Premier's late son was given no chance to err

RETLABUSA Mokonyane should, like all youngsters, have been given the chance to err.

There is an English idiom that goes: "To err is human, to forgive is divine." This could not be truer for the late son of Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.

In the wake of the funeral of the late Retlabusa it is clear that much more needs to be done to protect our children, whether or not they are offspring of the powerful and famous. Not only should they be protected from the scourge of violence as the 16 Days campaign urges, they should also be given the chance to err, a chance to stumble on their road to becoming responsible adults.

For those who do not know, Retlabusa, the Gauteng premier's son was found dead last month. As a 23-year-old, Retlabusa had increasingly become a source of negative publicity for his family as he was allegedly mixing with the wrong crowd and became a frequent customer of the local police station on the West Rand.

While many young men his age fall into similar traps; Retlabusa - because of his mother's position in the ruling party and the provincial government - could not be afforded the same latitude. If the police arrested him, questions would be asked when he was released.

Did his mother use her powerful position to get her favourite son out of trouble yet again? Every day, parents take extraordinary measures to ensure that their children, if in trouble with the law, get out of prison as soon as possible.

We all know that our prisons are institutions that can turn an innocent child into a hardened criminal. But because Retlabusa was a Mokonyane, the insinuation that he was being treated with kid gloves came thick and fast. No longer were we dealing with a child here, we said. He must know better, simply because his mother was the premier, we added. For him, there was no room to err.

We must ask ourselves; would Retlabusa have been so harshly treated by the media were his parents ordinary residents of Gauteng? Did the young man pay the ultimate price because he had a certain surname?

We must remember that in 1986 a heavily pregnant 23-year-old Mokonyane was thrown into jail under the state of emergency declared by the apartheid state. Alone in solitary confinement and without much help from the heartless authorities, the young activist from Kagiso was forced to give birth alone. Exhausted and in pain, she named her son Retlabusa - Sesotho for "we (the people) shall govern or rule".

Fast-forward to November 2010. Nomvula Mokonyane is premier of Gauteng, Retlabusa a young adult trying to find himself in a world where people see him first "as the MEC's son" and later "the Premier's son".

A few weeks ago it emerged that Retlabusa had apparently bumped into a cop car while intoxicated. Again, the guns came out. While the noises were the same as before, the din was too much for Retlabusa.

After being reprimanded by family members and friends alike he decided the only way to escape the media glare was through death. And now his doting mother has lost a son. Many of us were 23 once. We know the folly of the "invincibility of youth" and the many mistakes we made growing up. Even the young Madiba suffered from similar afflictions. Luckily for us, we are not politicians' children; otherwise we would not have been allowed to grow up making mistakes - as the Mokonyanes now, sadly, know.

• Diseko is a deputy director in the Gauteng provincial government