Infanticide the most heinous crime

These days, whenever you see a tweet about a missing child, you automatically fear the worst.

You know immediately that no child would go missing deliberately. Sadly, in most instances it doesn’t end well.

One of those tweets was about a 10year-old girl from Mamelodi named Katlego Joja. Sadly, she was found murdered. When this “men are trash” campaign started, I felt offended – but not anymore. I have accepted that scumbags who kill women and children are tarnishing my image and those of other innocent men. I have accepted that fearful women somehow need to release all that bottled-up frustration.

I have reached a point where as a male, I simply can’t justify actions of these monsters. These monsters can’t use “provocation” as a reason to murder other human beings.

We get provoked by our own family members at times. Do we kill them? Sowetan headline yesterday – “Dad kills baby with pickaxe” – couldn’t have come at a worse time. How does anyone murder a six-month-old baby?

There’s nothing that makes my day like coming across a baby sitting in a trolley pushed by a parent and the moment our eyes lock, the baby bursts into the most beautiful laughter in the world. If I was having a bad day before that, it disappears on the spot. I guess some fools see kids in a different light.

But this has to stop. We’re losing too many women and children. The authorities need to send a strong message to other would-be women and children killers. To Katlego’s family, we feel your pain and if you’re angry, we understand.

Richardson Mzaidume, Pimville