Did racism and jealousy play a role in the murder of Abongile Mafalala?
It’s an interesting question that some people have been asking on social media and in face-to-face conversations.
Abongile was the victim of a misguided angry mob of Parkwood residents, who beat and torched him to death two weeks ago.
The lynching reportedly happened after he was robbed by gangsters, who then falsely accused him of kidnapping children in the neighbourhood, a charge that triggered a community already on edge about false rumours of abductions.
Looking at his picture online, a friend of mine innocently commented the other day that Abongile was a handsome young man.
She loudly wondered whether jealousy over his good looks and him having a job, had something to do with him being so brutally attacked.
A few days earlier, a Facebook post suggested that part of the inhumanity on display had to do with Abongile being a black man.
It made me wonder whether the coloured crowd would’ve at least listened to his pleas, had he been coloured himself and they could understand him.
And if so, is that a blatant example of racism, or has it got more to do with the fact that the mob couldn’t understand what he was saying, assuming he was explaining himself and begging for his life in his mother tongue?
It is very difficult for me to address those possible motives, because none of it can justify what was done.
And nothing can excuse the fact that the gangsters who started the whole incident by robbing and accusing him, have still not been given up by witnesses.
But I can at least talk about how easy it is to fall victim to, and become weaponised by fake news; and I can discuss the possible employment jealousy.
Nothing stops you from arming yourself with enough information and critical thinking skills to discern facts from fictional nonsense.
You should treat everything you see on social media, including WhatsApp, with suspicion and learn how to verify the information.
And when it comes to resenting others for having jobs that they have literally created for themselves, nothing stops you from saving up, sacrificing niceties or borrowing to open your own spaza shop; or from helping to park cars at the mall.
Or do you turn up your nose at the prospect of working hard to earn small change?
Well, then nothing stops you from finding out how to become an Uber or Bolt driver yourself.
Nothing stops you from buying a sewing machine and mending or making nice clothes for neighbours and colleagues in your lounge.
Nothing stops you from making trinkets to sell, opening your own boerewors stand or clubbing together with a friend to resell winter socks door-to-door.
Or use your internet to learn a new skill and sell that as a service.
Instead of resenting ingenuity in others and waiting around to get a job, create your own.