Cape Town – South Africa has seen a spike in murder-suicides, raising concerns about the perpetrators’ state of mind.
In Mpumalanga, a man reportedly killed his girlfriend in plain view of residents and later turned the gun on himself.
Phinda Matlaka, 42, of Kanyamazane, allegedly shot his 37-year-old girlfriend, Shirley Hassan. His body was later found with a bullet wound. Next to him was a gun.
In the Western Cape, a police constable from Ashton shot two people before committing suicide.
The constable, stationed at Ashton police station, open fired in the charge office.
Two civilians were shot. One person died and the other was transported to hospital for medical treatment.
After the shooting, the constable went home and allegedly shot himself with his service firearm.
He was on duty at the time.
And in the most recent incident, 48-year-old Hilton van Zyl, of Kuils River, allegedly shot dead his wife Anastasia, 44, and daughter Cassidy, 15, before turning the gun on himself.
He also tried to kill his 23-year-old son, but he managed to escape.
Clinical psychologist Thabang Tlaka spoke to IOL and said while there has been an increase in murder-suicides, one has to look at the context.
He said the perpetrators in these incidents could already be struggling with frustrations such as relationship problems which have, prior to their crimes, defined them as a person.
“At times, these persons are probably dominating, controlling and this defines their identity and if they lose that (their identity) they lose themselves. They tend to say things such as ‘if I can’t have you…’. They become extremely frustrated and kill someone, then reflect on the consequences,” Tlaka explained.
He said perpetrators who carry out these heinous acts usually cannot handle the consequences of their actions and opt to go the suicide route.
South Africa has seen many reports of police officers committing suicide, and Tlaka said it was more likely for a younger officer to commit suicide than an officer nearing retirement.
Tlaka said he has worked with mothers who tried killing their children and then themselves as they faced many struggles.
He said these mothers believed that by killing their children they would be saving themselves and other people.
Tlaka is of the view that more of these types of acts will be committed.
“I think we will see it more and more as humans go through difficult life circumstances. There are different emotions for different circumstances, but there is a difference between anger and malicious,” he explained.
Tlaka said men were not used to dealing with loss.
“Men are fine when things go well. Many men are not sure how to deal with losing a job or a relationship. Depressed men can be seen as angry. A useful way to deal with this is for men to know how to deal with these emotions.
“It needs to be known that there is nothing wrong with showing emotion. We need men to know seeking help is not a weakness, but a sign of wisdom.
“As long as boys are raising themselves not knowing how to process these emotions, we will see more and more of these incidents,” Tlaka told IOL.
He advocates to empower men by using their voices and has since released his own documentary titled Using My Words on YouTube.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL
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