Someone Needs To Protect The Elderly Who Fall Prey To Criminals

Tlaki Baloyi

Recently I heard of an elderly woman who was murdered with a panga after being raped while going to her place of work, the corn fields of Soshanguve. The rumour mill says the woman was attacked because the thugs wanted her cell phone.

It is puzzling that these criminals are not just taking what they want from people and are continuing the culture of violent crime in South Africa. Not condoning it, but it would have been better if this was a young man who could at least try to protect himself.

These women who work in corn fields until they have passed the age of retirement are not doing it because it is fun for them. They are doing such jobs because they need to feed families and many have grandchildren they are taking care of. This is also not the first time such occurs in this place. Clearly the spirit of ubuntu that South Africans are known to have is clearly disappearing when young men can attack an elderly woman just for a mere cell phone.

The woman’s family says they realised she had been attacked after an unknown man answered her cell phone telling them to fetch her as he was done with her. They rushed her to George Mukhari Hospital where she died three days later. I am still puzzled that a young African man can kill a woman as if it is a normal thing to do and then tell her family that he is done with her and they can fetch the woman.

What makes it worse is that she was taking care of grand-children and now the whole family will have to suffer and find other means of taking care of the kids as the person who was the bread winner has been hacked to death. I believe that authorities need to do something as this has happened before. The country is often promoted as the best in the world with the best opportunities, but when these things happen one tends to wonder if there is any truth to those advertisements.