Justice for Reeva; none for me and you

It’s quite touching to see so many Swazi being vocal about the injustices happening around the world; from killings of black people by white police in the U.S. to the ‘light’ jail sentence meted to paralympian Oscar Pistorius for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013. 

In fact, Swazis are raging mad at these current events and one can’t help but wonder where this outrage disappears to for (many) similar cases rotting in Swaziland’s legal and justice systems. 

Do these voices stay trapped beyond the border never to return when time comes to question our own?

A natural death of a family member on its own is extremely difficult to accept even over many years and not even a death row sentence is comforting for some whose family members were murdered. 

So I imagine it would definitely sound insensitive and probably unfair to Reeva’s parents if I told them “At least you saw and got justice for Reeva” because what‘s always been said is that “Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done”. 

In the face of many criminal cases that go unheard, they can take comfort in the fact that their daughter’s murder trial was attended to...in their lifetime.

The same cannot be said for the family of Funekile Gule – the young lady who used to work for Swaziland’s  telecoms company SPTC and the many other ‘faceless’ victims of Swaziland’s increasing  incidents  of gender-based violence. 

Funekile Gule graduating from the \University of Swaziland. The case of her murder has gone stone cold. #NoJustice
Pic credit: Swazi Observer newspaper

Funekile was brutally killed a year after Reeva in April 2014, and her murder has become nothing but an infuriating reminder of the disinterest and incompetence of our police and the unjustness of our legal systems. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t even an existing case number at the Mbabane police station. The last news report I read of her death described how her death certificate reads “pending” on the part of “Cause of Death”. 

I suppose that’s better than the “suicide” that many victims of violent deaths get on their death certificates when the police couldn’t be bothered to probe, even when pointed to leads of murder as is the case with some of us.

I write about Funekile because even though I’d never physically interacted with her, I remember crying (and I don’t cry easily at news of death) when I read of her death because I’d grown to know her through social media; as a beautiful happy young woman – she was full of life – the last video she’d shared was of herself learning how to ice-skate.

Of course, like I said, there are many others who are killed; we read about them in the newspapers just once and that’s it. 

There are many others whom we know who were murdered – I remember a fellow journalist who was murdered in the sugarbelt, allegedly by his girlfriend; a guy who worked at MTN also allegedly stabbed to death by his girlfriend…and that’s all we are left to do, remember and move on to play Judge Judy on Judge Masipa and the U.S. justice system.

Why are we inconsistent in calling for justice? It’s simple; we have been systematically reduced to a nation of kutihhamula (venting) as our end in mind when it comes to action.

In addition to leading the development and implementation of laws, the Ministry of Justice should be at the forefront of educating citizens about the effective and efficient administration of justice. 

This mandate includes creating the necessary legal infrastructure and programs that enable this administration of justice such that when one feels dissatisfied with the level of attention that their rape case is receiving from the police for instance, they are aware of where to make the next stop within the national legal structures. Not only aware but also confident they will receive support.

People in this country die slow painful deaths at home after botched surgical operations in public and private hospitals because they have no information on what legal recourse they can pursue successfully. 

We can’t even immediately think of where to go in the case the lawyers (who seem to be left alone to ‘educate’ us) shortchange us.

Sadly, media practitioners, as citizens, naturally fall under the kutihhamula (venting) umbrella whereas they could be fearlessly fulfilling their ‘public watchdog’ role; investigating and holding to accountability those who are answerable to the public and creating much-needed public awareness of the justice processes and structures through radio and television which have the widest and cheapest instant reach. We can only dream of justice for me and you.