READER LETTER | Give murderers the harshest penalty of life in prison

The cruel murder of Shalima Ramsanker, while on holiday, and many others that are taking place daily cannot be allowed to continue.

Women in our so-called rainbow nation are being targeted, hunted and killed like animals on a game farm. These brutal murders are a graphic reminder that we live in a mortally sick society. This culture of violence brings with it a morbid class of individuals who believe that they are entitled to determine the value of human life.

We live in a culture that does not recognise the intrinsic distinction of individual worth. There is mounting evidence that our violent society’s disregard for the value of human life has wrought unspeakable tragedy.

Violent crimes and murder are part of the cruellest, most inhuman and disparaging crimes that exist and they violate the victims’ right to life. There are a few important primary causes as to why each civilised state governed by law should impose the severest judgment on such heinous crimes. There are certain circumstances in which life imprisonment is in fact essential.

If we do not, in our law, send the message to everyone that by calculatedly and coldly taking a human life in a way that, for instance, assaults the structure of law in a society, or shows a cold-blooded and studied disregard for the value of that life, then we are actually sending a message of contempt for human life.

In itself life imprisonment is not something desired. But this awful punishment is forced by a sometimes ice-cold brutal reality and the reality is that the back door to paradise is closed. Harsh punishment should be viewed as one instrument among many in the fight for a more righteous and better world.

Today, the state governed by law is far away from justice and atonement, on the contrary the violent criminal and murderer receives much pity from the law. Since justice is such a determining ingredient in the civilised state and since certain crimes warrant the harshest penalty in order for justice to be administered, it is clear that punishment and civilisation are closely intertwined.

Farouk Araie, Actonville, Benoni