The brutal and brazen execution of a taxi boss last week at a city public facility – in this specific case a petrol station in Empangeni – is a sad reflection of where we are as a society.
It was far more than just another example of killers going about their business with little respect for or fear of law and order in this country.
Although investigations must run its course before assumptions can be turned into facts, viewing the unfolding scene as captured on closed circuit television provided enough evidence to safely speculate that this was not just a random act of robbery.
The taxi boss was no doubt a specific target, either the victim of a taxi turf war or some other domestic or business dispute.
And this is at the heart of a deeper malady.
Why is it that so many South Africans – and Zululanders for that matter – turn to primitive violence to solve disputes of whatever nature.
It is almost as if we are on permanent aggression steroids.
We don’t tolerate fair business principles. Anybody seen to be encroaching on our territory, we simply remove opposition Mafia style.
When we get irritated with foreigners, we attack and kill them.
When we are aggrieved about some matter, we vent our frustrations by burning, looting and attacking innocent people who have absolutely nothing to do with the issue – even emergency personnel who attend to the scenes.
When somebody annoys us on the road we go in a manic rage, pull out a gun and blow the ‘offender’ away.
And we even cure our stress by bashing our spouses and children.
As long as so many of us act this stupid, we cannot describe ourselves as a civil society.
