Awful murders in SA can bring out the best and the worst in us

The murder of Olorato Mogale has gripped the country as gender-based violence, one of our biggest blights, has been put on full display yet again.

For me it has brought up a few points of contention, however: the exceptionalisation of beauty, the benefits of proximity to social capital when action is needed, and the celebration of the suspected perpetrator dying during a shootout with the police.

Much has been written about pretty privilege. As an article in Psychology Today by Dr Nafees Alam explains: “Attractiveness can affect social mobility. Individuals who benefit from pretty privilege might have access to better social networks, which can open doors to opportunities and resources that are less accessible to others.”

Social capital is “any benefit that is derived from interaction between members of a social grouping or society”. In this instance, one could argue that a wealth of resources could be deployed for the speedy apprehension of Mongale’s killer because of her network of friends and former colleagues who had access to both traditional and social media resources.

There are many other cases of women perhaps not as attractive or socially connected who failed to galvanise similarly urgent action. Without wading into the “damned if we do, damned if we don’t” camp of thinking, I think it is certainly worth examining why certain cases grip our imagination, while others fall to the far reaches of our somnambulant, horror-fatigued minds.

The other thing that worried me was the cheering of some when the number-one suspect was shot dead, the assertion being that he got his just deserts. I can definitely understand the anger at the injustice of Mongale’s life being taken, but our Constitution warns us against such thinking because of the potential pitfalls it presents.

In his paper reflecting on the death penalty as a deterrent in South Africa, Chris Derby Magobotiti, who holds a PhD in criminology, explains that the death penalty was abolished by the Constitutional Court as a sentence option for capital crimes in South Africa in 1995.

Subsequently, section 277 of the Criminal Procedure Act was repealed because “the Constitutional Court held that capital punishment infringed the rights to life and dignity, and constituted a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment”.

“The court emphasised that various factors such as elements of arbitrariness, possibility of error in the enforcement of the death sentence, inequality and destruction of life make capital punishment cruel, inhumane and degrading, which is in conflict with the Constitution,” Magobotiti writes.

In the Mongale case, a potentially fatal error was made when Fezile Ngubane was named as a suspect also linked to the case, but was later found not to have been involved.

Magobotiti concludes that “there is a lack of vigorous scientific analysis and empirical evidence to determine whether there is, historically, a deterrent effect of the death penalty in South Africa”.

I say this not to invalidate the relief we all felt when Mongale’s suspected killer was found, but to caution against extremes that would diminish the gains of humaneness and enlightenment we have made thus far. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.