Will the real men please stand up

THE greatest fear of parents today would be the inability to guarantee the safety of their children from the hands of sexual predators and paedophiles.

The frightening reality is that there is no distinct tell-tale trait that separates these luring pests from the ordinary man on the street.

But when children have to be shielded from their own fathers, uncles, brothers and grandfathers in Zululand, we are exposed to the catastrophic reality of society’s moral decay.

It’s almost as if we have been desensitised to the ongoing cases of rape, sexual assault, sodomy and incest in Zululand.

And who can we trust when role models themselves become embroiled in these barbaric and devilish acts of lust?

Last week, so-called community leader and Mandlankala pastor Bongani Ndwandwe was convicted for raping two of his close relatives in 2008.

No one would have suspected the 57-year-old pastor to be a sexual criminal as his title alone and status in the community should automatically ‘exempt’ him from the sins he preaches against to congregants.

At the same court, a 20-year-old is sentenced to 35 years imprisonment after raping five boys when he was just 17 years old. Another conviction related to sodomy sees an 18-year-old boy being sentenced to five years behind bars for raping a nine-year-old boy in Empangeni.

What calibre of men are we raising in society today?

No one is speaking outright against these scourges in local communities. And so a ‘hush, hush’ sweep it under the carpet attitude is adopted while a new generation of sexual criminals breed and our children remain silent for fear of victimisation.

The sad thing is that these acts create perceptions that also taint the image of the majority of good men. We should not view male role models rearing our children with suspicion.