COMMENT: Respect sanctity of life

The sanctity of human life is something that is increasingly being disregarded due to high levels of violence that we are witnessing in society.

Hardly a week passes without some community being jolted out of their wits by some gruesome murder or some bizarre case of violence.  Recently, we had a case of a man from Gweru hacking to death three members of his family and we carry reports of many cases of domestic violence that we believe could escalate to such levels if not arrested on time.

We bring attention to this as elsewhere in this edition we carry an article on the aftermath of murders in Stanmore, Gwanda, nine years ago.

The three victims were gruesomely murdered and their bodies mutilated and it appears the community is yet to find closure, still groping for answers amid suspicions that the long arm of the law had not opened its dragnet wide enough since some of the offenders were reportedly still roaming free.

It is this psychological burden on the community, and especially the relatives, that we fear might in future spur more killings if the children of the victims still feel that justice was not delivered to their satisfaction.

While we applaud the judicial system for having put the three murderers behind bars, we believe scars of such murders, which are associated with rituals, traumatise whole communities, hence the reports that the homes of the victims now lay in ruins, with some of the children having left the country following the incident years ago. These are the repercussions of a decision made either in anger, or premeditated that affects several generations after.

Due to the belief in avenging spirits, especially in cases of violent deaths, we hear that families of the murderers sought to reach out to the victims’ families for a truce and possible compensation, without much success.

We also hear that the three jailbirds, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, had since lost all their parents with one of the relatives of the elderly victims fearing that their relative could be avenging their death.

While there are many and varied views on such, what is quite apparent is that violence destabilises communities and their lives are never the same, especially after a murder.

We appeal to our people to choose peace over violence, to opt for counselling to deal with bottled up emotions, to seek professional help to deal with mental pressures brought about by the tough economic situation, Covid-19 and the lockdowns, among other social pressures.

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