Jungle justice not the way H-METRO

Today we have a story headlined “Artisanal miner murdered” in which a Zhombe artisanal miner was reportedly stoned to death by a mob of his fellow artisanal miners on Monday after he allegedly took their gold ore by force.

The story goes into detail about how the now deceased had a reputation of bullying fellow artisanal miners in the area and forcefully taking their ore.

He is described as a well-known ‘mbimbo’ in the area with a reputation of wronging many people.

However none of his wrongdoings justify his murder by the mob.

There are always better ways of dealing with a criminal besides murdering him.

An eyewitness in our story proved that people were indeed tired of the deceased’s wrongdoing.

“Just this Monday he went to Getsi Park mine after hearing of a gold rush there so as usual he allegedly started using force to take away other people’s gold ore and they watched him until they got frustrated and decided to fight him.

“They gathered around him and started beating him up with all sorts of weapons, he tried to fight back but he then realised that he was being overpowered and he decided to escape.

“The mob ran after him and caught him by Zhombe river where they stoned him to death as he was already weak and injured from the initial attack,” said the witness.

The fact that people continued to beat this man when he was clearly no longer attacking them or able to defend himself shows that they were worse than the deceased ever was.

As the area’s Chief, Wait Gwesela, said about the incident, such an act of barbarism should never be condoned.

“I have personally ruled that if anyone is found in possession of a machete or those dangerous weapons in his house he will be punished. If not because of this lockdown I should have called for a meeting with my people and warn them against this behaviour.”

The chief is right, possession of weapons like machetes and engaging in such acts of violence should never be allowed to happen in a normal society.

People must also desist from what they term mob justice because more often than not, it is anything but justice.

The mob can effect a citizen arrest and wait for the police to take the alleged criminal to the courts.

This jungle-justice is not the way to make criminals pay. In fact, it is barbaric, savage justice which lowers everyone who takes part in it down to the levels of the criminals — if not lower.

We have to grow up and accept that we live in a civilized world with a proper channel for justice — a jurisdiction or right and power to interpret and apply the law that does not belong to everybody.

If we are different from the criminals that we catch, let us show it by proving, even to the criminals, that we are law abiding citizens; that we respect and trust the law that we live under and that we submit to that law’s authority.

If we fail to do this, then we are savages; barbarous humans that are worse than the criminals. Let us show our maturity when we catch criminals and prove to them what it means to abide by the law. Otherwise, we are just like them.