Times Of Swaziland: SOCIAL TURMOIL THREATENING EMASWATI

SOCIAL TURMOIL THREATENING EMASWATI
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Editor on 02/06/2023 06:20:00


Sir,
Looking at the spate of murders doing the rounds in Eswatini, one cannot help
but wonder when these crimes will come to a halt. Crime in our major towns and
townships seems to be rising daily. In all honesty, man has always been known to
mobilise brutal force when dealing with issues that affect them. What has been
happening in our country is nothing short of a crippled society suffering from a
lack of jobs and easy access to weapons and other social determinants like
health and disease. Where people suffer from a lack of jobs they more often than
not resort to illegal means to make a living as even the rich support this
trade; the poor suffer even further as for them drug usage is a means to deal
with stress, anxiety and anger.
Suffering
Many are suffering from a society that looks down upon itself and only eager to
eat at available resources without considering the welfare of the other. When
law enforcement institutions threaten to tighten the noose, it is either jail
time or death. What is happening is that there are a few people trying to
regenerate our crumbling society – to revive youth intelligence and uphold
social upliftment programmes – but the sad thing is that government is looking
on from a fair distance.
Affected
Drug usage has always affected the youth and even adults who quit suffer
long-term effects like lowered brain function, lung and kidney disease, cancer
and the sorts. The problem here is that the issue is being tackled by angry
citizens, who are watching their children being crippled by drugs and alcohol.
One sad aspect is that wrongdoers are not being apprehended but are manhandled
mob-style, which in itself is a crime but still government looks on as if this
will crumble. Where these individuals should have been spotted and handed over
to the police, they are brutally beaten and killed.
This is a social turmoil that now threatens law abiding emaSwati. What is most
appalling is that certain places in certain hoods or townships are known to be
given the blind eye by authorities as they are either killed or given certain
‘benefits’ by criminal elements. The crime fighting is then left to the
community, who unfortunately face these criminals head-on where bloodshed
ensues. Since it will always be the community against these thugs, mob justice
is borne and from there anything that goes to ‘sorting’ the mess is all out
carnage. Strength in numbers may not always be a good thing if those members
lean against the wrong wall for a cause they need peace and sanity to win. We do
not need such murders.