Fresh debate on alcohol-fuelled murders

THE MURDER of two cousins, Tshiamo Moralanga, 22, and Bolaseng Moralanga, 21, in Mamelodi East on 26 October 2025, has once again forced the nation to confront the persistent scourge of intimate partner violence.

- NOKUTHULA C. MAZIBUKO

The alleged perpetrator, Tebogo Mnisi, 38, reportedly a tavern bouncer and partner to one of the victims, has become the face of yet another tragedy rooted in the toxic intersection of alcohol abuse, patriarchal power, and access to illegal guns closely tied to power. Research studies suggest that South Africa has between 2.5 and 4 million illegal guns in circulation, exceeding the number of legally owned ones. Many of these weapons are results of the apartheid era, lost or stolen from state armouries, or trafficked through organised crime networks.

As the community reels from shock, outrage and anger, it is difficult not to recall the deeper structural and historical forces that continue to enable such violence. Between 2012 and 2014, I conducted doctoral research in Mamelodi East that examined the relationship between alcohol consumption and domestic violence in township settings. At that time, the Moralanga cousins would have been no older than 10or 11-year-old children-growing up in a social landscape already defined by hardship, gendered inequalities, and limited opportunity. My research participants repeatedly emphasised that alcohol played a central role in many instances of intimate partner violence. But they also highlighted that it is not alcohol alone, it is the environment that sustains it.