Teach the Ten Commandments

When I learned recently that a certain farm worker in the valley where I live had spent 15 years in prison for murder, I was pretty shaken. My home is one of the most peaceful corners of South Africa. Surely there could be no murderer among us?

Yet, when I thought about it, I reasoned the man had paid for his crime and who was I to deny him a second chance?

I’d met him a number of times and found him a cheerful, pleasant fellow always willing to help. Surely he couldn’t be that bad? So I set aside my prejudices and greeted him cheerfully every time our paths crossed.

Then, soon after, he was allegedly involved in a fight which left his opponent so seriously injured that he is likely to be maimed for life and, should he recover, might never work again.

This act of violence happened no more than half a kilometre from my front door.

In the scheme of things, the crime is not regarded as particularly serious. It is unlikely to make a paragraph in even the local newspapers. In a country where, according to statistics, 16259 people were murdered in 2012/13—something like 45 a day—what’s another near death?

Still, that violent act left me feeling sick at heart. I could not stop thinking of the victim’s wife and children, wondering how they would cope in the months ahead.

And though my sympathies were very much with them, I was overwhelmed by a sense of pain that the perpetrator could have so forgotten himself that he almost killed a fellow worker, in the process virtually destroying his own life and that of his family.

Yet, the disagreement that triggered the fight could so easily have been avoided.

It apparently started late on a Saturday night when the men were drinking. Cheap wine has destroyed more than one family, not only in the rural areas but countrywide. In this case one man ended up in prison, the other in hospital.

Murder, it seems, has become almost a national pasttime in South Africa. Our murder rate is about four and a half times higher than the global average of 6,9 murders per 100000. Attempted murder cases have increased from 14859 to 16363. And that is to say nothing about rapes, assaults and other crimes of violence.

Which brings me to the crux of the matter. When I was a schoolgirl, one of the first lessons our teachers drilled into our heads was the ten commandments — and they applied equally to pupils of all (or no) religious denominations.

We knew we could not use the name of the Lord our God in vain, that we should keep the Sabbath holy, that we should honour our fathers and mothers, that we should not steal, commit adultery, give false testimony against our neighbour — and certainly that we should not commit murder.

Every one of those commandments make sense, but, it seems, religious instruction is no longer a given in most schools. Yet, in my view, they are of paramount importance, providing a firm foundation for all who aspire to lead a good life.

And though the commandments may be part of the Old Testament, they apply to people of all religious persuasions. They are undoubtedly among the most important instructions in the Bible.

I learned the commandments by heart as an eight-year-old schoolgirl. They are not always easy to obey but when I was tempted to do something silly, one of the famous ten would invariably leap to mind — and make me think.

Who knows how many lives might be saved if they were ingrained into the psyche of every schoolchild? It is certainly worth the try.