Male aggression endorsed

The scale of the outpouring of grief and anger at Uyinene Mrwetyana’s brutal murder has been quite out of step with something that has become commonplace in SA. My wife was murdered during a forced entry into our home in 2009.

It illustrates just how widespread and deep the resentment against the aggression and violence meted out by men against women and children is. And yet, no matter how loudly the point gets made, it gets filed away until the next tragedy.

That is because when hostel dwellers go on the rampage with knobkieries, it is interpreted as “blatant criminality” by ministers, as “xenophobia” by the commentariat, or a “third force” by antiapartheid activists. When garbage collectors and taxi drivers turn inner-city Pretoria over, it’s called a “protest gone wrong” or “opportunistic looting”.

Perhaps so, but preceding any of these interpretations is the raw fact that you are witnessing the same male aggression faced by women at a microlevel all the time. It is mindless male mobs parading, in fact revelling and vividly living out, their violent intent in full public view.

If Uyinene’s death is to have any lasting effect, aggressive toyi-toyiing must be taken for what it is: male intimidation on display without any other reason or purpose. The cause is psychological, not political. As the Black Sash did in every town square in the 1950s, so we must constantly remind the government that personal security and safety are not for those in power only. We all demand it.

Jens Kuhn Cape Town