Disturbing news from this morning. A woman in rural Mpumalanga was forced by residents to join in the mob stoning of her own son after he was implicated in a fatal mugging in the area.

Now mob violence as a retaliation to criminal activity is nothing new to SA. If anything the fact that it hasn’t roused the authorities into dealing with crime more effectively is a very damning indictment on the effectiveness of our law enforcement agencies. Neither is the intimidation and hounding of those (especially family members and known associates) suspected to be harbouring and protecting criminals. But this surely is a new low.

Of course nobody knows if the mother was complicit in her son’s activities. For all we know she herself may have been cowed into silence by her own fear of him. But now she has her own child’s blood in her hands, simply because her own community has such little faith in the working of the law. What does that say of us as a society? And how can communities not but fall apart when they (have to) endure such?

The Police Minister took a commendably tough stance against crime last year. But more than ever (and not just for the World Cup’s sake, people lives will go on after that) urgent decisive action is needed to save the very normality of our communities and how we go about our daily lives.