Why thugs excite the public

It is either South Africans are starved of role models, or that very little impresses South Africa. This is my takeaway from the excitement of the masses as they are left in awe every time Dr Nandipha Magudumana and her lover Thabo Bester appear in court.

The public is amazed by Magudumana’s makeup and Bester’s clothing apparel. Are our people that excited by aesthetics that they forgot the heinous crimes committed by the couple?

For many years, we have said that we need to find ways to shift our children and youth away from the glam and glitz of crime. We drive with an unspoken fear of being hijacked, we leave our homes with an unspoken fear of them being invaded. We occupy our homes with the fear of us being victimised.

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More and more people are saying that politicians are part and parcel of the criminal syndicates that the police claim to be chasing.

It goes without saying that the policemen and women who stand for right in a sea of wrong can be counted as the majority of those who are in the pockets of criminals, who pay for them to look the other way.

And in all of this, when the community is fully aware of those who commit the crimes and those we assist them, why not look good when you appear in court, where the media will plaster your face in newspapers?

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The media cannot and should not stop doing their work, because this work in invaluable. The problem is us, the public, who see these known criminals, and still want to look at them with rose-tinted glasses.

And if Magudumana wore her hair in a new way or her makeup was done meticulously, how do we allow this to overshadow the gravity to her alleged actions?

That Bester may or may not have worn a sweater priced at R19 000, in the greater scheme of things, how is that news more relevant than the reason that he stands before a court of law?

Again I say, it is either South African’s are starved of role models, or that very little impresses people. Every time we see them, it should be the depravity of their alleged actions, not their style, that has our conversation.

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