Last week, photos and videos of DA leader and former City of Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga being beaten up and bloodied, supposedly for owing his attacker, went viral. 

Nearly all the people who posted the video and photos were making jokes about the incident. While that was disturbing, the fact that some of those making jokes are political leaders of the governing party, tasked with leading society and fashioning a higher civilisation, was debilitating...