Poverty shame maims, kills

Poverty is humiliating. Those without income are often forced to endure nasty remarks as they beg relatives and neighbours for a plate of food just to survive.

- Thembela Khamango

Sadly, in South Africa, the shame of starvation has driven parents to kill their own children and then commit suicide.

The latest incident was that of Bongeka Buso, 38, who apparently killed her three kids and herself at Tholeni village in the Eastern Cape last year. Police said they believed she had poisoned the younger two, aged five and eight years old, and stabbed the 14-year-old before taking her own life, due to starvation.

There are several similar cases. One was a woman in Witbank, Mpumalanga, who murdered her four children in 2019 because she was battling to take care of them financially. They often had to beg to eat.

Whenever we report on such incidents it leaves me heartbroken for these mothers who resort to taking life because of poverty. It shows the cruelty of the shame and stigma associated with poverty that leaves the poor feeling alone and not valued by society.