SA must respect the law
WITH South Africa ravaged by a high rate of unemployment, one would think a young girl doing her utmost to get educated and secure a better future would be commended.
But no, not according to brazen ruthless thugs whose main aim is to leave a trail of destruction, emotional trauma and pain. All they want is to dispossess others of their hard-earned possessions with total disregard of the consequences that their actions will have on their victims.
When first-year female student left for home after attending her afternoon classes at the University of Pretoria, little did she know that there were thugs lurking at the campus exit, yearning for yet another victim.
At gunpoint, she was robbed of her cellphone and cash, forced into the thugs ’ car and after being driven around, she was dropped in the veld. How ruthless!
Though we are thankful that she was neither raped nor killed, the trauma will live with her forever.
She could have easily become another statistic. What started as another day of classes at campus ended with her being left at some unknown place in the middle of nowhere, at night.
Phoneless, traumatised, cashless, she was left with no choice but to find her way home.
Why should she be subjected to this horror when all she needed was to get a better education? Is that the price she is supposed to pay for trying to secure a better future for herself?
Just this week, the SABC ’ s Vuyo Mvoko was mugged live on TV. Mvoko and the student ’ s cases are just a microcosm of the bigger problem that we face. There are many similar cases happening every day, everywhere.
So what do these incidents mean for us as South Africans? How do we work on restoring human rights?
As we prepare to celebrate Human Rights Day in a few days ’ time, we need to work together to ensure that the provisions in the constitution and the Freedom Charter that affirm basic human rights are adhered to.
We need to find ways of working together so that we do not continue to be held at ransom by criminals.
We all have the responsibility to instil the culture of respecting human rights and those who don ’ t must face the full might of the law.
As South Africans, we all have a collective responsibility to build a society that respects the rule of law, respects one another and respects life.