Life sentence must be life sentence

President Cyril Ramaphosa lashed out at criminals “prowling the streets of our country”, saying that they should be subject to hard labour in prisons and they should not be allowed to “see the light of day anymore”. He was speaking after visiting Precious Ramabulana's family in Tshikuwi on Sunday to extend his condolences and to express deep sorrow on behalf of the people of South Africa.

The young student was brutally murdered after being stabbed 52 times a week ago. “We are ashamed as a nation that men seem to have declared outright war against the women of South Africa. This is a national shame that a young girl who had such a promising future, her life has been cut short by a man who killed her so brutally and slaughtered her like an animal,” President Ramaphosa said.

The president wants violence and abuse against women and children to be brought to an end. “It is for this reason that we have embarked on a major campaign in the country, which is backed up by a huge budget that we will want to increase next year to ensure that we spread the message particularly to men who are brutalizing and killing women. We are going to improve the criminal justice system to ensure that those who perpetrate these acts must know that once they are arrested and found guilty, they should never see the light of day anymore. And that once in prison, they must spend the rest of their days in prison,” Ramaphosa said.

The alleged killer had a pending rape case against him when he murdered Ramabulana. “What saddens me even more is that the perpetrator had his brushes with the law on a rape type of charge and he was still out prowling on the streets of our country and took the opportunity to break into the house where the deceased was staying and brutally murdered her. The people who are arrested and sentenced, they should not enjoy life there. They should be subjected to hard labour because what they are doing to society is beyond words,” he said. “Some of them come out of prison without any form of remorse and then continue to perpetrate these acts.”

“Let us stop this war that men have declared against women. We cannot continue to build a nation when we are subjecting the females of our nation to degradation, bad treatment, rape, murder and violence,” said Ramaphosa.

The Ramabulana family decided that they would like to set up a Precious Ramabulana Trust. “We are going to support them in this because we believe that when we have non-governmental organisations like trusts that are aimed at addressing the issue of gender-based violence, we will be able to have national cohesion and continue building our country. We will continue to give the family the support they need,” Ramaphosa said.

Date:06 December 2019

By: Mbulaheni Ridovhona

The 22-year-old Mbulaheni (Gary) Ridovhona has been passionate about journalism to the extent that he would buy himself a copy of weekly Univen students' newsletter, Our Voice. After reading, he would write stories about his rural village, Mamvuka, and submit them to the very newsletter for publication. His deep-rooted love for words and writing saw him register for a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at the University of Venda, and joined the Limpopo Mirror team in February 2016 as a journalism intern.

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