A Boxer store tragedy

An employee at a Boxer store in Eshowe, reportedly aggrieved by an ongoing disciplinary process, killed three female managers responsible for executing those procedures.

Sympathy flows to the killer

Across social media, commentators expressed sympathy for the perpetrator rather than the murdered women, claiming to understand his plight and projecting their own workplace trauma onto him.

Workplace harassment is real

Many argued that workplace bullying, intimidation and systemic harassment by managers have become synonymous with positions of authority, sharing their own stories of toxic workplaces.

But sympathy signals collapse

When society responds to a massacre with understanding for the killer rather than grief for victims, it reveals a chilling fracture in the collective societal psyche and dangerous moral numbness.

Victims were human beings

The three murdered managers were husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. Everyone involved was navigating an economic system that can pit people against one another.

Social media amplifies toxicity

Algorithms actively foster toxic detachment from human suffering, treating real-world matters of life and death as mere fodder for endless online discourse and digital engagement.

Motive is not excuse

While the perpetrator may have had justifiable reasons for anger or despair, a motive is vastly different from an excuse for a massacre. Violence based on frustration cannot be condoned.

“A motive is vastly different from an excuse for a massacre.”

Fix institutions or face ruin

Institutions must stand firm and function properly. If society tolerates anarchy because the system is broken, it will not fix the system but destroy itself in its ruins.