My mentor and I had a long-distance telephonic discussion on the maladies of the soul besetting South African society. He impressed upon me that we needed what he called ‘spiritual engineering’ to heal our fractured society. My mentor and sage suggested five deadly landmines that we must avoid: greed, anger, lust, ego, and attachment.
What struck me most was when he said: “The raping and butchering of women in your country is a combination of lust, greed, and anger, and it is your responsibility to root out this unholy alliance.”
In a society prone to violent crime directed at women and children, the words of Nguyen Du (1765–1820) are worth recalling: “One watches things that make one sick at heart. This is the law: no gain without a loss, and heaven hurts fair women for sheer spite.”
People should understand that dealing with a serial killer is complicated. There are many variables involved when tracking one down, and it may take months or years to make an arrest.
Between 1975 and 1980, Bradford lorry driver Peter Sutcliffe, the man christened the Yorkshire Ripper, butchered 13 women. Initially, he targeted mainly prostitutes in Leeds and Bradford, but soon began attacking other women who crossed his path.
His ‘signature’ included multiple fractures of the skull, displaced clothing, and mutilation of the lower abdomen and breasts with a knife or screwdriver. A team of 120 detectives was appointed to track him down, but the investigation proved disappointing.
Peter Sutcliffe was frequently bullied at school. He left school at 15, became a gravedigger, and got married. He later claimed to have heard the voice of God ordering him to kill prostitutes.
Law enforcement agencies eventually arrested him. At his trial, Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of diminished responsibility, but the jury found him guilty on 13 charges of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Between 1976 and 1977, New York was gripped by fear of an assassin calling himself ‘Son of Sam’. He preyed on young couples sitting in stationary cars, shooting six dead and wounding seven others.
He was finally undone after receiving a parking ticket for leaving his car next to a fire hydrant. The ticket was traced to 24-year-old postal worker David Berkowitz, who turned out to be Son of Sam. He was sentenced to 365 years in prison.
Alice Sebold, in her novel The Lovely Bones, writes about Mr Harvey, who raped a 14-year-old girl and hid her body. He attended her memorial service and maintained his appearance of innocence throughout the investigation. It took detectives more than eight years to track him down.
The killing of women in Ekurhuleni on the East Rand has galvanised rural women into forming walking clubs. In remote rural areas where walking is a mode of transport, women have formed clubs to protect vulnerable women against serial killers and rapists.
Walking clubs are a step in the right direction; they show the power of collaborative governance between the state and citizens.
Gone are the days when the state adopted the Atlas Syndrome Approach. A state with this approach believes that it alone must solve every problem. We are now on the cusp of a new era where collaborative governance is paramount.
My mentor and sage impressed upon me that serial killing is a combination of lust, anger, and greed. These serial killers project the type of society in which we live. Most of us are selfish and arrogant; we cheat and rob our neighbours for our own gain. We want to accumulate more at the cost of society, forgetting that we are merely a strand in the web of life.
We are also an angry society; this shows that the values of reasoning and rationality have been eroded. Serial killers have been created by our society; we need ‘spiritual engineering’ to destroy the deadly landmines identified by my mentor and sage.
Serial killing has nothing to do with nationality; it has something to do with socialisation. As a society, we must avoid the five deadly landmines. No one is born a serial killer; society makes one a serial killer.
Since serial killings are complicated to unravel, we must work collectively for the good of society. The state cannot do it alone.
Dr Mabila Mathebula is an author, ghostwriter, and life coach, and has a PhD in Construction Management.