I WAS visiting the Daily Sun website recently when three stories caught my eye.

The first told the terrible story of Pamela Mkhize, who was tortured with boiling water and oil, allegedly by a jealous man.

He even tried to hang her, but seemed to change his mind at the last minute. Pamela suffered severe burns to her head and face after a kettle filled with boiling water mixed with cooking oil was poured over her.

To make matters worse, if such a thing is even possible, the suspect is out on bail and now terrorises Pamela.

The second story was about how Pakistan has hanged 200 convicts since lifting a ban on executions late last year.

And the third was about yet another episode of chaos and shouting in Parliament, as the EFF again demanded to know when President Jacob Zuma would pay back the money spent on Nkandla.

These stories are all about different things, but they got me thinking about some of the big problems facing Mzansi.

Stories like Pamela’s are far too common.

Today is Women’s Day, and the last thing we want to hear about during Women’s Month is another woman being brutalised or murdered.

And while we focus on violence against women during this time of the year, we should not forget that men are also victims.

In fact, every year more men than women die as a result of violent crime.

The point is that crime is out of control, and none of us are safe. If we’re just talking about some petty crimes that would be one thing, but no.

We have an epidemic of murder, rape and vicious assaults that just keeps getting worse.

I don’t know that much about Pakistan, but I’m sure thugs there think twice before they commit murder.

Reading about yet another of your evil friends being executed would have that effect.

So, in a country like ours where we all suffer under the rule of killer thugs, why is there no death penalty?

I know the idea of executions brings back bad memories of the days of apartheid, when those who fought for our freedom were hanged by the government.

But we can’t reject an effective tool in the fight against crime just because the apartheid government happened to use it. They also had prisons and drove expensive cars, but our government hasn’t given up on using those.

Which brings me back to the third story, the one about our politicians.

Instead of engaging in serious issues like these, issues about the lives and well-being of us ordinary citizens, they instead behave like a bunch of greedy circus clowns.

You see, they are all more interested in fighting over whose turn it is to feed at the trough, and they badly want to kick out whoever is stuffing himself at the moment so that they can have their turn.

THEY’RE all getting less and less patient, so former president, Thabo Mbeki, had to go to make way for Zuma. Now EFF leader Julius Malema doesn’t feel like waiting, so he’s trying to shove JZ aside. If he ever became president, it wouldn’t take very long before someone rose up to try and kick him out of power.

None of it has anything to do with improving the country or making sure we live a better life. That’s just what they tell us when they want our votes. All they care about is having enough money to live in big houses behind massive walls that are patrolled by armed guards, there to keep them safe from thugs who prey on the rest of us.

They don’t need the death penalty, but we do.

Will they ever hear our voices through the noise of counting their taxpayer coins?

) Let me know what you think!My email address is [email protected].

Until next time, salani kahle!

This article first appeared in the Sunday Sun.