Our culture of shame, secrecy is killing us

I REFER to the POST’s exposé on the gruesome and heartbreaking murders in Phoenix and Bellair, where lives were taken in cold blood — not by strangers, but by those within the family circle. These tragedies have shaken our communities to the core and demand an urgent, honest and uncomfortable conversation.

- VISVIN REDDY, MP uMkhonto weSizwe Party

In Bellair, a man reportedly gunned down his elderly mother before taking his own life. In Phoenix, a blind and vulnerable grandmother was stabbed to death, allegedly by a relative who also slit the throat of his own mother.

These are not isolated incidents. They are chilling echoes of a break-down in our family structures, our social safety nets and our moral foundations.

This is not who we are. The Indian community in South Africa has always prided itself on strong family values, intergenerational respect and collective responsibility. But we can no longer deny that something is going terribly wrong.

The erosion of empathy, the rise in drug abuse, untreated mental illness and the increasing pressures of daily life are turning our homes into sites of trauma and violence.