An act of utter savagery

THE story of a 13-year-old boy who was clubbed to death by a man only because his mother owed him R1 000 in the area of Makhalimba, in Gingindlovu, is nothing but shame to the society at large.

Is any amount of money worth taking a human being’s life over?

How could this man sleep at night knowing he had killed a poor child, and buried him in a shallow grave? How on earth could he even face people in the area knowing what he did?

For a person to go as far as murder a poor, innocent child in such a barbaric manner (not saying that any kind of murder is justifiable), is sheer satanism.

Where are the community leaders if a person does something like this? Were there no correct channels which this man was supposed to follow, instead of taking an innocent life just because he is owed money?

Justice will have to prevail in the case of this man- if capital punishment was to be brought back, he would deserve to die a horrible death so as to feel the kind of pain he inflicted onto the poor child. The harshest of the sentence will have to be meted out so a lesson is taught to others who would think to do the same in future.

This community (Makhalimba) will have to rally behind the mother of the child, give her all the support she needs to go through such pain as she deals with this grisly murder of her child.

Mothers of this community will have to take up arms, discuss this case in the open and make sure this doesn’t ever happen again. The government will also have to take a stand against such killings which threaten the very fibre of our societies.

This sad, unbelievable story is shocking beyond words. Instead of answers, this story has more questions, which obviously could not be easy to fathom.

What kind of a society would allow a person who did this live among it?

Would killing the child pay back his money?

KAYISE MEYIWA

Empangeni