Abuse in all its forms on the rise

The sad, tragic and untimely death of 12-year-old Rethabile Rapuleng outside Izibuko Primary School in Katlehong during a shooting incident on September 19 has turned Gauteng’s townships into criminal war zones that are no different from the Cape Flats in the Western Cape.

If it is true that the incident in Katlehong was fuelled by the ongoing vendetta between warring taxi factions in the area, then it is indeed true that our townships are being remodeled by the same criminal characteristics that have turned the Cape Flats into a gangster war zone. Such an incident remains a serious indictment on our crime surveillance, detection, control system and mechanism processes.

As a community newspaper, our hearts bleed and our eyes are filled with the same tears and sorrow that the family of Rethabile are going through right now. And as parents, we too ask ourselves the same question her bereaved family has been asking their tortured hearts since her death: “Why our child?”

There is no doubt in the minds of every law-abiding citizen that the crime levels in our townships have become overwhelmingly unacceptable and find the might of our police system and its services over-burdened and sagging underneath its heavy weight. This, indeed, does not auger well for our law-enforcement agencies who are supposed to be the sole guardians of society against any acts of crime.

And when these same law-enforcement agents find themselves on the retreat and get themselves entangled in the same web of crime and violence as the criminals they are supposed to fight, does that then mean Gauteng may also soon find itself being policed by the army to protect its citizens, just as is the case in the Cape Flats?

The rising crime wave is a serious threat not only to the overwhelming majority of law-abiding members of our respective communities who just want to carry on with their daily lives without all the crime and its hang-ups. In fact, crime further poses a more serious danger as it threatens and damages the image of the police force in the eyes of the very public they are supposed to serve and protect.

The end result to all this is what has already become prevalent in our societies as these acts of desperation translate into mob justice by communities who have lost their trust in and patience with the police. It looks like it will have to take more than just the police jacking their failing image in the eyes of the public and the state deploying the army into townships to quell and finally eradicate the spiralling crime and violence – but the changing of our morality as a society.

We hope and pray that they will act swiftly in tracing and arresting the person or people involved in the killing of this innocent child.

We send our condolences to the Rapuleng family on the loss of their beloved daughter.

May her soul rest in peace

A generation of elderly men, and some women, is being subjected to the worst form of human abuse by their own children, nephews, nieces and sometimes even grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they suffer silently with no one to turn to.

Many of them are sickly and too old and frail to do anything for themselves. They have become victims of numerous forms of abuse, including the theft of their pension grant by their own offspring and family members who often treat them worse than homeless beggars and lepers in their own homes.

Too ashamed and humiliated to be publicly identified, many of them refused to have their names publicised as they openly shared their hermit-like existence with their families. At the funeral of one such aged pensioner, who was said by neighbours who witnessed his deteriorating condition of isolation and neglect worsen over the years, described the contributing cause of his death as simple “sheer neglect” by his own children.

Neighbors who knew the once self-respecting and confident family in his young days, described his death as a “relief” after what he had been subjected to. Although he was diabetic and suffered from other illnesses related to old age, he was only allowed into the house in the evenings and forced to spend the days sitting in the sun or under the shade outside.

However, many of them accuse the very children, nieces and nephews they have raised over the years as having abandoned them in their twilight years. They find them facing hardship and despair as they are forced to endure the worst form of abuse and ill-treatment by the same children they have sacrificed and contributed towards over the years.

At a time in their aged lives when a large percentage of their peers are cared for by loving family members in the comfort of their family homes and surrounded by loving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many ageing fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers have been discarded and thrown out of the very family homes they built for their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The manner in which our elderly are treated is indeed a sad state of affairs.

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