Rabbie Serumula, award-winning poet, author and journalist
There are fires that burn hotter than we can ever imagine – fires that consume more than just homes or possessions. They scorch innocence, trust, and the very foundations upon which families are built.
In a courtroom this week, the embers of such a fire were raked over as a judge sentenced a mother and father for unspeakable acts of cruelty against their own children. Their actions were nothing short of a blaze, one that left only ashes in its wake: child abuse, rape and murder in connection with the circumstances surrounding the death of their two-year-old girl, and the abuse of their six-year-old son.
But from those ashes, we must seek the possibility of a phoenix – a rebirth – not just for the victims but for a society desperate to extinguish the flames of domestic violence and child abuse.
The court heard of the torment inflicted on two children: boiling water poured on skin too young to comprehend such pain, bodies beaten and violated, innocence obliterated. The parents, from Alberton North in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, acted in collaboration, each an accomplice to the other's crime, their common purpose not to nurture life but to destroy it. In their hands, trust became a weapon, and protection a farce. They didn’t just harm their children – they left their roles as parents in ashes.
Yet, as the judge delivered their sentences – life terms for both – there was the first flicker of something beyond destruction. Advocate Riana Williams, representing the State, stood as a voice for society, a society that demands not just punishment but protection. In her argument for severe penalties, Williams kindled the flames of accountability. The courtroom became the furnace in which justice was forged.
The phoenix rises in many forms. In this case, it is the life sentences handed down, the collective understanding that justice does not tolerate the destruction of innocence. The mother’s late attempt at remorse was as hollow as the ashes she left. The father’s silence, an echo of the cowardice that allowed such violence to persist. But the court was clear: such crimes would be met with the full force of the law. The sentences will not just punish; they will serve as a warning to others who believe they can burn the fabric of family without consequence.
In the severity of the punishment, there is hope that society is learning, that we are committed to standing guard over those too vulnerable to protect themselves.
The fire that burnt the children’s innocence was stoked by those who should have shielded them. But justice has stepped in, reminding us that even in the aftermath of such destruction, we can find the seeds of rebirth. The phoenix of this story is not just the punishment of those who failed as parents – it is the commitment that such violence will not be tolerated.
The fire may have raged, but the phoenix flies. From the ashes of the parents’ torment, a society that values protection over cruelty, life over destruction, will hopefully rise.
Saturday Star