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ONE CHILD KILLING TOO MANY

08/06/2019 00:15:00 By Nathi Gule

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The harrowing story of a young innocent girl brutally killed while she slept in Mahwalala is one of the saddest incidents in our country’s history. It is one child killing too many.

The name of the community has a loose translation that seems to mean a place of darkness or dusk. Indeed the community is in its darkest hour. But its not just the community that is in a dark hour but the nation. We need to unite, pray, act and bring back the sunrise.

pretend

It is easy to pretend we did not see the headline on last week’s Swazi News front page. It is easy to go on with our days like the incident never happened. After all it happened to someone we probably do not know. But it is not being human.

That is burying your head in sand like an ostrich. It will not change the fact that we have a serious problem. Since I read the story I keep losing sleep over it. Especially in the wee hours of the morning. It feels as though the attack was on me personally. That’s how horrifying the details of the senseless break-in drugging and killing were. I’m battling to imagine what sort of animal, because I cannot call the killer a human, would do such a merciless crime.

It is also in direct conflict of the 10 Commandments ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill.’ Not sure what your moral compass is but for many in this predominately Christian nation, the Bible is it. This is commandment number Six. Religious Knowledge 101 class briefly in session.

The commandment against murder is viewed as a legal issue governing human relationships, noting that the first four commandments relate strongly to man’s duty to God and that the latter six commandments describe duties toward humans. The commandment against murder can also be viewed as based on respect for God himself. So how dare we disrespect God, the creator? Let alone the people we live daily with in the communities?

This ‘man’ who drugged, raped and killed the 14-year-old girl is not a man. He is a monster. As men we disown him. This murder should have sparked a national outrage against such killings. I have been paging the newspapers for full page statements from organisations condemning such brutality. Sadly I have not seen any.

If there have been a few I missed, thanks for adding a voice against such madness. The silence against such crimes is a crime in itself. It makes one wonder if during an attack when screaming inyanzaleyo (please help) people will come and help you or they will ignore and place ear muffins and continue to sleep. After all it is not happening to them. That sends shivers down my spine.

unsafe

To think of what an unsafe world we are suddenly in. this child, according to the story, was in a locked secure house. Her privacy was forcefully invaded by the intruder. And this not being the first child killing in the capital city. It is one child killing too many. Back in the day while I was a journalist in the newsroom, when raising a story idea and state that one person had died, I recall one senior editor would always say one lost life is one too many. I feel the same today. This killing is one too many. We should be having a very low murder rate as one of the most peaceful counties in the world.

Which is why the issue should not be considered a Mahwalala problem but a national concern. Again, its one life too many.
The child was a student at secondary school and already on her way to contributing one day to the economic advancement of the country.
Her death is a major loss to this country.

There is no excuse for crime. It is comforting to read that police have started patrols in the community as well as raids to try and restore safety. However they should now proceed to the other communities as well. Including mine. We are all at risk of attacks from such monsters.
Police must show a zero tolerance to break-ins as much as they show to traffic offenders. Because if police do not make our communities safer there will be no offending motorists to arrest once we are all wiped out by these brainless monsters.

We pray for a more proactive approach to crime than a reactive one. I personally pray that this is the last such incident we read of for many years to come. We are tired of the killings. Once again it is one killing too many.

REACTION
The reaction or should I say lack of reaction by some people to this spine-chilling incident also reflects a bad trend of apathy creeping in our communities. We are like the ostriches with heads in the sand at times.

Apathy is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest and concern. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life and the world.

I pray such does not spread and we learn to be more concerned about each other. To be an emphatic society and continue to uphold the peace we so much treasure. While some residents have called the newspaper to express their concern over the killings, we need to do more than just passive comments. We deserve safer communities and need to hold those responsible for making our communities safer more accountable. Let us not be passive.

If the nation is to be able to attract investments, decrease unemployment and improve the economy and quality of life we need to uproot such senseless crimes. It is one child killing too many. Let’s not bury our heads in sand like ostriches instead let us condemn these violent crimes.