By Khotso D Moleko
The recent reports about communities killing alleged criminals are not surprising or unexpected.
In many townships and informal settlements people die almost every day, while the residents daily face the risk of dying.
It is no wonder statistics about coronavirus deaths hardly move many of them. In general, murder and killing another person have become a normal and acceptable thing.
Seemingly, men can and must kill each other, but they should spare women. It is, therefore, safe to say there are categories of murder that are serious, but there are murders that can be overlooked.
In my shallow understanding, violence and murder among men will spill over to women and society, no matter how many campaigns are conducted.
Most people may think that the people who kill the most are poor and lawless, but the greatest killers are governments through law enforcement agencies and armies.
Unsurprisingly, joining the police and army is a legal way for a bloodthirsty murderer to kill and get away with it, provided it is lawful.
More often than not, the security agencies use justifications for murder like classified information and self-defence.
Although this can be considered legal and morally necessary, a recent
SAPS report clearly indicates that they cover up for each other, tamper with evidence and impede investigations – including on police killings. As it happens, in KwaZulu-Natal, the police killed more than 1000 civilians.
Elsewhere, the numbers are not so different, with police killings rarely resulting in prosecutions.
Murder and killing have been idolised to the extent that video games encourage children to kill and destroy for as long as they can press “start” again.
If I am not mistaken, South Africa had its first Oscar for movie-making because of a movie honouring tsotsis.
It is common for people to think that raising moral and sensitive men who treat women gently will result in non-killing men and women.
The truth of the matter is that it is the knights in shining armour who are the professional killers for as long as it is legal, honourable and is not the people of their own race, nationality, religion and tribe.
Proof of that is in the statistics today and in the past, as well the oppressors of the past and present, who as black or white spare only their own by protecting only themselves and their loved ones, and leave ordinary people at the mercy of armed outlaws and a prison sentence if they dare to defend themselves.
The Star