One violent death is painful enough, but Phangisile Mtshali, former journalist, businesswoman and author, and her partner, were murdered in cold blood on their farm in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, last week.
The mood in our country is dark.
Eskom’s failure to provide us with light adds to a sense of hopelessness and deep pain gripping our country.
Mtshali’s death and that of her partner remind us no one is safe or protected in this country. Violence and the brutal taking of human life is the order of the day, and sadly is slowly becoming normalised.
KwaZulu-Natal is home to izinkabi and the phenomenon has been welded into our political and social life.
At the height of her career as chairperson of Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Secure the Future Programme, her life was snuffed out by a hail of bullets.
Killing the pair and walking away nonchalantly, as if killing another human is normal.
The police will do their normal job of driving around in their police vans, a humdrum job that yields no desired results.
The intelligence to root out the scourge at its source is minimal, if at all.
We will hear platitudes of condemnation of the killing of “our people” from the police. But that does not help if the assassins are not arrested.
The police command structures do the bare minimal, and often half-heartedly, with an eye focused on the next pay day.
We can scream to high heavens as loud as we wish, there will be thousands of South Africans who will fall victim to the marauding band of murderers lurking at every corner, every nook and cranny, to pounce on their victims. We also await our turn.
Let us not even think the killers are bothered. They will probably dodge any dragnet mounted by the police to track them down. Police are never known to be thorough, a sad indictment on our ailing country.
More killings will continue.
Our Phangisile, a consummate newshound, was buried yesterday.
Her life, and that of her partner, were so easily snuffed out because death in our country has become cheap and of little or no value.
We thank Phangisile for her contribution to journalism. She will never be forgotten.
To the Mtshali family, and that of her partner, we pray for peace and comfort during darkness of death.
May the light of peace and justice shine on our troubled country.
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