offer any long-term solutions.

We need to take a close look at other countries who have taken initiatives and successfully lowered their gang violence/murder rate.

We appeal to every member of every community to please stand with us in the fight for justice.

SASHA NAIDOO, KwaDukuza

Letter shortened – Editor