An eye for an eye is a slippery slope
If you’ve been following regional news, you’ve probably already heard that the state declined, on Monday, to prosecute a woman who stabbed three men who were allegedly raping her daughter in Zwartwater near Komani in September, sending one to the morgue, and the other two to hospital.
None other than former first lady Graca Machel raised the same issue in Grahamstown this week.
“How many cases do we hear of women and children being assaulted? Every three days a child is killed from abuse and neglect,” Machel told a large gathering at Rhodes University last Thursday evening.
“Every eight hours a woman dies at the hands of her partner… We hear these things and we carry on with our lives as if it has nothing to do with us… We have gained a tolerance for violence, corruption and unconstitutional behaviours.” (See story on page 10).
We of course do not need the great woman to enumerate just how bad things are for women in South Africa, in the Eastern Cape, and here in Grahamstown. There was indeed relief and even glum satisfaction when the NPA told the court that it would not be prosecuting the so-called Lion Mama. Incidentally, even while she faces no charges, this woman has to live with the knowledge that she killed someone and injured two others. She will be in court as a state witness when their trial for rape and assault finally takes place and she will be forced to re-live that trauma.
The level of violence is in this country is fast becoming the moniker by which South Africa is known. So bad, it seems, that Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has just requested his boss (President Jacob Zuma), to authorise the deployment of the SANDF (South African Nation Defence Force) to help combat gang-related violence in Gauteng and the Western Province. The seams of democracy become tenuous when soldiers begin patrolling the streets of any country’s cities. This is even more alarming in such a young democracy like South Africa.
We’ve been perhaps slightly lucky that our little sleepy town has escaped the wanton violence we read about in the Cape Flats for example (although many survivors of gender based violence will disagree). But there has certainly been an uptick in contact crime involving guns, especially in the CBD. Taken together with the severe economic slowdown, we can see a perfect storm brewing.
There is little anyone can do individually; but perhaps start would be to start by assuming that all violence has its roots in the lived experiences of both the victims and the perpetrators.