Police know the pain death brings – so why do they kill their ‘loved’ ones?

When a guardian of society plots to murder his girlfriend, and then uses state resources to execute her murder, it ought to send a chill through society.

On Wednesday, Tembisa nurse Lebogang Monene was shot seven times in the head by her ex-lover, a police constable who then turned his state firearm on himself, and missed killing himself.

We are supposed to say he “allegedly” committed the murder, except we’re way past it now, with the 31-year-old Monene dead and the as yet unnamed constable from the Ekurhuleni Cluster Tracing Team believed to be recovering in hospital.

Of course, the fallout has been immediate, with calls for police officials to hand over their firearms for safekeeping while on hospital premises or when off duty.

Except, who’s to stop someone waiting for the safe to be filled, then robbing the safe from a hapless, unarmed and underpaid security guard?

This approach does not address the issues which led to the death of Monene – and so many others – at the hands of their partners, be they lovers, ex-girlfriends or wives.

The shooting of their loved ones by police officials has been going on for far too long.

On 1 February, a metro acting captain attached to a Durban public order policing unit fired three rounds with his service pistol at his wife during an argument.

He missed her, but hit his son, 20, in the chin, hospitalising him, and grazed his 25-year old daughter’s arm.

It’s been suggested working conditions where police officials are exposed to incredibly high stress and the most gruesome scenes plays a part in the ongoing slaughter of women.

Maybe, however the instances of a female cop shooting her male partner – unless it’s in self-defence after a lifetime of beatings – are few in comparison.

In February last year, a 28-year-old constable shot her 33-year-old partner and their five-month-old son in Embalenhle near Secunda, Mpumalanga, before killing herself.

In January, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate secured a conviction against constable Irvin Malinga of Pienaar police station in Mpumalanga.

According to the Ipid, Malinga went to his ex-girlfriend’s house on 29 December, 2019. There he found her sitting in a car with her new boyfriend. He shot at them, she ran, he chased her and gunned her down.

Disarming all police officials is not the answer. Too many are attacked at home, while some have saved lives when off-duty.

Police members also have to be armed when attending crime scenes, such as detectives who are often called out at ungodly hours.

It is perhaps a little unfair to put the spotlight on the police when men in civvy street knife, bludgeon, burn and dismember women on a near daily basis – in their hundreds on a yearly basis.

However, police members see the impact on families when lives are ripped away under terrible circumstances.

And, despite knowing this, still they kill their “loved” ones in a fit of “If I can’t have you nobody can” rage.

The “you belong to me” mindset infects too many people in this country, which is where the real problem is.

And until society addresses it, society will remain broken.