Just as disgraced top athlete Oscar
Pistorius has started his new life as a jail bird for the shooting death of his
girlfriend ReevaSteenkamp, and while ShrienDewani is still singing the blues in
court for allegedly hiring hit men to shoot his bride Annie Dewani, Orlando
Pirates goalkeeper and BafanaBafana skipper is gunned down, purportedly in a
robbery.
It’s tear-jerking even for someone
like me who doesn’t follow South African soccer. A young, healthy sportsman in
the prime of his career and life itself smoked out of the planet just like
that. Senzo had a lot to contribute to his nation, his soccer team, his
community, and last but not least, his family. His death reminded me of reggae
star, LuckyDube’s equally senseless death at the hands of thugs who wanted his
car. I wish there was some dungeon somewhere so we could just throw away
criminals, somewhere they can never come back from. Hearing horrendous tales
like that puts people in a very vulnerable position. It’s outrageous that
people have to constantly look over their shoulders on the roads to see if they
are going to be accosted by some lunatic. Now they have to also look over their
shoulders while having dinner in the comfort of their homes. What kind of life is that? You start thinking
of booby-traps for your doors when you go to bed, check and recheck if
everything is secure, and contemplate security upgrades. You are ready to jump
out of your skin at the faintest bump in the night.
Senzo’s family, sports people,
soccer fans, politicians, and people from all walks of life are dismayed by his
death. True to what happens when someone
popular has died, everybody has lovely things to say about Senzo. Wonderful
guy, infectious smile, very helpful to his family and community, great team
player and captain.
Senzo was a married man who
died at his girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo’s house. His wife, Mandisa, and children never
got to see him in his last moments of his life. It was a known fact that he
wasn’t a faithful person as he openly posed for magazine pictures with Kelly
while still married to his wife.The two women in his life once fought on a
street somewhere, which resulted in Kelly being charged with assault. Senzo
notably took his mistress’ side and said his wife was the one that started the
altercation. No, Senzo, you started it by bringing a third person into your
marriage. I hold no moral high ground to lambast him for how he lived his life,
I have my own blemishes. But I also have an opinion which I’m entitled to
express.
As if the court story hadn’t
humiliated Mandisa enough, now she has to deal with the public knowledge that
her husband met his death while at his girlfriend’s house, that he spent his
last moments with the other woman. The humiliation will persist
for some time. I foresee Kelly belting one or two songs, or writing a book
about her life with Senzo, how he loved her so much, how she treasures their
last few hours he spent with her, probably how he took a bullet for her and
died in her arms. She wrote a book about her convicted killer ex-boyfriend, JubJub.
She could be writing another now.
This story also exposes the
double standards that society employs when dealing with men and women. If a
married woman of as much high standing as Senzo had died at her boyfriend’s
house, her transgressions would have overshadowed whatever good deeds she
performed in her living years. The scandal would have stunk like a skunk.
I won’t go to town about Kelly
as a home wrecker, she didn’t have a contract with Mandisa. The one to blame
for Mandisa’s humiliation is Senzo. He made a choice to be with another woman
while his marriage still subsisted. I’ve heard many sisters accuse other women
of taking their husbands, and I don’t subscribe to that line of thinking. No
one abducts another’s husband, maybe at knife or gun point, but certainly not
at vagina point. Men make a decision to walk – one, two,three – towards another
woman. But I digress. My issue here is that a lot is left unsaid when someone
like Senzo Meyiwa dies.
I won’t get a lot of love from
Buccaneers, but that’s OK. I’m not writing this to get some love. Senzo Meyiwa’s
death is a tragic and senseless robbery of a person who had a lot to contribute
to the lives of many people. It’s shameful and depressing for South Africa to
have such high crime levels, especially gun-related ones. It’s just too sad and
words fail me.
Senzo was evidently a very
good person to a lot of people. But Senzo was quite rough around the edges.
Senzo Meyiwa was an audacious philanderer who juggle women off the field as he
juggled balls on the field. It emerged after his death that he had three or
four other children with as many women.He cheated on his wife, and by default
his children, and broke their hearts. In
one of his last pictures on earth, he’s with his mistress and her sister,
having fun. Those pictures are the ones his children with see when they are old
enough to look up things online. They will see that he left their mom and spent
his last moments with the other woman. In my opinion, that kind of desecrates
his memory. A number of women in my circle also had a few words to say about
this married man who died at his lover’s house. One friend said if she were
confronted with a similar situation, she would just heal her heart with the
money that he left, with a little help from a Ben 10. My sister said she just
wouldn’t bother to shed her precious tears. And what would I do? I would
probably sit in a corner, on the blanket meant for the widow, and request that
they dim the lights in that corner. Dim the lights so that I could discreetly
dig into a bag of my comfort food, mild Nandos chicken.
How Senzo lived his life,
however, won’t change how I feel about the manner in which he died. At the end
of the day it is between him and God. I remain revolted and enraged that his life
was taken prematurely. How did human life become so
cheap?”
I pray for Senzo’s soul to
rest in peace. May the good Lord take care of his loved ones at this very
sorrowful time, especially those that depended on him financially. I will be
praying that the perpetrators of this atrocity are brought to book and get life
imprisonment, since South Africa does not subscribe to the death penalty, so
that they never know freedom in their lives ever again. I pray for his wife to
find strength to go on, toeventually show her face in public after suffering
the humiliation of her husband dying at his girlfriend’s house.
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