THE sad story of little Sibusiso Moyo being hit by a brick in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, and the subsequent responses to the event, tell a tale about what kind of society we have become.

THE sad story of little Sibusiso Moyo being hit by a brick in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, and the subsequent responses to the event, tell a tale about what kind of society we have become.

The first is that children are not immune from the general lawlessness that seems to engulf the city and country around the festive season. Sibusiso, at 11-months, is possibly the youngest victim of the madness that envelopes that part of the city each New Year's Eve.

The response in some quarters, asking what her mother was doing in an obviously dangerous place at that time of the night, insinuates that it is her fault that her child got hurt.

This is a continuation of an unfortunate tendency of blaming the victim for the crimes of others.

It is no different from blaming rape victims for wearing the "wrong" type of clothing that "provoked" the rapists or people being mugged for using their cellphones in public.