Let’s unite to build a better society

Someone once said: “People choose to solve the person, not to solve the problem caused by the person.”

These words came knocking in my head when I read the terrible story of a police officer who shot dead his girlfriend working as a nurse at Tembisa Hospital.

To say the whole tragedy is catastrophic and shameful would be an understatement as it painted a clear picture of gender-based violence and femicide in SA. Almost every day, we see stories of men killing their partners for various reasons. It doesn’t matter what has happened, no-one has the right to take somebody else’s life.

The fatal shooting of the woman at the hospital adds to SA's very high rate of murder cases men commit every day. While GBV doesn’t always refer to men abusing women, men are mostly the culprits. What adds salt to injury is the dialogue that normally follows these tragedies, particularly on social media.

Instead of dealing with the scourge, both men and women opt to point fingers at one another. You will have a post by a man defending the action of the culprit, who is a fellow man, saying that he was clearly hurt either by cheating or a break-up or another form of provocation.

On the other hand, women will be out there chastising the man on the basis of gender, and nothing else.

This doesn’t help anyone in any way whatsoever because instead of dealing with the crisis, we end up hurling insults at each other. When situations like these happen, society shouldn’t be divided but rather united to tackle these challenges head-on. We need to collectively rebuke these acts of ruthlessness so that a better society can be built.

The fight against GBV and femicide is everyone’s responsibility, so we must join hands and push back the frontiers of this societal evil.

Instead of cursing the darkness, let's try to light a candle.

Malphia Honwane, Gottenburg, Mpumalanga