Unspeakable horror

IF A piercing gunshot caused her fatal head wound, it was this country’s ever-worsening culture of silence that helped bury her remains for years.

Hannah Mathura’s death is a mystery. There are many other aspects of this gruesome case that remain unknown. Notwithstanding a frenzy of police action this week, which has opened doors and windows into her previously-shut home at Valsayn, it is likely there are facts we will never know. Yet, the extreme nature of this highly unusual situation masks a simple truth: evil lives among us. And by this we do not refer just to what has been stalking the residents of Butu Road, but also the nation at large.

It is a nation that has moved away from a situation where horrific crimes used to bring us to a standstill. Now, a way of life in which the maxim “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” prevails.

There have been claims, made anonymously by community members, suggesting screams and noises were routinely heard from the house; a foul odour was detected at one stage; a beating witnessed; even what seemed like a gunshot was once heard.

To this must be added the statements suggesting attempts were made to alert the police and the Children’s Authority; some have claimed officials did turn up, but asked the wrong questions.

And then, years of nothing.

Few have asked about the role of other authorities. For example, by law there should be a record of every child in this country. And by law, children of a certain age should be in school.

Whether and how this child slipped through the cracks of our education system before her eventual fate is worth querying.

And not just her.

At this stage, we cannot even say with complete confidence how many children lived in the house, given the alarming implications of this week’s find.

That some of the siblings reportedly progressed to university only worsens the sense of some profound failing.

But it is all too easy to cast stones at the authorities, relatives and neighbours.

Far more difficult to grapple with is the way we have been, as a society, silenced by fear and by a lack of confidence in the authorities.

The killing of witnesses, tit-for-tat murders, police corruption, the vagaries of a justice system in which an allegation can condemn someone to jail for years before a case comes to court – it all adds up to mouths staying shut.

If, in this small nation of 1.4 million, we are no longer our brother’s keeper, that is because trauma, dysfunction and a feeling of helplessness now prevail in the face of unspeakable horror.