Cry, our beloved country
SINCE the beginning of the year, murders and killings of our women and children have escalated at an alarming rate, with yet more added to the numbers on an almost daily basis.
August marked the month when women are celebrated. In particular, August 9, which marks Women’s Day in South Africa as we remember that on August 9, 1956,
more than 20 000 South African women of all races marched to the Union Buildings in protest against the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act of 1950, commonly referred to as the “pass laws”. In the 64 years since, the phrase, or its latest incarnation: “you strike a woman, you strike a rock”, has come to represent women’s courage and strength in South Africa.
But alas, now, more than ever we are witnessing how that same courage and strength have been usurped and trampled upon.
Nowadays, newspapers report ever-present reminders that this scourge is here to stay as we are faced daily with headlines such as “Cop allegedly kills wife and step-daughter‚ then
attempts suicide”, “Joburg father beats fiveyear-old to death” and also recently, another among many others, the article relating to Zanele Sandlana, 21, whose body was found in a field with a bottle stuck in her mouth. These are headlines from various newspapers in South Africa. With the likes of ritual killings, cold-blooded murders, drive-by shootings, rapes, hijackings, to name but a few notorious and deadly methods of snuffing out the life of innocents, I think the time has come to stop saying we condemn these murders. Who is actually learning from our condemnation?
Surely not the killer who prowls our streets for their next victim. Surely not the jealous or frustrated partner or husband who
cannot contain his anger and frustration towards his wife or child. Surely not the gangster, the hijacker or the rapist and murderer who is just out to maim, terrorise or kill their victims. To add insult to injury, what are these stricter measures of punishment that we constantly hear about?
In the end, it is the ones who are left behind, struggling to come to terms with the trauma they have to face, who have to pick up the pieces of their shattered dreams after their loved ones have been taken away in cold blood.
I’ve written this before and have not swayed from that thought, and I know many South Africans share the same sentiments: BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. RIANNA WENTZEL Grassy Park