A brutalised society should hang its head in shame

Just when you thought that our brutalised society could not concoct any more horror stories, a hired gunman walks into a Grade 6 classroom and shoots dead their teacher.
In the ensuing chaos of ricocheting 9mm bullets, a 12-year-old girl is fatally wounded in the chest and another boy seriously wounded.
Why?
That was the resounding question that boomed around our area last Tuesday as news of the Nquthu school horror shooting spread.
Nquthu Council Speaker, Vusi Ntomebela, was also Deputy Principal of Luvisi Primary School.
National newspapers have questioned the wisdom of allowing elected officials to be (also) full-time teachers as this could endanger their schools.
What a cop-out! The point is: how low have we gone where such a shooting could occur in a primary school of all places? Even apartheid, in all its horrible glory, failed to produce such a warped tragedy.
What about those traumatised school pupils?
Even the MEC for Education – who herself is immersed in shady dealings from her time as Health MEC – did not think to keep to time when she made her politically correct visit to the school on Wednesday morning.
The fact of the matter is that Mr Ntombela’s murder is all to do with politics – and to put bluntly, if you have to delve slightly deeper, that nasty word tender may just appear. Perhaps Mr Ntombela was one of the good guys – trying to prevent or stop corruption?
One of the accused is a bodyguard to the Nquthu Mayor who, of course, has already denied all knowledge of the crime. Who knows?
The cover up has already began. Political shootings around here do leave a nasty taste in the mouth but there is little respite for the traumatised families – ask the Bujrams or the Nxeles. Quo vadis?