South Africa has a 13th language, which saturates daily life and numbs society through its staggering brutality.
Violence is South Africa's unofficial 13th language. It is ubiquitous, woven deeply into the fabric of our daily lives. We speak it fluently in our homes, our schools and our streets. It dictates how intimate partners interact, how parents discipline children, how teachers engage pupils and how men and women coexist.
Our collective fluency has bred numbness; we barely notice the white noise until a crisis forces us to look. Once again, the brutal grammar of this language has been laid bare. As the nation mourns the tragic discovery of women's bodies across the East Rand - including that of avid social runner Elizabeth "Tsontso" Moselakgomo, who never returned from her jog - we are forced to confront the deadly cost of our most widely spoken tongue.
According to the latest first-quarter crime statistics released by the South African Police Service, 5,427 people were murdered between April and June this year - an average of nearly 60 every single day. Viewed through a gendered lens, the trends are horrifying: 569 women were killed during this three-month window, meaning an average of six women are murdered daily. Another 1,052 survived attempted murders. The scourge of sexual violence is bleaker still; out...
